Memesters turn messiahs for have-nots
Group of content creators become a bridge to get aid for people suffering in pandemic
Hyderabad: When the creators behind the popular Facebook page ‘Dis page vll entertain you’ to entertain people with memes started out a decade ago, little did they think that the pandemic would turn their reach into a bridge to amplify requests from people.
With 2.7 lakh followers on Facebook, 3.9 lakh on Instagram and 57 lakh on Twitter, getting eyeballs was easy for them. “We were doing our usual creative work when the second wave struck. Previously, we had donated to the PM CARES Fund and the CM Relief Fund. But a couple of days into the second wave, we observed a lot of people approaching us on our social media handles to help amplify requests for aid,” says Anurag Reddy, one of founders and admins of the page.
The team then sat down and chalked out a plan to identify the people behind the requests, verify them and how they would go about connecting people with donors.
“We zeroed in on a three-step process — call the people, and if they are willing, make a video call to them to check the authenticity and prioritise people most in need and then ask them about their requirement. Initially, we got 550 requests and couldn’t help everyone. Later, once donors pitched in, we were able to help 52 families,” says Anurag.
The founders – Anurag Reddy and Sachin Vikas — spent over Rs 65,000 from their pocket to help the needy buy essential groceries for a month.
“We would also tell them to go a local kirana shops or small shops so that even their business benefits from them,” adds Anurag, who is an MBA student at ICFAI. When they began to take in requests, the team had expected that they would need to put in a lot of effort in the backend work and connect with the people, what they weren’t prepared for was the emotional toll it took on all of them.
“One person from Khammam we helped had just gotten married and had a newborn. He didn’t have money to buy baby food. When we sent over the food, he said, ‘you are taking up the role of parents for my child’. It was overwhelming,” recalls Anurag.
An auto driver’s family was facing a tough time financially following his mouth cancer diagnosis. “We verified the request and were able to get a typewriting job for his son,” he says.
The team was also helped by generous donors from the Telugu film fraternity who donated anonymously to help the needy. The team has right now paused this part of their work, having been working daily to give aid, but plans to take up requests again in a few days.
