Netizens gather aid for Chennai hit

Hyderabad: The despair of Chennaites is bringing out the Good Samaritan-facet among several Hyderabadis. Using all the options at their disposal, especially social media, a group of youngsters are doing their bit to help the flood-affected victims in Tamil Nadu.

With just a post on Facebook, a group of Hyderabadi youngsters reached out to large section of netizens not just in city but across the country for charity. And what they received was a truck full of material within 24 hours of the post.

Thousands of people, including techies, businessmen, companies extended their support by sending medicines, masks, napkins for kids, fruits, clothes, water bottles, milk, glucose sachets, biscuits and other food items. Brainchild of the post, V Chaitanya, who runs a small restaurant in Hyderabad called up on citizens for charity to aid the stranded people in Chennai. He also tagged his friends in the post asking them to join him for the cause which went viral.

Within 24 hours of the post, over 3,000 people from across the country evinced their interest to extend help to Chennaites. In support of the youngsters, several Tollywood actors like P Navadeep, Daggubati Rana, Allu Arjun, Nani, Allari Naresh, Sriknath, Tarun, Kunal Koushik, Shashank, Prince, Adarsh, Bhupal, Karthik and several others sent their contributions to the group.

In fact, actor Navdeep, who has joined the group of youngsters with his friends, has been supervising the activity and pooling up charity from his fellow actors. The charity rained in a way that the group of youngsters had to hire trucks to send the collected material to Chennai on Friday. Speaking to The Hans India, Navdeep said, “Facebook posting of Chaitanya went viral and actors from Tollywood have come forward to help the flood-hit. The group managed to gather more than what they expected.”

The actor said he received calls from Mumbai, Delhi and other places to enquire on what they can send. “It is not about how much we are contributing. The charity should reach larger number of people who are in need of food and medicines,” he said.

Navdeep added that charity collection centre will be set up at Ramanaidu Studio on Sunday to send a few more trucks of medicines and food to Chennai.

An aspiring photographer, Thrilok, who is part of the group, shared: “My friend’s post on Facebook received overwhelming response from Hyderabadis and also from across the country. Our phones started ringing within no time. We are flooded with the charity and hired trucks to send all the necessary amenities we received.”