Trucking to Vizag for a cause

Calling themselves Hudhud Champs, the team made Vizag their temporary base for more than a week after the cyclone distributing basic needs like water, rice, dal, sanitary pads and medicines.

G. Krishna Chaitanya of Hudhud Champs says, “Even before the cyclone hit Vizag, Jignesh Talasila, the person behind the initiative, created a page on Facebook. After the disaster we took it up seriously.

“Initially, through the page, we wanted to help those who are from Vizag and located in different cities and know if their families were safe. We received calls even from abroad and the response kept increasing. We soon realised that we had to support people in Vizag by providing them basic needs,” he adds.

Within a week of starting work, the team grew from being a group from Hyderabad, with volunteers joining from Rajahmundry, Vijayawada and even Bengaluru helping the team in surveying, communication and distribution. They distributed rice, water, dal, medicines, soaps and other necessities, including 4,000 water purification tablets.

On how the team worked during the time of crisis, Krishna says, “We had a team working in Hyderabad, who coordinated the logistics. Once we received the trucks loaded with supplies. Then, a survey team was sent to different areas to count the number of families and their basic requirements. Then, we dispatched the goods accordingly.”

The initiative took off with the core team funding the project themselves. Krishna says, “One of our initial posts on FB got us donations from Hyderabad. We also received around 200 kg of rice from a group of kids in Bachupally, near Miyapur, who went door-to-door and collected enough money.”