Saylani Dastarkhwan and Emergency Relief: Providing Meals in Crisis

In a country where many people struggle with poverty, unemployment, inflation, and sudden natural disasters, access to food becomes a challenge for many, especially in rural and isolated areas. Hunger not only affects you physically but also weakens your mental strength, causing you to have emotional and psychological problems due to stress, affects productivity as you don't have energy due to hunger, and strips individuals of dignity. To resolve this silent crisis in different parts of the country, Saylani Welfare, an international non-governmentalorganization in Pakistan, is working towards providing food donation to those who need it through different initiatives. It had many different food donation initiatives as a food charity organizations. Most impactful of which are Saylani Dastarkhwan, Saylani free breakfast program, and Emergency Relief Meal Programs because they are serving thousands of people daily and providing people with life-saving meals at the most critical moment of their lives. In emergency relief programs, these food packages are the ones that help them survive hunger and dehydration; without them, they might die, even if they were saved from disaster itself.

Saylani Dastarkhwan was created in the simple belief that no one should sleep hungry. This belief also aligns with the Islamic values of compassion, sharing, and serving humanity without discrimination. Dastarkhwan system welcomes everyone, no matter who they are, whether they are laborers who can not afford two meals, widows or elderly whose families do not support them, the Homeless or orphans who are not supported by anyone, students with limited money, travelers who don't have any money, or even survivors of some crisis. Each meal is served with dignity, respect, and cleanliness while making sure that people who come to eat do not feel any less than anyone else just because they are helped.

Dastwarkhan initiative has especially high standards for its scale, hygiene, and continuity. They have professional cooking facilities with modern tech, well-trained staff and volunteers, a hygienic environment, and under strict quality control. Dining areas are also clean, organized, supervised, and open to all, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or class. This ensures that everyone has a comfortable and dignified meal. Saylani operates dastwarkhan across many different cities like Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Quetta, Peshawar, and dozens of smaller towns. Thousands of people have meals every single day without any breaks, even during emergencies.

Its meals are budget-friendly, nutritious, and designed to provide energy. This menu typically includes Daal and roti, Rice dishes (tahari, vegetable rice, pulao), Vegetable or chana curry, Chicken curry on selected days, Seasonal vegetables, and Sweets or halwa on weekends or special days. These meals are highly nutritious, filling, and balanced.

When disaster strikes, in some areas, after saving the lives of people, food becomes the most important need, and if not provided, it can become a life-threatening situation for people due to a lack of food and water. That's wherefood charity organizations take the initiative to act on and help those people in need. Like that, Saylani Emergency Relief Team also specializes in this kind of situation and provides meals during Heatwaves, Floods, Fire incidents, Refugee crises, Earthquakes, and Pandemics. All of this is possible due to your food donation and volunteering during times of any crisis. When everyone comes together as a nation to help those who require it.

In situations like this, Saylani follows a systematic and professional approach. So that food donation and help can reach all the affected areas. For the first step, rapid assessment teams are made to evaluate the situation. They evaluate its severity, number of affected families, accessible roads, and urgent needs. This helps with accurate distribution and helps plan. After that, mobile kitchens near crisis zones are deployed. This way, affected people can have access to hot meals. The mobility ensures that the freshly cooked meals are served within a short period of time. Pre-packed emergency food kits are provided in inaccessible areas due to floods or landslides. These kits are made lightweight so that they can be transported easily by any means, even if it is by foot. During the major emergencies, it sets up feeding-based tent centers, which serve thousands of people with hot meals. These temporary stations operate day and night until the situation is stable again. These camps include serving stations, hand-washing areas, clean drinking water, and separate sections for women and children.