There have been times in popular circles when people have drawn comparisons and said, “Focussing on the care deficit should be more important than reducing the fiscal deficit”. Such a statement is truer now than ever before. As care faces its litmus test in COVID times, having the sense of care is an imperative.
The tenets of care go far beyond just senior care. The sense of care should be a habit amongst people, its not just about seniors. Kindness which is often a function of care is a critical element for dispensing care. At a time when the number of people in need, has grown exponentially, volunteering is coming of age in India.
One such organization is Caremongers India, which was started by Mahita Nagaraj as a platform too serve people in need, especially seniors as a country of 1.3 billion people went under lockdown, late March. Since then, the Caremogers India group on Facebook has grown to become a community of 45,000+ people who have been galvanised to helping and caring for those deeply impacted by the lockdown due to COVID19.
The wings of Caremongers’ India have spread beyond the shores of India, where NRIs have taken the Caremongers route not only to provide help to loved ones in need back home, but also provide care to people within their respective countries of residence
The numbers and stats will give you a sense of the impact that Caremongers India has had:
The helpline was activated at 10:40pm on 20th March. Up to 16th April, they received a whopping 12,612 calls and dealt with 35000 messages.
They have fulfilled over 170 +weekly deliveries to the citizens registered with them.
Across India, they have fulfilled close to 8000 requests to date – spanning Facebook, WhatsApp, and Helpline requests.
They’ve had Caremongers help in USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Muscat, Dubai, Ghana, Singapore, Nepal and a few other countries.
We caught up with Mahita Nagaraj as part of the Unmukt Bytes series to understand the inspiration behind Caremongers and what keeps their volunteers’ juices alive as they spread the air or care around the country and the world!
You can watch the entire interview here:
Since starting the community of caremongers, Mahita and Caremongers have received considerable press coverage from the likes of BBC, The Straits Times, Elle & The Print.