Lokmat News Network
Nagpur, May 20
“Necessity is Mother of Invention”, we all know the famous proverb, but more than the necessity it was crises involving life and death. During the second wave of Covid in Nagpur, the city was out of hospital beds, life-saving injections (Remdesivir) was not available to make life worse, oxygen which is the basic need was just not available with the hospital as well as all the manufacturers in the city.
A group of individuals decided to take on the challenge and under the Lokmangal Foundation formed a group comprising four members to provide oxygen to the needy at their doorsteps. The foundation is primarily engaged in providing work to rural women and has been involved in social causes.
Recalling his experience secretary of Lokmangal Foundation Shripad Borikar, fondly know as Chottu, said, “We were shocked that when corona was on the peak in April and people were running helter-skelter for bed and oxygen and the entire district administration was looking clueless, we decided to pull our contacts and resources and arrange for oxygen.” We went to many manufacturers and other organisations and collected oxygen cylinder for patients, who were not getting bed in hospitals but needed oxygen urgently to survive.
Borikar said, “We have 65 jumbo oxygen cylinders with us and we have supplied oxygen to needy patients at their door step on one call. In all we have helped 142 patients till date out of which only 7 have passed away (not due to lack of oxygen) due to various reason and the rest are recovering. We have got many blessings and we catered to patients across the district.
Another active member of the foundation Amit Khot said, “It is very satisfying that we were able to help the needy people. We have been providing cylinders to needy at their doorstep and at times also helping them with handling and fitting of the oxygen cylinders at home. We have been getting calls from Kamptee, Kalmeshwar, Kanhanan, Ramtek and all parts of the district and we are providing them service 24x7 round the clock.”
Other foundation members who are actively involved in managing the oxygen cylinder supply and coordination include Sachin Ingole and Vinod Mude.
100 cylinder from UAE to Nagpur
Lokmangal Foundation has approached a community group in Abu Dhabi, UAE - ‘Triveni’ through social media, which has agreed to supply 100 empty cylinders to Lokmangal Foundation in Nagpur, looking at the noble initiative for saving life. The shipment of 100 cylinders have already left Abu Dhabi from Habei Ali port on May 4 and would be reaching to Mumbai and then from Mumbai-Nagpur via road. The cylinders would have reached Nagpur by now, if cyclone Tauktae had not hit the Indian coast.