Hyderabad: ‘Youth for Welfare’ performs last rites of Covid victims

When they receive a request, a team of volunteers go to the place, receive the mortal remains from the ambulance and perform the funeral, taking all possible precautions against Covid

Hyderabad: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented number of deaths in the last one year. Adding to the pain of losing a loved one is the difficulty that the disease adds in, as care needs to be taken while performing the funeral as well.

There’s also the sad fact that loved ones can’t come together to perform the funeral. In a scenario like this, Youth for Welfare, a city-based organisation is voluntarily performing funerals of Covid victims and has performed over 1,800 funerals so far.

“Our founder-president, Syed Jalaluddin Zafar had lost his relatives due to Covid and experienced a situation where a traditional funeral could not be performed. That is when he felt the need to take up this initiative. We started performing funerals around April last year and we help perform funerals according to the customs of the deceased person’s family,” explains Mohammed Zeeshan Ali Khan, a volunteer at the organisation.

When they receive a request, a team of volunteers go to the place, receive the mortal remains from the ambulance and perform the funeral, taking all possible precautions against Covid.

“We wear a full PPE and we follow all the safety protocols. If a family member of the deceased wants to take part in the activity, we provide them with PPE kits,” he shares, adding, “We have several donors who donate us PPEs and sanitisers and that’s how we have been able to perform this activity.”

The 60-strong team performs these activities without any barrier of religion or caste and according to Zeeshan, there are volunteers of all religions in the team. “Irrespective of who goes, we make sure we follow the religious sentiments and customs of the victim’s family. We don’t let any religious barrier come over humanity,” he adds.

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