Chennai monsoon saviours

Daksha used her film contacts to draw funds and helped coordinate a donation campaign which saw kits including sanitary pads, blankets, bedspreads and mats distributed in the flood-hit areas of Chennai.

 

By her own admission, she has never been involved in a social relief activity because of her line of work. But she had been helping organise activities for her husband R.P.

 

Amudhan, a documentary film maker associated with the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle. 

“I have always worked in the periphery. But when I saw the damage with the flooding, my first thought was what the lesser privileged mothers and children would manage. I realised that though the government would help with the relief but it would be impossible to cover all places at the same time,” she said.

 

Daksha was able to call a favour and organise health camps too. On Sunday, she had coordinated relief work in the city suburbs in Taramani.

 

 

 

With Chennai and neighbouring districts taking a pounding during the north east monsoon, Mahadevan recruited 15 volunteers and with the help of local NGOs started distributing rain relief materials that included, used clothes, vegetables, milk, bread, mats, bed sheets etc.

 

“The government is only giving the flood-hit people food to eat. The things that we are able to give supplements what the government is providing people. At the relief camps, I see children who feel uneasy sleeping on the floor because it is cold. They need bedsheets and mats,” said Mahadevan.

 

On Sunday, he was in Kanchipuram district distributing relief material in the Irula community villages of Ozhaiyur and Putheri.

 

 

 

“I am sure I would not have been able to reach the needy if the post had not gone viral. I expected people from within my friends circle to share the post but for it to be shared by random people, which ultimately meant I could help out a few in distress, is just great,” he said.

 

This was Yunus’ first real chance to offer help to people and it has left a lasting impression on him. So much so that he told DC that he is developing an app which would help coordinate rain relief efforts, the next time a similar tragedy strikes Chennai.

 

“After I put up the post, I had around 25 people contact me and tell me that they too wanted to open up their houses. So this app I am developing would bring the donators and the needy on to one platform, so that these offers definitely find takers,” he said.

 

 

 

When the Chennai Rain Relief 2015 Facebook Community was formed by like-minded citizens to coordinate their relief work better, Can Do pitched in and offered to be the facilitator. “Our expertise in tele-calling helped as our employees could help connect the donors with the organisations that were supplying rain relief materials,” said Anuradha.

 

Interestingly, two of Anuradha’s employees, Vijayakanth and Raja, were key to the success of the work. Speaking to DC over the phone, Vijayakanth said that he was handling 30-40 calls a day, most of whom were donors requesting guidance to contribute.

 

“If such an activity had more awareness among people, there would have been more donors,” said Vijayakanth, who is visually impaired.

 

 

 

On Sunday, Arun and his team were travelling to Cuddalore to lend a helping hand with the relief work carried out by the state government.