Our Story

At midnight, on March 25, 2020, a 21-day lockdown was imposed in India, effectively immobilizing 1,3 billion of its citizens – the world’s largest lockdown. As we know, the majority of people we meet on the streets of India are daily wage workers and street entrepreneurs. They form the backbone of the informal economy, doing everything from selling ‘chai’, fruits, food, clothes, polishing your shoes, driving rickshaws and delivering goods, cleaning homes, etc. A three-week long lockdown implies inability to earn and threatens survival of the most vulnerable section of population. Releasing this, on the 1st day of the lockdown, we decided to launch an initiative to combat hunger.

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The strategy was to catalyze a bottom-up process, starting from people acting within their communities, and then replicating it across various towns and cities. Within 8 days, we were able to raise more than 25K CHF, and by day 6, we were able to supply food and sanitary kits to more than 800 people across Delhi, Chandigarh, Kerala, and Chennai. Buoyed by our impact, we decided to develop this project into something more inspniring and long-term than we initially thought. Humane Warriors is now a registered association in Switzerland and we have more 25 volunteers from all parts of the world. We are striving to create a difference in India and looking for allies to stand in solidarity and fight together.