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Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 17 (EMN): The Ungma Senso Telongjem Kohima (USTK) sponsored one-day meal as well as provided free services at the Bethel Kitchen in Kohima on Wednesday.
At the Bethel Kitchen, three meals in a day for about 1500 people including returnees and staff manning the quarantine centres in Kohima, are being prepared on a daily basis. The kitchen is initiated by the Kohima district task force led by a food committee and supported by the Kohima Baptists Pastors’ Fellowship. The venue for the kitchen was provided by the Nagaland Baptist Church Council at its convention centre.
Speaking to Eastern Mirror, USTK president Kikameren said that by doing this, “We are able to see how difficult it is for the people those who are here.” Besides sponsoring the three meals—breakfast, lunch and dinner, the union reached the venue by 2:30 am on Wednesday to offer voluntary services as well, he said.
Preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, packing them after cooking and delivering it to the quarantine centres is “not an easy job,” he said. In addition, “we have a timeline to meet while preparing for more than 1500,” he added. In spite of all this, he said they are “happy” to offer their help.
He lamented that while the government is spending so much towards facilitating the returnees, it is received with only criticism.
“From bringing the returnees from other states, accommodating them with quarantine facility, and feeding them every day all for free is not easy,” the president said. The government is doing a “noble job” and so are the churches and various organisations, he added.
The church organisations, who are preparing food, have taken every care to ensure that there are no lapses, he said. He has sought positive suggestions if there are any lapse from the government, Health department or any other department for that matter.
“We should give positive criticisms and not blame each other because our younger generation are watching us, how we are behaving. So our blame game and criticism, maybe perhaps, would not like it to be inherited by our next generation,” Kikameren said. Terming blame game and negative criticism as a “poison to our society,” Kikameren has sought change of such mindset.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of the Commissioner’s Office, Limanenla, who is also in-charge of the food committee of the DTF, Kohima, expressed gratitude to the union. She said that USTK was the first to come forward to sponsor as well as volunteer for the whole day. Other churches have been volunteering from before but the union was first to do both, she added.
She added that the food committee have worked out the routine till June 31. Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, Sharingain Longkumer, who is also from Ungma village, was also present at the Bethel Kitchen. He said that the civil society organisations coming forward to extend help in time of crisis is a “good signal that only together we can fight this corona.” He added that the Ungma union counterparts in Mokokchung and Dimapur have also fed a few hundred as well.
On the packed meals were written, “We don’t grow when things are easy. We grow when we face challenges”.