Days after the Coimbatore Corporation, non-government organisations and members of the civil society came together to launch a social welfare initiative called ‘Social Capital’, a fencing player from Coimbatore became its first beneficiary on Friday.
According to sources, through the ‘Social Capital’ platform, Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan and a few individuals contributed in a crowdfunding exercise to help the fencing player, T. Tamilkani, attend an international event in Bangkok, Thailand, from September 16 to 20.
The final year engineering student from the Government College of Technology was in need of Rs. 85,000 to travel, buy weapons and meet personal expenses and the ‘Social Capital’ team gave her Rs. 86,550.
It was only on Sunday that the Coimbatore Corporation and a few others launched the ‘Social Capital’ initiative and a mobile app to help all concerned come together to take up social projects.
It is a common forum for community, education institutions, hospitals, corporate companies, professional bodies and others to work with the Corporation and community in various social projects, said the app’s introduction on Play Store.
Ms. Tamilkani said that she was looking for support because it was her first international tournament after a two-year break.
She had just won a tournament in Chhattisgarh and had won several in the past – four golds in State meet and three golds, two silvers and two bronzes in national events.
But when the invitation to the Thailand event reached her, she wanted to go but did not know how.
She was put on to Saravanan Chandrasekaran of Wild Wing Trust, who contacted Mr. Vijayakarthikeyan and the ‘Social Capital’ team stepped in.
