I’m a Teacher and I Volunteered to Bring Kerala Back on Its Feet

For Keralites, the last couple of weeks have been a nightmare.

(Photo Courtesy: Heba Thankam Varghese/Image altered by Arnica Kala/The Quint)

For Keralites, the last couple of weeks have been a nightmare. With the entire state drowning, people’s rescue efforts seem to have kept hope afloat.

A week ago, I received a call from a helpless friend who lived in Pandanad, Chengannur. She and her family were stuck in their house and the water was gushing in. The first floor soon turned into a mucky swimming pool. Luckily, she and her family were rescued by the fisherman community – Kerala’s very own superheroes. Soon, a relief camp became their new address.

Many were not as lucky as my friend. The tragedy had escalated beyond all scales of expectation. People were stranded on the terrace and were left with no power supply, water or food.

Listening to stories like these made me very restless. I lived in a different world that wasn’t affected by these floods – a world called Trivandrum. After hearing about my friend’s situation and a few others’, I decided that I needed to do something more than be a keyboard activist. I had to step out and help others.

Collection centre at Trivandrum.

Volunteers packing relief materials in the boxes which need to go to other centres.

Clothes, medicines, water being packed. 

There is no clean drinking water. So we urged people to donate mineral water. 

A list of relief items required.

Within a few days, a large number of Facebook communities were formed, urging people to volunteer and come together to bring Kerala back on its feet. The ones less affected (like me) readily joined the teams that organised online coordination and dissemination of information pertaining to rescue-and-relief operations. United Kerala is one such organisation. People from across the globe joined hands in the concerted efforts that helped mitigate the damage.

I volunteer in the collection centre where people donate and from here, we send it to centres across the state. The kind of relief material also, at times, differs depending on the requirement of the centre.

Right now, we are urging people to send more medicines and water. We received a lot of food which has been transported via buses to different centres. The feedback that we received was that the centres require medicines.

A collection centre .

Relief material segregated and ready to be shipped to centres. 

Buses in which the relief material is transported.

Basic medicines being packed.

All relief material packed and ready to be transported.

Online groups initiated by the volunteers - large numbers of them being young people - collected and verified the authenticity of information and helped the rescue-and-relief teams reach the victims without much delay. The rescue operations were spearheaded by the Indian Army and the fishermen community, and the latter’s boats saved lakhs.

The bare helplessness of the initial days turned to new-found respect and care for each other. What started off as a hashtag on a random Facebook post turned into a chant that gave the volunteers, rescue operators and the victims of the Kerala floods the spirit to fight and survive: yes, “together we shall overcome”.

This wasn’t just the indomitable ‘spirit of Kerala’; I would like to call it the ‘spirit of India’.