Introduction

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when fear had emptied streets and shuttered lives indoors, there were some who had no indoors to go to — the homeless, the mentally ill, the abandoned.

In Kozhikode, under the visionary leadership of District Collector Mr. S. Sambasiva Rao IAS, a humane movement began to take shape — one that wouldn’t stop with lockdowns. It eventually became known as Udayam.

Helping Hands Charitable Trust was honoured to be part of this early humanitarian effort by conducting two dedicated street shelter camps in collaboration with the Kozhikode District Administration.

🛏 Two Camps. One Mission.

Our team at Helping Hands helped organize and manage two emergency camps in Kozhikode city — each created as a safe space for those with no home, no family, and often, no identity.

At each of these shelters, we provided:

• 🍛 Three meals a day

• 🧠 On-site counseling & listening spaces

• 🧼 Hygiene kits and clothes

• 📋 Documentation support and identity recovery

• 🔁 A “Back to Life” framework: reconnecting individuals with rehab centres, families, or shelters

📸 Image Placeholder: Meal distribution or group counseling from camp archive

🙍🏽 Who We Served

Each camp housed individuals who had lived outside the system for years:

• Those abandoned due to mental illness or addiction

• People with minor criminal backgrounds and no support

• The elderly with no income, ID, or medical access

• Transients from other states with language and trust barriers

Every face carried a story of neglect. Every name, often forgotten, had to be rediscovered.

“I haven’t eaten on a plate in weeks.” — said one man with tears while folding his banana leaf.

🌄 A Small Step in a Bigger Vision

While the Udayam initiative was conceptualized and driven by the Kozhikode District Administration, our small but meaningful contribution was this:

We helped make the first shelters real.

We staffed them. Fed them. Sat with the lost.

And helped them remember that someone still cared.

This hands-on experience shaped many elements of the Udayam model, which has since expanded statewide and is now Kerala’s flagship social reintegration effort.

📖 Read the Udayam origin story here: udayam.kerala.gov.in

📰 Featured in: Indian Masterminds – “Messiah of the Homeless”

Closing Note

We didn’t start Udayam. But we helped open the gate.

And in that act — of sitting beside the homeless during a pandemic, feeding them, and asking “What’s next for you?”— we reaffirmed our deepest belief:

Everyone deserves a second chance. Even in a crisis. Especially in a crisis.