Republic Of Self-Help Medical Care: Airborne Aid

A pilots' group in Ahmedabad has been providing funds and medical supplies to those in need

- Rahul Noronha

TEAM AHMEDABAD, Ahmedabad

What it has done Provided financial and logistical support for medical supplies and to set up hospitals

IN APRIL, as state governments across India began imposing lockdowns to contain the second wave of Covid-19, Captain Ankur Suri, an Airbus pilot with Indigo Airlines, based in Ahmedabad, was wondering what he and his colleagues could do to help. That was when Suri’s school friend from Bhopal, Rahul Kothari called him.

Kothari, a state-level office bearer with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh, had been helping those in need who were unable to get hospital beds or medicines. Since Suri had announced on the school WhatsApp group that he and his colleagues were looking to financially help to those in need, Kothari took him up on the offer, asking for help in buying oxygen concentrators. Suri posted the call for help on his pilot’s group in Ahmedabad, which has around 120 members. Soon, Rs 1.5 lakh worth of donations had arrived, which allowed Kothari to purchase four concentrators. Kothari’s organisation, Sarokar, now has 40 concentrators which he provides to patients in the critical period during which they are waiting for a hospital bed.