Serving the homeless for six years

Aswathy Nair, is now the most-loved one for more than 20 people, who live on the streets. The 26-year-old has been donating food to beggars and the homeless for six years now. Now they wait for her every afternoon. “There is no way to understand them better. When I mingle with them, they open up and I can help them in whatever way I can,” says Aswathy, who used to buy food from nearby hotels when she ran out of home-cooked meals. Aswathy also helped two people get medical treatment. People who find destitutes have now started calling Aswathy. “I am doing these activities on my own but I wish to do something bigger,” says Aswathy, a commerce graduate, who heads to Law Academy in Thiruvananthapuram, for her LLB course in the evenings. An intense yearning to understand destitutes prompted her to take up this mission. Aswathy has been working as a medical representative for two-and-a-half years and she channels her earnings (`25,000) into her mission. She is also encouraged by her mother and younger sister who stand by her and help pack home-cooked meals. She never differentiates herself from others, and hence whatever is prepared at home is packed for these people too.

— meera.manu@newindianexpress.com