Living on streets, 35-year-old woman reunited with family

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 17

A ‘homeless’ woman was reunited with her family today. Thanks to the social media and the All India Pingalwara Charitable Society, 35-year-old Sonia, who was reportedly found living off the streets at Gate Khazana area,and was rescued by the Pingalwara team when they got to know about her through a viral video clip on the social media.

Col Darshan Bawa, coordinator, Pingalwara, said their team was informed about the girl by a Good Samaritan Gurdeep Singh Rajan, who is a member of an NGO. “On July 12, we received a call from him in the afternoon that a video clip has been shared on the social media which shows a homeless woman living in streets at the Gate Khazana area. She had been residing in the area for the past few days and some residents used to offer her food and clothing. Our team, led by Gulshan Ranjan, took an ambulance and rescued her, who was then taken to the Civil Hospital for Covid-19 testing. She was also found to be mentally unstable and couldn’t tell us anything about herself.”

He further added, “As a procedure, we published information notice about the girl in case her family was looking for her. Today, her family including her mother and other family members, came to our office, claiming that the girl’s name was Sonia and she had run away from her home in village Wadala, Ram Tirth road, last month. After thorough verification, we found that the family was telling truth.”

Sonia, who seemingly was happy to meet her family members again, was then handed over to her mother. This is not the first time that Pingalwara has managed to reunite homeless with their families. “We feel contented to help the needy. Once again, our principles and ideology of serving the humanity has reunited a family with their child,” shared Col Bawa.