More than money, championing a noble cause requires a compassionate heart and novel ideas.
A parish in Thrissur, Kerala has proved this by helping dialysis patients for about a year without even investing a single paisa.
Some 250 families of Mar Thimotheus Church, Nellikkunnu, a parish under the Chaldean Syrian Church are doing this service by selling an item collected from every household—old newspapers.
The money collected from the sale of the newspapers and magazines is used to make coupons of Rs 500.
So far they have helped about 250 dialysis patients.
Tomy Jose, joint secretary, ‘Share and Care’, an organisation for undertaking social work in the parish, said that after making arrangements with the hospitals concerned, the coupons are distributed to the patients.
In just one-and-a-half months, they were able to procure about two tonnes of paper.
“About Rs 20,000 could be garnered by selling two-and-a-half tonnes of old newspapers, magazines and used notebooks,” he said.
The money is paid in advance to the hospital, the patients have to just produce the coupons.