-Praises Him for His Humanitarian Gesture, As They Feed Over 1361 Inmates at Monrovia Central Prison on Christmas Day
IPNEWS – Liberia’s Vice President, Chief Dr. (LHD) Jewel Howard Taylor on Christmas Day, December 25, 2022, joined Mr. Upjit Singh Sachdeva, CEO of Jeety Conglomerate, to feed over 1300 inmates at the Monrovia Central Prison (MCP) in Monrovia.
The first female Vice President of Liberia used the occasion to officially thank Dr. (LHD) Sachdeva for his humanitarian gesture.
“Well, I want to thank my brother and friend, Jeety for this work. This is not his first time to bring food here. He’s been working in the prison for the last three and half years providing to the people in prison,” Madam Taylor, who is also known traditionally as “Chief Suacoco”, said.
She further stated that in addition to Mr. Jeety’s gesture to the inmates and others in the prison, the CEO of Jeety Conglomerate also provides daily hot, cooked meals, through his Jeety Feeding Initiative, to ordinary Liberians, most of whom are street trotters. “And I want to take this opportunity to thank him,” she added.
This group of Liberians, who Mr. Jeety feeds daily, is locally referred to as zogos. These are young men and women, who live rough on the streets and in the cemeteries and are known for petite crimes like pick-pocketing and snatching of personal valuables. Some have also been apprehended for heinous crime like armed robbery and even committing murder during the crimes.
While thanking Jeety, Veep Taylor pleaded with others out there, who, too, can help, to join the Indian business tycoon, to begin to provide amenities to other prison facilities around the country. “Government can’t do it all,” Madam Veep said.
Also speaking, Jeety, who is a devotee of another religion — Sikh Faith — acknowledged that the day was “the Lord Jesus Christ birthday, it is the day of merrymaking.”
“I am pleased that I can come to distribute food items: soft drinks, cake, juice, at least they will be having something to eat on this day.”
Mr. Jeety emphasized that all he is doing is “God’s works.” He educated nonmembers of the Sikh Faith that there are three main tenets of his religion and he is doing all to fulfill one of them.
“There are three major tenets of Sikhism; one of them is that you share your hard labor with others. This is what I am doing; and this God’s work to feed the hungry and less fortunate,” he stated. Mr. Jeety, who runs a business conglomerate, including Jeety Trading Corporation (a chain of building materials and other hard wares stores), Jeety Rubber Liberia Limited (a rubber processing factory), etc, further stated that he was doing so because “I am God’s child and they are God’s children. They are my family.”
He Fed Others, Too, On Christmas Day
Mr. Jeety didn’t end his Christmas Day feeding only at the Monrovia Central Prison. Some members of this team went to various communities around Monrovia serving hot, meal to everyone came forward. In that initiative, he served out at least 3000 plates to people around Monrovia.
While his team was around Monrovia, he took other members up to Weala in Margibi County, where he has a rubber processing factory. There he hosted a children’s party for the kids. He served more 1000 children with hot meal and presented them with various Christmas gifts.
Before he had begun to handout the items to the children, he told everyone in a brief remark: “I am an Indian by passport but Liberian by heart. Weala has now become my home; I want to die here.”
Been Feeding for Nearly 6 Years
Dr. Jeety and his team have been carrying out this feeding initiative since February of 2017. Since then, he has served nearly two million plates of hot, cooked, delicious meal to everyone who crossed and crosses his path. For this, he has received many acknowledgements from the Liberian Government, local and international organizations and even media institution.
IPNEWS Honors Him
On Wednesday, December 21, 2022, the Independent Probe Newspaper, honored and declared him their ‘HUMANITARIAN/PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR 2022’
“This honor is indicative of his many years of humanitarian service and for the last several years involved in humanitarian ventures throughout Liberia. His charity of feeding hundreds of thousands of young men, women, old folks, children, physically-challenged, including the visually impaired, with hot, cooked meals, including his humanitarian gestures to national prison facilities to provide hot cooked meals to the inmates within those prison facilities; the provision of daily feeding for the patients at various health facilities including the COVID-19 Star Base treatment Center is remarkable and has not gone unnoticed,” this newspaper recounted few of his humanitarianisms. He wasn’t present to receive the honor though but two of his representatives where there to receive it.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Leadership Award
Also on Friday, December 9, 2022, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Eta Epsilon Lambda Chapter honored the Indian businessman “for consistent and exemplary corporate social responsibility and community engagement in business.”
“Hon. Upjit Singh Sachdeva is the Chief Executive Officer of the Jeety Trading Corporation, which for many years has operated a chain of building materials and house ware stores. Mr. Jeety, as he is locally called, participates in multiple social causes including the well-known daily feeding program, at which the company serves hot meals to countless persons in Central Monrovia. Thousands, including visually impaired or blind, handicapped, drug addicted, homeless persons, the elderly, disadvantaged youths and others have been fed through this initiative on a daily basis.”
They also disclosed that Mr. Jeety serves 800 to 1000 plates of hot, cooked meals daily and that since 2017, he has served more than 1.5 million meals. “During the 2014/15 Ebola crisis that ravaged the sub-region, his company provided support to the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority for the construction of an Ebola Treatment Unit in Virginia, Liberia,” APA added in the citation.
Golden Image Award
President George Manneh Weah on Thursday, July 21, 2022, evening presented to Mr. Jeety, who is also former Honorary Indian Consul General to Liberia, the Golden Image Award in the national level category of Humanity.
Mr. Sachdeva, who is commonly known in Liberia as “Jeety”, was the 2022 Recipient and Winner of the National Humanitarian Award.
The National Secretariat, the Liberia Crusaders for Peace and partners extended compliments to Mr. Sachdeva in a communication dated June 30 2022. According to the communication, Jetty’s selection followed a thorough research and vetting of names and profiles of individuals, organizations and countries that were submitted by a network of national and international committee members.
The Golden Image Award is an annual national Liberian meritorious award event, an outcome of a vision that was conceived by the Liberia Crusaders for Peace 11 years ago.
