Lockdown diaries: Many don the hat of Good Samaritan

Groceries, blood, plasma, medication, food, PPE kits, digital platforms offering free medical services, transportation and many more were provided by the people, for the people.

Hyderabad: The unprecedented lockdown disrupted everything and lakhs of people were left looking for crucial basics like groceries to ICU beds and more. It initiated a massive crisis that required god-like efforts from people and the government.

But, on the plus side, the lockdown also showed the immense potential of people to rise up to the occasion and serve humanity. As complex as necessities were, so were the solutions and efforts presented by common, everyday people who knew something had to be done in a time when the fear and the paranoia of the pandemic was at its peak. Groceries, blood, plasma, medication, food, PPE kits, digital platforms offering free medical services, transportation and many more were provided by the people, for the people.

---

Some organisations like Youngistaan Foundation, pooled up all of their resources together and served 1,45,430 meals to daily wage workers in addition to providing groceries to over 15,000 families.

Individuals like Mahesh Talari mobilised crucial medical commodities like blood, as blood donations had stopped during the lockdown. He utilised the support of Cyberabad and Rachakonda police and raised over 10,000 units of blood, providing 5,000 units to Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society and 5,000 to Osmania and Gandhi hospitals.

Other individuals and NGOs adopted orphanages during the lockdown, as Anuradha Rao, a child rights activist shares, “we adopted an orphanage and donated groceries for a few months for the children there.”

And many others went the tech way to solve existing issues, like Pallav Bajjuri, managing director of Viven Infomedia says, “The demand for plasma increased drastically. We built a web based platform to connect donors and recipients and enabled over 15,000 plasma donations.”
The silver lining is, humanity has emerged stronger and together.