Support comes from FICQ amid student crisis

With Federation of Indian Communities of Queensland (FICQ) jointly working with other community and member organisations, a platform was provided to connect with and get support for the international students from India during CO- VID-19 crisis. After much brainstorming and sharing of ideas, strategies were formed to best support them, and one of the basic practical ways thought of was providing food and groceries.

Several restaurants voluntarily are taking care of food requirement, and FICQ came up with another solution of providing packages of necessary groceries so the students can cook what they like and need as per their convenient timings. This idea was supported and executed by each and every member of FICQ, under the leadership of President Mr Shyam Das.

To enable efficient and prompt delivery of groceries packages to students in QLD, a sign-up form was created on FICQ Facebook page. This centralised initiative was to collect details of affected students and provide help where needed. The sign up form was generated by Mr Preetham Krishna and was successfully attached to the Facebook page. This form is more of a centralised platform where affected students from all over Queensland can get the groceries supplies from FICQ. The details collected in the form are organised and individuals contacted and verified. Mr Preetham Krishna took the responsibility of contacting these students and verifying their status. Once all the details were verified, immediate dispatch of packages were made to people in urgent need. Where needed, these packages were handed over by many volunteers, including Preetham Krishna.

Preetham Krishna

“This whole crisis situation has impacted each and everyone’s life. International students, living away from the family, have been hit really hard and some of the issues are tragic,” FICQ President Mr Shyam Das said.

“Though we cannot solve all the issues right at the time, maximum efforts have been made through FICQ and its members in helping the students and reducing their burden to some extent. Emotionally, this has been one of the worst times everyone is facing, and providing support and helping others is the need of the hour,” he added.

Thanking various people and organisations for promptly jumping in and helping out the students, Mr Das said, “FICQ is very thankful to the member organisations like Gujrati Associations of Qld, Brisbane Maharashtra Mandal and Punjabi Welfare Associations for financial support as well as the donors, the High Commission of India, Dr Maha Sinnathamby, who is the longstanding patron of FICQ, Senator Paul Scarr and Dr Ashim Majumdar.”