THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The United Nations General Assembly observes October 31 as World Cities Day, an occasion to address challenges of urbanisation, and contribute to sustainable urban development. This year, in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, an unprecedented catastrophe that affected life around the world, the day is all about valuing local communities that played a key role in keeping people safe and maintaining economic activities.
In UN’s words, this encompasses local volunteering and people organising in their own neighbourhoods as well as social movements that challenged poverty and discrimination.
The secretary-general has identified cities and communities as being on the frontline of the Covid-19 response, urging countries to extend the recognition of communities’ value beyond the virus outbreak.
Today, Team Express salutes every selfless effort that continues to keep our beautiful city afloat, despite all odds.
Of the people, for the people
For the fraternity of auto drivers in Pallimukku, Pettah, helping those in need has been their way of life for decades. What started as a 50-member team has now been reduced to 20, but the existing members continue to serve the city, despite the pandemic threat. On March 24 when the government declared a complete lockdown, letting only essential services function, these autorickshaw drivers were prepared to ferry patients for free to the Regional Cancer Centre, Medical College or General Hospital.
Coordinated by the Janamaithri police station, Pettah, this volunteer group of autorickshaw drivers comprised Suresh Kumar, Saju S, Sivakumar, Anilkumar S, Rajendran, Anilkumar M, Balachandran S, Mohanakumar M, Sivankutty B, Felix John, Haridas K, Ravi Kumar L, Santhosh Kumar R, Biju P, Barshan, Sivaprasad, Manoj Kumar, Sethukumar M, Unnikrishnan and Rajan S. Despite being in financial crisis themselves, and having mouths to feed, they kept providing food kits and medicines to the poor, and distributed clothes to the destitute.
“Our service is only for those who cannot afford transport. During the Lockdown 1.0 in March, we took nearly 50 people to hospitals, railway stations and bus stands. Not only this, we modified our vehicles to ensure social distancing and stop disease transmission through contact,” says Suresh.
ASHA workers, a beacon of hope
Fear of contracting Covid-19 has kept many away from the streets, to the point of discontinuing routine healthcare check-ups. But for Sajirath S, an ASHA worker at Vallakadavu ward, fear was no reason to stop helping the vulnerable population under her watch. Sajirath S is the ward’s go-to person for any healthcare emergency and she is just a call away, 24X7.
“I start my day around 7am. First, I check the fasting blood sugar level and blood pressure of around 15 people daily. I get calls even after midnight. I make sure that I wear gloves and sanitise before and after the process and charge them only for the strips. For me, it is about helping people, not money,” says Sajirath. She, along with two other ASHA workers cover 600 families. “We also post notices outside houses where people are being quarantined or in home isolation.
I have a son and a daughter back home, and they support what I do. I had to keep myself away from my 10-year-old daughter for three months to protect her, as I was frequently in contact with infected patients or their primary contacts,” she says. Sajirath has been an ASHA worker for 12 years. “Senior citizens, pregnant women, bedridden patients and those in quarantine rely on us for everything,” says Sajirath, as she hurries to the next house.
Because hunger knows no barriers
When the lockdown was declared, Pongumoodu - native Seena Antony, a makeup artist and an animal lover, couldn’t stop thinking about all the starving stray animals. Along with her husband Antony Stephen, she took to the streets with food and water, feeding around 500 stray dogs in the city in afternoons everyday since March. “They used to survive on leftovers from hotels and street vendors.
With all that gone, they were in trouble,” says Seena. Seven months later, Seena continues to feed around 350 dogs around the city. They have switched their ‘working hours’ between 9pm and 1am. “Streets become empty around the time. So, we can feed them properly and watch them sleep in peace,” adds Seena.
She makes good use of social media to collect food and donations. Seena and her husband start preparing food around 11am. They spend over `1,700 daily to cover the expenses. “I just don’t want to miss out on feeding them. Many people donate rice and money,” she says. Seena plans to keep up the schedule for a while. “There are around 70 stray dogs near the College of Engineering (CET) . They will be safe once the college reopens. There’s nothing more noble than feeding these poor creatures,” says Seena with a big heart.
Selfless acts that change the world
For city-based techie Vishnu Rajendran, the initial months of lockdown were pretty hard. Apart from being logged in during regular working hours, he was actively involved in delivering food and essentials in different parts of the district as a volunteer of Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation of IT professionals. “Though the schedules were tight, I enjoyed it. If we choose to stay home, many people who need our services will end up suffering,” says Vishnu.
Initially, he started by delivering food to techies who were stranded in the district. “Many house chefs and community kitchens joined in,” adds Vishnu. However, his real challenge was procuring medicines. “There was a shortage of a few medicines. These weren’t even available in the medical shops near Medical College Hospital or General Hospital. So we contacted the distributors directly, met them and procured the medicines. The Fire and Rescue serviceshelped us deliver these medicines around the city,” he adds.
Volunteers like Vishnu procure the essentials in the mornings, and deliver these after work, in the evenings. He remembers helping out hearing-impared techies during the lockdown. “All they could do was message us. They were in dire need of medicines and groceries. I even procured batteries for their hearing aid and computer accessories,”
he says.
Ensuring the blood keeps flowing
The pandemic trampled on even the advanced healthcare systems around the world. Voluntary blood donation drives came to a grinding halt, leaving hundreds of patients in the lurch.
A 22-year-old MSW student from the city, who is also the student forum coordinator of All Kerala Blood Donors Society, realised she needs to step in, and that is how she ended up helping many emergency patients get blood while the city was under lockdown.
Under Sreelakshmi Sreekumar’s leadership, the forum arranged blood for around 100 patients at RCC, SCT and MCH.
“We were unable to conduct blood donation drives during the initial months of the pandemic outbreak. Thiruvananthapuram city needs around 600 units of blood daily. Fortunately, the lockdown also created a decline in accident cases. But the majority of the blood donors stopped turning up due to fear of contracting the disease. We ended up convincing people and motivating them to donate blood. A majority of the patients needing blood are at RCC. We are still struggling to make our hospitals self-sustainable and ensure blood availability,” she says.
With you, in life and death
When we spoke to him, K Balachandran had just gotten back after ferrying the body of a Covid victim to Saanthi Kavadam. From taking nervous candidates for antigen testing to driving the dead to the burial ground, the Covid ambulance drivers of the city corporation have been working tirelessly ever since the pandemic broke out in March. Their days are long, tedious and sometimes dull, and involves balancing life and deat and health and disease. But for drivers like Balachandran, it is about serving his city, with or without the reward. An ambulance driver and ex-serviceman, Balachandran believes that nothing should stand between you and your duty.
“Not many people are willing to take up this job. But then, someone has to keep the system running. Between the three of us, we carry a huge responsibility,” says Balachandran, who has been an ambulance driver for 15 years.
Selvarajan K, another ambulance driver, says it breaks his heart to see how families are scared to approach bodies of Covid victims. “The first body I carried was that of a priest. Despite wearing a PPE kit, maintaining distance and taking all the precautions, families were still reluctant to come close,” recollects Selvarajan. The third hero of this story, Sunil Kumar, says they have transferred 526 bodies to crematorium, cemetery and burial grounds so far.