Emergency Support Fund for Delivery Workers

ISTIKHAARA, NEW YORK is partnering with DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving, an organization that builds power with South Asian delivery workers to raise $10,000 for an emergency fund for delivery workers! 100% of donations will go towards supporting delivery workers who are critically injured, or to the families of workers who are killed on the job. Funds would go towards health care costs, rent, other living expenses, and funeral costs.

 

ISTIKHAARA, NEW YORK is an independent film that follows Reza, a young Muslim food delivery courier with dreams of becoming a broadway actor facing a paycut threatening to displace him. Throughout the film, we see the ways that delivery workers build connections with each other and grapple with the unfair and unsafe working conditions which they face.

 

 

While the characters the film follows are fictional, their issues are not. Delivery workers face unsafe working conditions, pitfalls and pressures of the "gig" industry. They experience long and physically demanding hours, lack of protective equipment, and degrading treatment that diminish their dignity, and dangerous working conditions. In the past two years, there’s been a significant number of delivery workers who have been critically injured while working. Many others have lost their lives. In response to these tragedies, delivery workers from various backgrounds have come together to organize for their safety and dignity!

 

DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving is a grassroots organization in NYC mobilizing and building the leadership of thousands of low-income, South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants to lead social and policy change that impacts their own lives—from immigrant rights to education reform, civil rights, and worker’s justice. Our membership of over 5,000 adults, youth, and families is multigenerational and represents the diaspora of the South Asian communities – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Guyana, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and beyond.

 

Thank you for your support! Fundraiser set up and run directly by DRUM. Learn more about DRUM at www.drumnyc.org

 

 

 

Articles documenting accidents and deaths of delivery workers in the past year:

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/delivery-worker-borkot-ullah-killed-in-manhattan-hit-and-run-bangladesh/

 

https://www.brooklynpaper.com/five-delivery-workers-have-died-on-the-job-in-brooklyn-in-past-year-according-to-scathing-new-report/

 

https://twitter.com/shahanafrombk/status/1449904581530501121

 

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2022/02/04/cycle-of-rage-delivery-cyclist-who-had-been-left-for-dead-needs-your-help/

All views expressed in ISTIKHAARA, NEW YORK represent the views and opinions of the original creators and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of DRUM - Desis Rising Up and Moving.