KASARGOD: It's 7 pm on Sunday, and Kumbadaje grama panchayat president Hameed Posolige and former president Ananda K Movvar are not yet done for the day. They are going from door to door in Pillankatta, a remote village on the border of Badiadka panchayat, raising money for the treatment of Saanvi U K, a seven-year-old girl with thalassemia. It is different from political fund-raising. "People are eager to contribute. They know Saanvi's parents do not have the money for her treatment," says Hameed.
Saanvi's bone marrow transplant is slated for July 20 at Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Centre in Bengaluru. She found a perfect donor in her elder sister Thanushree U K (12), a class seven student. Saanvi's human leukocyte antigen (HLA), a protein found in most cells, is a 100% match with her sister. The probability of a successful bone marrow transplant increases with closer HLA match.
But before taking the girls to Bengaluru, their parents Udaya K, a concrete labourer and Savitha K S, an MNREGS worker, have to raise Rs 40 lakh. "It is a six-month-long treatment. If we raise at least Rs 20 lakh, we will take them to Bengaluru," says Ananda.
The residents have formed a committee to coordinate the fund-raising. Representatives of all political parties, places of worship and schools in the neighbourhood, and social and cultural activists are members of the committee.
On Monday, 'Bilal' passenger bus plying on Belinja-Badiadka-Kasaragod route will be running a charity service to raise money and awareness for Saanvi. "There will be no ticket but passengers can contribute any amount of money for the cause," says Mohammed Shafi, owner of the bus.
Ayishath Mashida P, the 26-year-old panchayat member of Saanvi's ward Ubrangala, has contributed her one month's honorarium of Rs 8,000 plus another Rs 2,000 for the cause.
Karadka block panchayat members Nalini K (51) and Yashoda N (47) have also committed their honorarium for Saanvi. "Their contributions are invaluable because they come from poor families with no regular jobs," says Hameed.
Sister Priscilla D'Cunha, headmistress of Fathima ALP School, where Saanvi studies, said the PTA decided to send one envelope to each of their 272 students. "They can return the envelopes with prayers and wishes for Saanvi and whatever money they can contribute," says Sr Priscilla.
On Saturday morning when TNIE reached Marpanadka to go to Saanvi's house, Anandan P, a popular karate teacher of Badiadka, was at that stop. He had come to her house after seeing the WhatsApp statuses of many of his students. "Saanvi's elder sister Thanushree is my student. But I did not know that," he says.
One has to trek a steep cattle trail for 600m through a neighbour's property to reach her house at Khajamala. There is no road access to her small house, shared by her grandparents, her family and families of her two uncles.
Saanvi was diagnosed with thalassemia when she was four months old. "Since then, she has been receiving a blood transfusion once every four weeks. Initially, it was once in three weeks," says her mother Savitha. Every month, the family takes three buses and one autorickshaw to reach Wenlock District Hospital in Mangaluru for the blood transfusion. They return to their house by 8 pm.
If there is a delay in blood transfusion, Saanvi gets a fever, starts vomiting and her face becomes pale. "She suffered a lot during the lockdown," says her father Udaya.
Karnataka had shut the borders, and the police here always created trouble when they saw three of them travelling together. "On top of that, there was no bus and autorickshaws refused to come," he says.
And getting blood transfusion is an ordeal in Kasaragod. She gets admitted in KIMS Hospital and the father has to go to the District Hospital in Kanhangad, 30km away, to get the 350ml of packet blood cells.
Doctors at Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre told the parents that it was the right time for Saanvi to go for bone marrow transplant. "Once done, she will be like any other child in two years," says her mother Savitha.
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