Leading the way, from darkness to light
At a time when lack of proper awareness leads to increased mortality due to Covid-19 among common people, unbridled social media platforms take things from bad to worse by spreading misinformation and fear like never before.
After witnessing the struggles of one of his friends during the course of treatment for the pandemic, a young entrepreneur realised the need to spread proper awareness about the cause and cure for the malady. Sunil Sathyavolu, who works in the education sector and an environment activist in the city, made up his mind to educate himself on the killer virus and create
awareness on vaccination drive, facilitation of plasma and to help patients get beds in medical facilities.
According to Sathyavolu, it was after witnessing the ignorance and struggles of friends and families over treating Covid patients that he decided to get on ground and start creating awareness in his own family first, and then among people in rural areas around the city including several villages in Nalgonda and Devarakonda. He began educating them on vaccines and their efficacy and helping them battling the virus.
“In my conversation with villagers, I realised that there was a lot of misinformation being spread over vaccination, which led to further resistance to take the shot. I told them why it was necessary to have vaccination and how the reaction of the body to vaccination would only be normal, to which they responded positively,” said Sunil.
He helped his friends and other needy people to get beds and medicines through social media and WhatsApp groups. In the past one week, he said, he had educated over 130 people on the vaccination drive, around 30-40 people on facilitation of plasma, and helped about 18 people who were in dire need for hospital beds.
“In one such case, I could extend help to a family who called me up at midnight, requesting me to arrange a bed in a city hospital here. They were directed towards me by a common friend, and had been waiting in the ER for over six hours at that point in time. As I had some contacts with the doctors at the hospital, I could explain them the situation and help them get a bed,” he added.