Tirupati: Former students turn saviours of teachers

Tirupati: Moved by the pathetic condition of their former teachers, who were fighting for their livelihood during the Covid pandemic, a few members of the alumni association of Chennai SRM College wanted to lend a helping hand. With the closure of private schools due to Covid norms several teachers went jobless.

Some teachers have been working as agricultural labourers while some others have engaged in automobile garages. For their survival, a few others have been selling fruits and vegetables too. Knowing such a pathetic way of life, a team of youth initiated two programmes – called 'Abhimanyu the Hope' and 'Bheeshma the Saviour' and started service activities across the state.

The team led by Neelesh Kumar Kuppala which includes Nithisha Bindela, Kuppala Ramcharan, Veramallu Bhanu Prakash, Sarath Chandra, Bojja Kundana Shilpa, Yagna Kamatham and others have been actively involving to help the distressed teachers out of their sufferings. They first approached their school teachers to know their plight and decided to spare some amount from their salaries to help them.

For the past one year, they have been extending their service activities with the objective of helping the needy. So far, they distributed groceries to around 400 families especially private school staff by organising events in Tirupati, Vijayawada, Nellore, Visakhapatnam, Chandragiri and Hyderabad for the purpose.

Also, they distributed a large quantity of hand sanitisers, masks, vaporisers, stationery items to government school students and helped medical treatment for vulnerable people by donating as much as they can and provided medicines for some others.

The teachers were basically reluctant to get any help. But the team takes up charity while ensuring their dignity by maintaining confidentiality. They even silently transferred the amount to their teachers' bank accounts through their linked mobile numbers. "When the teachers who nurture future generations have been suffering pathetically to make their both ends meet, what more can we do except expressing our gratitude by paying back at least to some extent. We wish it would give inspiration to many people to come forward to help their teachers," commented Neelesh.