Freemasons of Telangana on the eve of Universal Brotherhood Day today provided tools to 21 poor, petty traders, self-employed, homemakers to regain their livelihood which they lost due to Covid

• The beneficiaries include Teacher-turned-Tailor, Security-Guard turned tea Vendor, an industrial worker turned-tiffin centre organizer; a student turned tailor; another student who wants to do tailoring to earn free for her B.Arch Cours; a private job holder turned carpenter and others.

• Gave away materials, tool kits, sewing machines, pushcart to 21 beneficiaries—Tailors, Tea, Fruit Vendors, Cobbler, Mechanics, Carpenter, Electrician, Tiffin Centers, Tea Stalls

• Three Syringe Infusion Pumps used in ICUs were donated to Durgabhai Deshmukh Hospital worth Rs 60,000/-

• The total project cost was Rs 1.70 lakh 

Hyderabad, Telangana: Freemasons of Telangana on the eve of Universal Brotherhood day provided tools to 21 poor, petty traders, self-employed, homemakers to help them re-start their petty businesses, livelihood which they have lost due to the Pandemic.

The materials, tool kits, sewing machines, pushcart, material required to start a tiffin centre, tea-stall, carpentry work, electrician work worth Rs 1.10 Lakh distributed in a function held on Thursday on the eve of Universal Brotherhood Day at Goshamahal Baradari Masonic Hall. The tools, implements were distributed under their project called “Gift-A-Livelihood”.

The beneficiaries include Teacher-turned-Tailor, Security-Guard turned tea Vendor, an industrial worker turned-tiffin centre organizer; a student turned tailor; another student who wants to do tailoring to earn free for her B.Arch Cours; a private job holder turned carpenter and others.

One of the Lodges(Clubs) of Freemasons of Telangana, Lodge Morland donated 3 Syringe Infusion Pumps worth Rs 60,000/- used in ICU(Intensive Care Units) to Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital. Another Lodge, Model gave lifesaving drugs to the needy.

The program was organized by the three Assistant Regional Grand Masters—Madanmohal Lal, G. Maddulette and D.Ramchandram. According to them.

“Gift-A-Livelihood, an initiative was launched after the first wave of Covid last year to help small traders, self-employed and petty traders affected by COVID-19 to restart their businesses. Till now they have organized six such distribution camps. In all these camps together Freemasons of Telangana helped 150 and materials, tools worth Rs 7.5 lakh was donated and it will be continued in future.

Speaking on the occasion D. Ramchandram said, they received a little over 1000 calls for help. This reflects how badly small traders, petty businessmen, professionals like Carpenters, Electricians, Tiffin Centers, Tea- Stall owners and others got affected due to the covid. Due to the limited resources, we could only help 21 beneficiaries. And more will be helped in future.

Before the beginning of the program, a one-minute silence was observed in the loving memory of those who have died due to covid in the second wave.

The Senior Member of Freemasons of Telangana, Vishwanathan Ganeshan explained the importance of Universal Brotherhood Day(UBD). The Universal Brotherhood Day day is observed to commemorate the formation of Grand Lodge of England when Freemasonry in its present form took shape 304 years ago on this very date in 1717”. UBD is observed by Freemasons to propagate, ideate the basic concept of Freemasonry, he added. Freemasonry has come to Hyderabad in the year 1806. Freemasonry has 215 years of history in our city he said.

Maddulette explained about Freemasonry and its activities.

The members P. Veerabhadrudu, G. Ashok Kumar, Sudersan Satyam, Manvendra Mishra, Srinivas Alluri, Vijay Bhaskar Rao, Sagar Gala, Nitin Sinha, Satyajit Tuljapurkar, others Krishna Prasad, Vasudeva Rao and others graced the occasion.

To mark the occasion of Universal Brotherhood Day and to celebrate, we have done charity to 21 poor people under “Gift-A-Livelihood” informed Madanmohan Lal.

The beneficiaries were comprised of four women who do tailoring, a cobbler, a scooter mechanic, a tea vendor, Tiffin centre owner, Teachers turned tailors, fruit vendors.

Freemasons of Telangana plan to extend financial support to the needy, poor traders, self-employed, petty businessmen, small-time workers who lost their income source due to COVID. Also plans to provide post-COVID survival skills to help people earn a better and more sustainable business for their living. Such genuinely needy people may get in touch with Assistant Regional Grand Masters Madan, Madhu and Ram on 9848042020 for more information.