BENGALURU: With heavy rains lashing several parts of North Karnataka, citizens of Bengaluru are doing their bit to help the affected areas. Volunteers and corporates are busy providing relief funds and various supplies to help the victims.
Infosys Foundation, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of the parent company has contributed `10 crore to aid relief work. Its volunteers are already functioning in areas such as Raichur, Bagalkot and surrounding villages. Survival kits which include basic utilities like water, food items, clothing and medical kits have also been distributed to those in distress.
Started as a friends WhatsApp group, a team of around 10 citizens in the city from North Karnataka also decided to do their bit. “We are a group of 25-36-year-olds and since we’re from North Karnataka, we decided to distribute relief by transporting it ourselves. We received huge response and received supplies such as water bottles, rice, dal, biscuits, medicines, clothes, blankets, sanitary pads, diapers and so on,” said 36-year-old mechanical engineer Vikas Kulkarni who hails from Dharwad.
The team will also be travelling to the affected areas such as Belgaum, Khanapur, Dharwad and surrounding villages on Saturday morning. Samskruthi Charitable Trust has also involved 50 volunteers from the organisation for collecting the materials which will fetch the basic needs of flood-hit North Karnataka people under the hashtag #SAVE NORTH KARNATAKA label. These collected materials will be handed over to the shelter houses and people in those villages.
Jithendra P, who has been volunteering for 15 years, said a team of 10 have already reached areas such as Hubballi, Belagavi, Uttara Kannada to conduct a survey of relief centres and to check what is required.