The educational institutions of Jesuit Madurai Province are engaged in relief and sanitation works in collaboration with the local civic authorities. The classrooms have been put at their disposal for the isolation of the infected people. The play grounds have been turned into open-air markets where the public could buy vegetables, fruits and groceries while maintaining the mandatory social distance.These altruistic initiatives to curb the Corona infection havebeen duly acknowledged in the local media. At the Province level, a COVID-19 Disaster Management Committee (CDMC) has been constituted whose primary task would be to network with the conveners of the community-level Disaster Management Committees, compare notes regarding the best practices observed in our institutions /centres, share all this information and thus animate and coordinate various relief measures. The Disaster Management Committee at the local level will coordinate relief efforts with the assistance of the local authorities. All physical, monetary and technical help will be routed and streamlined through this Committee.
Jesuit houses and establishments are operating with skeleton staff although co-workers on a monthly salary would continue to get their salary whether or not they could report to work. Assistance in cash or kind (groceries, food items, soap, sanitizers, masks etc.) is being given to the poor, particularly, daily wage labourers and piece-rate workers whose services are used in our communities, institutions, centres, parishes, farms and estates.
