Collaborate with NGOs as a Covid Volunteer

 was interviewed by the journalist.It is published now.

https://medium.com/@mktpulse.sonia/a-million-hearts-beat-for-a-billion-strangers-dc8971e94392

The interview was published by Ms.Sonia Kapoor .A successful professional web journalist

My story is about experiencing a very different face of India in the pandemic. With a stressed and overwhelmed health infrastructure, I saw how people had their backs to the wall and rebounded with incredible courage and resilience to manage an unprecedented humanitarian crisis . I saw millions of small and big acts of kindness from strangers ready to help a billion of their countrymen.

Which moved me to write this piece.

This New India

For the last twenty-five years, I have been a dual resident of India and other countries. Visits back home were always fun. But this time was very different. On April 7, I flew to Delhi in response to my sister’s call for help as both parents contracted Covid. The next four weeks were a terrifying blur of events as we struggled to cope with a crisis that had become personal.

Staying back to look after my family, I was pulled into an immersive experience both stirring and unique, and in its wake showing me a new face of India I would have missed otherwise. I was surrounded by the energy of ordinary citizens, communities, Corporates and NGO’s performing extraordinary acts of service as the pandemic started it journey of destruction:

· ‘Oxygen langars’ by the Sikh community

· Non-stop social media posts on sources for oxygen, hospital beds, medicines and blood plasma

· Doctors creating helpline videos and performing last rites for patients on behalf of families

· Emotional helplines by counsellors

· #CovidWomenHelp to find jobs for Covid widows

· Students creating lead management portals for genuine sources of medicines and hospital beds

The list of small and big movements continues even today.

Something special was happening here.

While helping others is embedded in our culture, this unprecedented show of collective activism was something new and exciting for me. As a non-resident citizen and as a market researcher, I wanted to know more and asked my friend K (a shy social activist in her own right) for introductions to citizens who had done exceptional work in the pandemic.

I spoke to four Covid heroes: Jayshree, founder of Mitr-Friends In Need; Pooja, co-founder of Feeding From Far; Priya, recipient of a state sponsored Covid Warrior Award; Savita, an active Rotarian and dedicated social worker

I asked them three questions:

· What was your motivation to volunteer during Covid? What made you act?

· How did you feel serving people and communities you did not even know?

· What were the enablers in your contribution journey?

A Call For Action That Just Had To Be Answered

For all four, the crisis was a strident call for service to humanity. The virus was indiscriminate and brutal. Everyone knew someone who had been impacted.

“The sheer scale of the humanitarian crisis spurred me into action” said Jayshree. Her Facebook platform (Mitr- Friends in Need) of 1800+ members and volunteers have responded to all kinds of pleas for help. They arranged relief for displaced migrant workers; found a home for an autistic adult who lost his caregiver to Covid; set up blood and plasma donation camps and even helped a stranded student in Kenya.

Priya talked about the gap citizens had to fill. “You saw how much need there was. If you didn’t do it, no one else was there to do it. The system was overwhelmed”, she said. Priya described a “domino effect” as one person’s voluntary effort spurred others to action. In particular, she was amazed to see the level of involvement of young people at the frontline of volunteering efforts. For her own contributions Priya received a state sponsored Covid Warrior Award. She was the ‘go to’ person for a panicked public looking for hospital beds, PPE masks, medicines, oxygen, and even ambulances.

Young Pooja said she and her friends felt the “Guilt of the Privileged.” They were fortunate to have shelter, food and family as their city went in lockdown- but there were so many who did not. “ Finding a purpose is important for our generation”, she said. There was a restlessness to “do something” and they chatted about it on social media. Feeding From Far came from one such conversation, when her college friend suggested setting up community kitchens in one of Mumbai’s largest slums, distributing food to daily wagers who had lost their jobs in the pandemic.

