HYDERABAD: More than ever, working during Covid-19 has made the big mark," says Saripally Padmaja Reddy, aka Padmakka, who has been into community services for the last 14 years. This resident of Subhash Nagar in Hyderabad started charity work by allocating over 50 percent of her profits from her paper plate/glass manufacturing unit.
This 37-year-old mom of two girls says that Seva Foundation, her NGO, has done everything from helping accident victims be able to afford Rs 1 lakh as an initial hospital deposit during the time of admission to paying school fee for kids, but workig during Corona times has been different.
"As our volunteers could not come due to lack of transport, my family including my girls aged 10 and 6 years joined me in feeding over 4,000 people every day. "In fact, once the slum dwellers and migrant labour got to know that I give them food, they would turn up at my paper unit asking for food". She says she has distributed/cooked nearly 25 tonnes of rice to feed the poor every day starting March 23.
"It gives me great joy when the benefactors tell us that even local politicians could not provide them with their essentials the way we did."She also salutes the police and GHMC personnel during the tough times and giving them masks, sanitisers etc. Her small way of saluting the unsung heroes, she adds.