Director Aashiq Abu has been busy on Instagram and Facebook over the past few days. His posts give regular updates on helpline numbers as well as tips on how to and where to get help. As the State staggers under the worst floods in nearly a century, Aashiq is leveraging his social media reach of 33,000 followers on Instagram and more than six lakh followers on Facebook to help the rain-affected. Along with his wife, Rima Kallingal, he is treating his celebrity status as a social commitment.
He is not the only one. Even as the rains continue to batter Kerala, people from the film industry are joining hands to contribute to relief efforts. “This is the best of times and the worst of times — we have to work together. We must do our best to help each other and our State,” says Rima. She adds that the number of people who have offered help — service, cash or material donations — is heart-warming.
Rima has been busy working closely with Anbodu Kochi, comprising approximately 500 people at a time, which works with the local administration, collecting and distributing relief material in Kochi. Anbodu Trivandrum does the same in Thiruvananthapuram.
At Anbodu Kochi’s collection centre at the Regional Sports Centre in Kadvanthra, a number of Kochi-based celebrities have gathered to offer help. Actor Indrajith, along with his wife and designer, Poornima, and their two young daughters, have been hands on ever since the conception of Anbodu Kochi during the Chennai floods in 2015. Poornima says she sees volunteering as a part of who she is as a person. “It is about one’s priorities. If you ask me how I get time, I just have to make the time.”
Garnering support
“We are using our reach and following on social media to garner as much help as possible,” Rima says. Initially the response to Anbodu Kochi’s call for relief material was tepid, probably because nobody anticipated the situation would assume such worrying proportions. Young, tech-savvy film fraternity have always used social media as a tool for engagement with fans and critics alike. Now they are united in using their reach to garner support and contributions for relief work. As actors and technicians began posting live on Facebook and Instagram the effort quickly gained momentum.
Actor Tovino Thomas has offered his house, in Irinjalakkuda, as sanctuary, through Facebook and Instagram posts, to those affected by the rising waters. “The effort is to help as many people as possible, chip in with help in ways I can,” he says. “Right now I am on my way to collect urgent relief material. The doors to my house are open to anybody in need, and as long as this dangerous situation continues it will continue to be.”
He has roped in the brand, North Republic, he endorses to provide urgently required material such has bedsheets and clothes. “Since I cannot be everywhere in person I have ensured that people I trust are handling the work,” he adds.
Veteran actor Nandu has been working almost non-stop for Anbodu Trivandrum, since Sunday, at the Government Women’s College, in Thiruvananthapuram, which is where the group has set up camp. He says, “This is a lesson for all of us. We should not take what we have for granted.”
Work without a break
There is no time for rest, says Nandu who has been putting in more than 12 hours every day at the centre, as there is plenty of work to be done — sorting, packing and loading supplies. “We are proud that we have managed to send relief supplies to Wayanad, Pathanamthitta, Aluva as well as to relief camps in Thiruvananthapuram. At the same time it is heartbreaking to know about what people are going through across Kerala. I have friends in all these places and feel helpless about their plight,” he says.
As going in person to the camps may be counter productive for actors many are choosing instead to working behind the scenes, mobilising help and relief. Besides there is an advisory, says Rima, against travelling to other districts as part of relief work. “If one gets trapped while travelling to another district, it causes more problems than it solves. Let the Government do its work, we can help in ways by mustering cash and material,” she says.
Twenty-two-year-old Ahana Krishnakumar is using her social media leverage and her Instagram account with a following of 6,96,000 to give the public specific updates on the kind of help needed by volunteers working at the three collection centres of Anbodu Trivandrum in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Since I could not do much financially, I decided to give live updates on the action at the collection centres to mobilise people and contributions in cash and kind. I believe each of us can do our mite to help those displaced by the floods. I also went to the collection points to be part of the effort to reach essential materials such as food, mats, clothes, match boxes, medicines and provisions to the flood-ravaged areas.”
Between working the phonelines, Nandu puts things in perspective. He says at least now, people should think beyond caste, creed, religion and political ideologies. “Onam is a few days away and it will be an unforgettable Onam for all Malayalis. In the song Maveli naadu vanidum kalam , we talk about a society that is equal. This calamity has made that happen.”
(With inputs from Saraswathy Nagarajan, Athira M and Anasuya Menon)
