SRIKAKULAM: At a time when people are confined to their homes owing to partial curfew, Sura Srinivasa Rao, a social worker and a small entrepreneur from Kusalapuram village in Etcherla mandal, is busy supplying food and essentials to the needy in and around Srikakulam.
He has been distributing 800 food packets and 400 essential kits a day free of cost to Covid patients, victims’ family members, beggars, orphans, daily wage labourers and employees who have been rendered jobless due to lockdown.
Born and brought up in a poor family, Srinivasa Rao owns a plywood industry. He has been spending a major part of his earnings on charity. During the second wave, when he went to RIMS Hospital to meet his friend Ananda Rao, who was down with Covid, he observed the problems of patients. He shared what he saw with his wife Saritha Rani and they together decided to support Covid patients in their own way.
‘Will continue to help till curfew ends’
Saritha Rani prepares food packets and essential kits at their home with the help of workers. She packs 500 to 800 food packets a day—lunch as well as dinner—and 200 to 400 essential kits while Rao distributes them to Covid-19 patients and needy people in Srikakulam. He has been doing this activity for the past one month. District officials, politicians and NGOs are commending Rao’s generosity. On Saturday, he distributed 250 essential kits to teachers working in private schools.
Last year, he distributed more than 1,200 essential kits to people of Kusalapuram, Yatapeta, Thotapalem and Polytechnic Colony. At the same time, he tried to give his best to Covid-hit families when they visit his home for help.
Rao told TNIE, “I have decided to provide food and essentials to Covid-hit families and the poor. I have taken this as an opportunity to help others rather than sitting idle at home. As I belong to a poor family, I know the problems of the poor. My mother and wife are my inspiration. My friends came forward to join hands with me, but I refused to take their help. I decided to continue this till the end of partial curfew in the State with my own earnings.”