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Since then, leveraging on their experience and spirit of service, Mercy Angels has focused on three unique and critical activities that are described below.
The Mercy Angels team is now being anchored by selfless volunteers who respond with alacrity to each and every call of duty. These include Tanveer Ahmed, Naveed Irfan, Mohamed Ibrahim, Sadiq Hussain, Hira Ambulance driver Mufassil, Thanal Ambulance driver Babajan, and many others.
By virtue of our previous work, Mercy Angels has built a strong connect with various places where unclaimed bodies land up. We work closely with many police stations and hospitals across Bengaluru, who call us when they have to dispose the unclaimed bodies after their due processes are completed.
We carry out the last journey and rites where necessary for these unfortunate souls. We also work closely with destitute homes that house the abandoned, runaway and mentally challenged people. We are called upon by them to conduct the last rites of inmates who expire, and have no relatives or friends to do the needful. We provide these services completely free.
Since April 2022, we came across and commenced a unique service – that of reuniting the destitutes with their families. The first such case is described below by our volunteer Tanveer Ahmed.
“Many cases from The AIR humanitarian homes were attended by Sadiq Hussain in the recent past. On 17th April 2022, when he was outstation shifting a patient to Murdeshwar (Bhatkal) along with driverMuffasilof HWA.
Naveed and myself went to AIR to shift the body of Fathima aged around 30 a destitute who had passed away , her body was shifted to khuddussaabgraveyard for last rites.
This first visit to AIR in person after being in telephonic conversations on many previous occasions warranted a briefing about the facility which Dr Madhu courteously did .The walk through to the male and female sections gave us more insight about their work.
One lady named Sitara Bibi was very restless and drew our attention when she walked towards us and in aggravated tone told us she was brought here and wants to go back (This was as much we could infer from the native bengali language that she was conversing in).
We requested the staff to record a video of hers and share so that we could track her family . They promptly sent us a video which we sent just to one person our friend Mr Kaleemullah who works extensively withbengali speaking migrants.
Within two hours Kaleem had spoken to the Malda MP and flashed the message and we received a call from a person who knew the family.The family was connected and we organised a video call where Sitara spoke to her relatives.
Her father khursheed Ali and brother soon travelled to bangalore to take back Sitara home.This was a case of Schizophrenia and the family was suffering since few years inspite of showing her to doctors at Ranchi.
She was accomodated along with family for three days at our home post discharge on 29th April 2022 and boarded the train on 2nd May 2022 after friends in railways accommodated her family on the Emergency Quota EQ on medical grounds.
Her date of admission was 16th March and being brought by the Tavarakere police station.
Sitara reached back home on 4th May 2022 to meet a relieved family .A 2300 kilometre Journey back to Malda in West Bengal. This was a new experience and left us elated and we offered to help in tracking any others too.”
Mercy Angels Tanveer Ahmed (R) and Naveed Irfan (L) with Sitara Bibi and her family
Post this, we have handled and resolved 4 more cases in May-June 2022.
1. First was an auto driver from Gulbarga who could not speak due to paralysis was reunited with his family after tracing them.
2. Second was a lady and her 2 and half year old son who hailed from Gppalganj Bihar, but her husband was a labourer working in Tumkur. She had psychiatric issues and was sent to the destitute home. Her son was separated from her, lodged in the child care centre and put up for adoption. This case was successfully resolved as well after identifying the family, coordinating with all authorities, and the family is reunited now.
3. In the third case, a man from Siddapura in Bangalore having psychiatric issues was reunited with his brother.
4. In June 2022, a worker from Nepal broke his spine in an accident. He was immobile and after initial treatment, wanted to go back to his family for recuperation. Mercy Angels team arranged for his entire journey and two volunteers Mr. Sadiq and Mr. Anjum accompanied him to take care of him in this arduous journey.
Another service we have consistently provided since inception of Mercy Angels is to provide ambulance or hearse services to the poor and needy who need to shift the patients or the deceased from Bengaluru to other towns and villages. These services are provided free of cost, or the user sometimes reimburses the cost of fuel. This is intended to help those who cannot afford the high cost of transport.