HYDERABAD: Oxygen cylinders have been the need of the hour and people are using different platforms to reach out to the ones who can provide the affected people with oxygen.
To help bridge the gap between the supply and demand for oxygen, Mohammed Asif Hussain Sohail, the chairman of Sakina Foundations, started an initiative, ‘Oxygen on Wheels’, through which he has been providing free oxygen to Covid-19 patients for over a year.
Speaking about the initiative, Sohail mentioned, “This was conceptualised to meet emergency oxygen needs. This is mainly for the people at the highway who are coming from districts and villages to the city for treatment. On receiving SOS calls on our helpline, we rush to the spot on the highways which are as far as 180 kilometres away from the city with the oxygen cylinder and backup. These cylinders are being provided to Covid-19 patients who are at home, on highways or ambulances, where the patient’s saturation reading is less than 80. For those who are not getting a bed, we are also giving out backup until they get proper treatment. Our volunteers are all ready to go 200 kilometres away from the city as well.”
“Our main motive is to save lives and to cater to the maximum number of people before they reach the hospitals. All these services are provided free of cost keeping in mind the current situation,” he replied, when asked about what led to the inception of the initiative.
“Locally, we are providing 200 plus cylinders in the city. About more than 1,600 people have benefited from this and around 150 cases were supported with ‘Oxygen on Wheels’. We wish to reach out to more number of people who are in need of this. Nothing is more than a person’s life and doing this work just shows a little gesture of humanity,” he added.
Such initiatives by common citizens is aiding the country’s fight against the deadly pandemic, which has already led to the death of thousands of people. As people turn to social media and private organisations for help, Sohail’s initiative has come as a boon for people who are gasping for breath and fighting for survival.