“Growing up, I used to spend most of my time with friends than at home. When I was in class 11, one of my school friends used to volunteer for an NGO and that’s how I got introduced to volunteering. During Christmas eve, we came up with an initiative to spread happiness among kids and distributed chocolates to the children on the roadside. People appreciated our kind act and that was the first time I experienced the joy of contributing my part to society.

Later, my school friends started an NGO called Nature’s Army. We used to conduct various initiatives such as plantation drives, blood donation campaigns, public volunteering initiatives, etc and I would actively involve in these initiatives for two years before I moved to Tamilnadu to pursue my graduation. When I was in my first year of university education, I read an article in the college newspaper that one of the department members started raising funds for the kid for a cause. It’s a fundraising campaign for a boy who needs an eye operation. I was moved by the cause and approached them to volunteer for their NGO. They welcomed me wholeheartedly and we were able to successfully initiated the eye operation for the kid.

For the next three years, we had conducted several welfare initiatives across many parts of India through that NGO. One such project was New Nickers Project, where we started distributing each kid new inner wears in the orphanages and childcare homes. We did that as the majority of these kids will not have proper innerwear and which may further lead to skin diseases. We have also incubated a culture of social responsibility on the campus. Whenever there is anyone’s birthday in the college, students would contribute half of their birthday celebration amount for a social cause to bring smiles among everyone. We had also started ‘Make a Wish Project’ where we used to fulfil the possible last wishes of the children who were in their final stages of life suffering from cancer and HIV AIDS.

Not only that but I was also actively involved in several animal adoption drives and rescues of stray animals which require immediate assistance.

Obviously, when you are into volunteering, it’s all about co-existence with nature and also safeguarding lives around. Therefore, the strong will to do something for the stray animals was automatically inherited in me.

Later, I moved to Kamareddy as a part of my first posting in the banking sector. There, I joined the local S H E groups and also with the local government schools and participated in many welfare activities for three years before I was transferred to Hyderabad. Volunteering has become a part of my life and I continued taking part in several other welfare activities working with different NGOs in the city. While working with Youngistan Foundation, we started teaching underprivileged children and also distributed food among the homeless, giving haircuts and new clothes to the underprivileged. Besides that, I also worked with Youth for Seva and we have initiated several relief initiatives during Kerala and Chennai floods. I also took part in nature restoration initiatives such as a lake, beach clean-up drives, seed ball and sapling plantations, school kits distribution, among many others.

During the first lockdown of Covid, I along with the help of few other friends took care of almost 200 stray dogs for over 5 months under the #FeedAStray Campaign at Osmania University when the local eateries and canteens were closed.

During the second wave period, I have volunteered with Hyderabad Covid Resources which was one of the official platforms partnered with the Government of Telangana. I was heading the Oxygen Team in that. We constantly update the Covid related information including Oxygen availability, beds availability, ambulance availability and any authenticated information related to Covid, queries and requests. I’ve also volunteered with the ‘Combat Covid’ whatsapp group which helped many with the resources.
Moreover, on 22 April 2021, even my mother tested positive and that was the most testing period of my life, however, we stood strong and thankfully, she was able to recover within 10 days.

The Covid 19 has impacted everyone’s life and has impacted each one of us in one way or the other. There are still many people within our surroundings who are in distress due to the long term implications of the Covid lockdown and job losses. I believe it’s everyone’s responsibility to stand up for each other during this crisis period and transform our country into a better and resilient nation.”