KARACHI: Marking five years of spreading happiness among the needy and hungry, the Robin Hood Army (RHA) held one of their biggest food drives, distributing food packets among some 2,500 people here on Sunday.

RHA, which happens to be a worldwide movement, has over the years spread to some 30 countries and 145 cities all over the world. They have declared war against hunger. Here in Pakistan, they are the hands that have served food to some 1.37 million people in the last five years. In doing so they have also eliminated wastage of food as their volunteers take surplus food from prominent restaurants and packaged food companies to distribute among the poor and hungry in poor localities and slum areas, in orphanages, old people’s homes, shelters and hospitals. They are also there distributing free food in crisis situations such as floods, earthquakes or fires.

Dressed in leaf green shirts with ‘Robin Hood Army Pakistan’ written in white on the back, some 60 to 70 Robins, as RHA calls their volunteers, gathered at their meeting spot under the flyover on Korangi Road for their roll call. Robin Sameer Beg, who heads the army, called out their names while giving out their duties and responsibilities for the day.

A van full of food including chana pulao and biryani packets with cup cakes, biscuits, juice boxes, etc arrived as the Robins loaded up their trunks with the eatables before leaving for their destination. The Robins themselves had a hearty breakfast before getting there as they wouldn’t want to eat the food they had acquired to give away to the poor. The smell of biryani in the trunk can become overwhelming during the long drive.

Robin Beg spoke about RHAs various operations. Besides the food distribution drives, they also run an educational academy in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. “It is an accelerated school to prepare students for class one. We teach them the alphabet and maths. We also offer vocational training for older students,” Mr Beg said.

Then they also distribute free milk in the morning and evenings at special education institutions, government schools, madressahs and orphanages within the city and also in Sindh’s interior, especially Tharparker. “You need 500ml of milk every day to pull him or her out of malnutrition,” he said, adding that they get the milk drive is possible thanks to a chocolate company and another welfare association while they carry out the execution.

RHA’s execution is smooth. They have divided Karachi into three zones and the RHA troops at each zone pick food in their own zone and also distribute it there. “The city has expanded so much in the last five years that it was necessary to do this,” said Robin Beg. But for the birthday celebrations they had all come together.

In the past two weeks they held movie shows at orphanages, health, hygiene and awareness sessions too. And on Valentine’s Day they also celebrated at an old people’s home sharing sweets with them that were prepared using sugar-free recipes while collaborating with a sugar-free company.

Reaching their destination in a huge school compound that housed some five school buildings in Landhi, the RHA voluteers quickly got down to business. Collaborating with a bank this time they found more helpful hands joining them as they formed an assembly line to prepare food packets each containing two bags of rice in the shape of chana pulao and biryani, two boxes of juice, cup cakes and biscuits. While one group was busy doing that another created various distribution points where the schoolchildren were being kept busy by the school staff. Many of the children sang ‘Happy Birthday to you’ for RHA while others were told the story of RHA.

To avoid confusion, RHA volunteers had already visited the place a day ahead to get an idea of the number of people among whom they had already distributed food coupons. Other than the schoolchildren, they had also distributed the coupons among the community people who were also present on the day of the distribution.

With all covered systematically and following another smooth distribution drive, the RHA volunteers brought out a big birthday cake that was cut by the army general Robin Beg surrounded by his troops. Here’s to a great five years and many more to come. Happy birthday, Robin Hood Army!

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2020