Savita confirmed “ a sense of duty towards society “ motivated her to act. She gave up a full time formal job with a multinational to become an independent IT professional. She is also an active Rotarian. Savita rolled up her sleeves and was ready to contribute when the second wave hit Mumbai. She worked together with multiple NGO’s and welfare organisations. She did block bookings at hospitals to ensure her community got vaccinated. She tracked Twitter announcements for medicines, beds, oxygen supplies and verified these leads to ensure genuine information was passed on to those who needed them. She also collected and shared valuable plasma donor information with existing NGO’s and volunteer networks.

Feelings of Connectedness and Empowerment

How did they feel about serving communities in the pandemic?

Jayshree felt a strong sense of connectedness with humanity. Family became not just the immediate one-it was the entire world. “For me, the whole world looks like a single unit. It is an expansion of our connectedness. And I feel safe in this world”.

Pooja was emotionally stirred by the scale of suffering she saw. At the peak of the migrant exodus, Feeding From Far supplied food packs at railway stations to workers jostling to get into trains to return home. “This campaign was not something where friends get involved out of a sense of obligation. We wanted volunteers who had the capacity and strength to continue work despite the suffering they were seeing”, she said.

Savita talked about her satisfaction saving lives through information and “connecting the dots.” She recalled helping a poor Covid infected patient. His sister was in touch by phone and started texting Savita when oxygen levels were going down. Savita alerted the already pressurised and overworked hospital staff to take quick action, which they did. Savita felt a sense of empowerment she could contribute in her capacity- “ while the young were at the frontline, we could also contribute within the four walls of our houses. This gave me confidence a lot can be achieved even by older people.”

Priya said the recognition she received through awards and grateful messages filled her with a deep sense of gratification. She believed citizens had a major role to play in closing the gap created by an overwhelmed system.

Digital Was The Hero

The power of digital and social media was universally acknowledged.

Jayshree’s idea for Mitr-Friends In Need came from a personal crisis solved by Google Maps. In the lockdown, her husband’s parents, living separately, could not buy their groceries. Not knowing what to do, Jayshree searched for an address close to their house on Google Maps, found a phone number, and just dialed. A stranger picked up the phone and was more than willing to help buy groceries for them. This incident seeded Jayshree’s Facebook platform. If strangers could become angels, then let’s build a network of such angels on social media.

Pooja also uses Instagram as her platform to share information about Feeding From Far’s mission and activities, for crowd-funding and for creative messaging. What’s App, Twitter, Telegram have been invaluable for Priya and Savita to ‘connect the dots’ between vendors, suppliers and beneficiaries, ensuring real-time help to desperate citizens.

Eye-Openers

As I sat down to reflect on what I heard from these four stories, and what I had seen myself, five things stood out for me:

An inspiring purpose can move mountains — As humans we all look for meaning in our lives. The pandemic gave people a purpose- to stand up and take charge since the system was buckling under pressure. Saving lives became their call to action and they were ready to contribute in any way they could.

Service is the highest form of happiness- volunteering in the service of others is the highest source of satisfaction and happiness. Service turns strangers to friends and renders caste, class, geography and religion as meaningless dividers of humanity.

Everyone is a change-maker — whether young or old, everyone was doing something: organising medicines, feeding migrant workers, setting up vaccination camps, organising meals for Covid patients. Realising their own potential to be influence change and add value was a moment of truth for citizens.

India’s “Demographic Dividend” is real- students and young adults had been at the forefront of the crisis. Millennials and ‘Generation Z’ were often catalysts of local movements and campaigns- not afraid to be frontline volunteers, despite the health risks to themselves.

Crisis seeds Innovation — The ‘oxygen langars’, Feeding From Far, Mitr-Friends In Need — are all examples of identifying a gap and finding a creative solution in real-time. When there is a real need, grass-root solutions will come and quickly.

In my next article, I put on my lens as a consumer marketer and talk about what brands and businesses can do to win the hearts and minds of the emerging new PURPOSIVE CONSUMER.