HYDERABAD: A casual online discussion among 17 young professionals, who incidentally did not meet one another in person, to help Covid-19 patients and their families has led to mobilisation of Rs 2.17 crore in just 40 days.
This is perhaps the highest-ever Covid-19 fund facilitated by a small group of IT and start-up professionals in Hyderabad.
The professionals, who hail from different strata of society but are joined together through their start-up ecosystem, created an online Covid-19 fund on April 22 linking donors directly with those in need of help.
The team facilitates donors a platform to deposit money directly into the accounts of individual patients who do not have funds to meet the exorbitant hospitalisation costs.
As on June 7, as many as 4,254 donors have contributed Rs 2,17,30,571 to 312 Covid-19 patients and their families.
Even as the funds pour in, new requests keep piling up.
Still, 31 requests for help are pending.
About 750 families received groceries and essentials as their incomes suffered a dent due to lockdown.
The online platform works in such a way that no third party, including the team members, is involved.
Once a person in need of funds makes a request on the online platform, the team verifies it with hospital.
Once satisfied that the person seeking help is genuine and has no money to pay hospital bills, the request is made live on the portal.
The donors have the choice to select anyone from the list of people seeking help and directly deposit money into their account.
Once the target money required for a patient is met, the link is deactivated.
Donors have the choice to fund NGOs too.
The team comprises Ibrahim Khan, Shazad Ahmad, Arunima, Inthiyaz, Vibha, Udaya, Afzal, Sivaji, Shruti, Vivekananda HR, Aditya Kothari, Archana, Diwakar, Jelam B, Madhavan, Harshbir and Shivangi.
“It all started from a WhatsApp group.
Now, the campaign has reached a scalable stage,” said Shazad, adding that it was an incredible journey.
Vivekananda told TOI that when they launched it, he was worried.
“I felt very helpless initially.
There may be many who want to do something but don’t know how to.
We set up a simple WhatsApp group for getting people to come together and help.
This soon became a platform for many to help those in distress,” he said.
Explaining the reason behind the campaign, Ibrahim said due to financial constraints and the high costs of private medical care, a lot of people are struggling to pay their hospital bills.
“The idea of ‘by the people, for the people’ worked well for the initiative.
We are common people who have come together to provide financial aid for others when they need it the most,” Ibrahim said.