By Joseph Tumbey, josephtumbey@gmail.com (+231)777941209

IPNEWS – Monrovia: Former Honorary Consul General of India in Liberia, Mr. Upjit Singh Sachdeva, on Christmas Day, handed to ordinary Liberians more than 5000 plates of hot, ready and cooked Jollof rice.

Mr. Sachdeva, who is more popularly known in Liberia as “Jeety,” is a humanitarian, whose feeding initiative spans more than five years. Throughout the hay days of the deadly Coronavirus disease in 2019, this Indian businessman along with his team, went daily around Monrovia, in various communities, feeding ordinary Liberians. When he scaled down on the daily-around-the-city-feeding initiative in June of 2020, he had fed more than 60,000 Liberians with plates of hot, ready and cooked meal.

On the latest Christmas Day around-the-city-feeding initiative, he began at Liberia’s maximum prison facility – Monrovia Central Prison (MCP), where he fed the over 1,300 inmates with rice, water, soda (soft drink) and cake.

When he and his team left the MCP, they went across Monrovia, visiting communities, including various sections on Broad Street; Center Street, Coconut Plantation – Randall Street, Mamba Point, and 24th Street, Sinkor. Other communities included ‘Zimbabwe’, Bishop Michael Francis Road and Old Road. At the end of the exercise, Jeety had handed out more than 5000 plates to those ordinary Liberians, most of whom rained praises on him and asked for God to bless him.

Intermittently, during the distribution, he told journalists, who had accompanied him around the city, that he is doing God’s work.

Jeety, a Sikh religion devotee, quoted a famous saying from the Christian Bible that “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” 

He assured that he is going to continue his feeding initiative as long as God gives him life and strength.

He hopes that other humanitarians can be inspired by his gestures so as to join in, too, to give to the needy. 

Jeety, who came to Liberia when he was 22, has lived more than 35 years of his life in Liberia than his native India. He is noted for calling Liberia his second home and has willed that when he dies, he wants to be cremated in Liberia even if he dies outside Liberia.