Life in Chennai has come to a standstill due to the incessant rains across state and relentless floods. Several startups have come forward with initiatives to help Chennai victims. They are also giving an opportunity to Bangaloreans to participate in the relief efforts.
ZopNow, an online grocery store in the city, has tied up with Radio Mirchi for their initiative, #HelpChennai. Customers can place orders and send any relief articles mentioned in their page for Chennai such as sanitary napkins, mineral water, biscuits. They can also choose from the other general products available on the website and send it to city-based NGOs who are helping the victims in Chennai.
“We received around 200 orders within four to five hours of starting this initiative. We will be tying up with a Bengaluru-based NGO which can collect the donations and transport them to Chennai,” claims Praveen Singh, Marketing head, ZopNow.
The city-based self-drive car rental platform, Zoomcar has also pitched in to help the victims. They are offering their vehicles free-of-cost to ferry people in need of ambulances. They have sent 10 cars from Bengaluru. They will be sending 15 more soon. The customers have driven the cars to Chennai with the basic supplies.
“We’re moving food and clothes over weekend in our Scorpios. We are using bigger cars that can work in heavy flooded areas. We are working with some of our existing customers who are driving the cars at no cost,” says Greg Moran, co- founder and CEO.
iKaaz, a mobile payment platform have started their one-week initiative ‘Help Chennai’ with an NGO Women’s Humanity Foundation. The people can donate money via the MOWA app.
How to do it:
The money collected will be used by the NGO to arrange food, clothes, blankets, drinking water, power banks and medicines for the people in and around Kolathur, Vinayagapuram, Thiruvikanagar, Jawaharnagar, Periyarnagar, Agaram, Perambur, GMK colony and close by areas.
Lookup, a chat app that enables you to chat with local stores to make reservations, order food etc., has partnered with an NGO Bhumi. Everyone who donates towards this cause will receive a complimentary branded T-shirt from Lookup as reward.
“As a hyperlocal messaging app, we want to get things done with a message, be it people getting food or accommodation during a calamity. We have been receiving about 15 donation requests everyday and have collected 100 donations so far. People are donating clothes, instant food, off-the-shelf food packets, provisions, biscuits etc.,” says Deepak Ravindran, founder and CEO, Lookup.
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zomato again
Zomato has reopened
its services for the flood victims in Chennai after a temporary pause as they had to match every order made on their Chennai Flood Relief page.