Business tycoon Upjit Singh Sachdeva has received one of the country’s highest civilian honors, the Golden Image Award for “his philanthropy work that focused on fighting against hunger."

The Golden Image Award, now in its 12th year, is one of the country’s top civilian awards and is given to individuals who have made leaps in philanthropy, leadership, and other spheres — with winners coming from across the globe.

Sachdeva (alias Jeety), the former Indian Honorary Consul General to Liberia, sees hunger as an unfortunate situation. Since 2017, has been providing cooked meals to the country's most vulnerable population to address the problem. 

The meal, which comes as a different dish each day, is provided with water and juice and feeds at least 400 people at a time including inmates at the Monrovia Central Prison. He has also helped to improve the prison facility’s sanitary conditions. During the heat of COVID-19, the number of persons fed was much higher.

His honor comes in the national level category of Humanity and, according to the award secretariat, the selection followed thorough research and vetting of his work, which indicates the impact on the lives of people.

“​The National Secretariat of the Golden Image Awards; the Liberia Crusaders for Peace and partners in association with the Government of the Republic of Liberia extend warmest compliments to you and wish to inform you of your selection as winner and recipient of the 2022 Golden Image Award in the national level category of HUMANITY. 

“Your selection comes following 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 to the National Secretariat of the Golden Image Award for scrutiny in September 2021.”

The Golden Image Award was bestowed upon Scadeva by President George Weah at a grand ceremony on Thursday, July 22.  Sachdeva’s drive to fight hunger in Liberia, which has been doubled, one meal at a time, comes as Food Security and hunger in Liberia remain a severe problem, according to statistics from Global Hunger Index (GHI). 

The country ranks 112th out of 117 countries on the GHI 2019. The index consists of a range of scores, 0.0-50.0, whereas Liberia holds a score of 34.9. The score indicates the country’s hunger levels are ‘serious’ and on the brink of becoming ‘alarming.’

Also, a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization noted that 97.8 percent of Liberians cannot afford to regularly consume a healthy diet, making Liberia the worst of 170 countries examined. Chronic malnutrition among children in recent years has left one out of every three children permanently stunted.

The Indian business tycoon’s other humanitarian works involve December 2021, fixing of the Monrovia Central prison water supply — putting an end to the inadequate water supply and the daily task of inmates fetching water for hygiene and drinking.

Before the fix, prisoners used to collect and distribute water across the prison facilities by turn. Worst of all, they suffered also from plumbing problems, making life in the prisons even more miserable as a result of prisoners being unable to flush toilets for days.

Additionally, the fix included the installation of 2,500-liter poly tanks for water storage, along with a 5.5 KVA generator for the supply of water when there is a power outage from the Liberia Electricity Corporation.

And when the prison ran out of food in August of 2021, he was there to provide emergency support until the Liberian government could step in.