Rahul Saha

It all started in 2020 when Amphan hit Kolkata. A few of my friends had decided to help people with supplies, and within the first week, our drive gained momentum. Simultaneously, we started planting trees in areas affected by the cyclone. We all had positive thoughts going into 2021, then BOOM! The second pandemic wave strikes. Firstly, we did not imagine the disaster would be so widespread, and soon we found out that we were short of two things, MANPOWER and OXYGEN supply. We immediately reached out to the people we knew, colleagues, childhood friends, college acquaintances and their respective contacts. I remember our group having 187 members one evening, and the next morning we had 2700+ members growing leaps and bounds every hour. Then we started systematic, routine work. We divided the core members into leading small groups, while one was updating oxygen and hospital leads every 4 hours, the other was solely dedicated to transfer these leads to the people who wanted help. The turnaround move came when a group of ours decided to tie up with Ambulance centers and safe homes and a few oxygen refilling agents. There are days where we took up over a hundred successful requests, and the joy is unparalleled. Currently, we are a part of 4 groups over social media with a total member’s strength of over 1.5 lacs. We now have the bandwidth to help people anywhere in the country where our volunteers are available. We are overwhelmed with the support that we got from each one of you. You people are the best definition of teamwork that might even put Avengers to shame. We will rise and see the curve flatten as we are in this together. Thank you!