Vizianagaram: Scribes raise funds to support Covid infected families

Vizianagaram: The scribes in district decided to fight Covid-19 unitedly and help each other in emergency situation and give moral support to infected scribes. With this idea, they formed a special WhatsApp group and raised some Rs 65,000 of funds from their own pockets. Later the journalists formed three small teams with five members.

A team is assigned to deliver groceries, medicines and fruits to the families of journalists, who are in isolation in their homes. Another group is assigned to coordinate with hospitals and officials to arrange oxygen cylinders, required injections and medicines to the hospitalised journos. All these activities are supervised and coordinated by the assistant director of information and public relations D Ramesh. So far, three journalists succumbed to infection in the district and more than 10 scribes along with their families were infected with the virus. The assistant director directly involved in the group and speaks with medical officials and helps the journos to get proper treatment.

The journalists also spoke to Collector M Harijawaharlal and succeeded in allotting around 10 beds in a hospital especially for the families of journalists. Speaking on this issue, a senior journalist Gamidi Koteswara Rao said "Our journalist friends helped me a lot when I was hospitalised with Covid infection. Our team members have responded positively and spoke to the concerned officials, helped me to get proper treatment at M R Hospital."

Assistant Director D Ramesh said that the collective efforts made by the journalists yielded good results. Some family members could get groceries, medicines and even lot of moral support.

The funds raised by journalists were utilised for their needs only. "With the collective efforts only, we can provide better healthcare services to those scribes, who were hospitalised with Covid infection," Ramesh said.