Imagining a national emergency without social media platform seems like a complete disaster. But humanity exists. Lucknowites started getting help from social media influencers during pandemic crises.
The Covid-19 second wave has made mankind a battlefield of a great war. But some people have taken a step forward to save the pandemic condition. Other than brands, When the majority of the population were inside indoors and tracking the situation through television and the internet, there were some social media influencers who were providing every possible help to the needy once.
Due to the effect of home isolation and work from home, there have been surveys that showcase an increased amount of social media consumption worldwide. Although, it helped us in every possible manner.
Lucknow, the city of nawabs got the first hype in march, 2021 and from then it was unstoppable. The most prominent help which saved hundreds of lives came from social media influencers during a pandemic. It saved time for patients, lives of many and provided relief to many families.
Social Sikka contacted many saviors in Lucknow and tried to get every possible detail about their journey, difficulties, etc. And here what we got.
ROHAN AGARWAL
Rohan Agarwal is a public figure on Instagram, has been providing Covid-19 aid when it all started. His selfless work is truly commendable. He started providing help from Covid-19 first wave. With his team, he Provided every possible help like medical aids, delivery of cooked food, dry rations, sending migrants to their homes.
Social Media During Pandemic
Since he had a fair exposure to handling and responding to the situation during the first wave, he started contributing in the second wave too. This time he decided to take the help of social media. He started posting useful information related to food, medicines, etc. on his Instagram page. This time the situation was not in control like last year. It was massive. The Covid-19 cases surge was huge and people were preferring home isolation. In this case, he sends an invitation form to individuals/groups for a home delivery service. Luckily, he got entries from many cities who urged him to provide help from their end.
He had been active in sharing leads from blood donors for a long time. On the first wave of Covid-19, he managed to arranged 50-60 plasma donors and around 500 blood and platelets donors. But second-wave flooded with queries and sadly after putting every possible way not all the requests got fulfilled.
Rohan shared that he succumbed to a lot of infodemics than a pandemic. He stated that people were falling into a trap due to misinformation flooded by many social media handlers. Due to this, he started educating people about financial fraud and information credibility through his social media platform. Apart from this, he gets access to important notifications, advisories, orders, and circulars issued by the Central & State Government for various services like admission, bed availability, oxygen, approved testing labs, complaint numbers for overcharging of services, etc.
Besides all this, he got to help with several requests who were not able to afford the medical treatment. He is still on the mission of ‘Stop The Spread Of Covid-19’ and urges us to stop the misleading information because it spreads faster than a virus.
ARUSHI TRIPATHI
Arushi Tripathi is a famous model and social media influencer. Her Covid-19 rescue journey is nothing but emotional. Every incident comes from fortuity and she has faced that personally. Like many, she used to treat the pandemic casually until she had seen something terrible in her personal life.
Arushi told Social Sikka about her real incident, “I still remember that morning when my mother came to me and said that dadu and dadi both are positive. One day my grandfather got critical as his SPo2 dropped all of a sudden. We had no idea whom to call, how to find a bed, how to call CMO, and what’s their contact number, had no ambulance lead, from morning till night I kept calling CMO but we got the same response that we have noted down your complaint and a doctor will call you shortly. I managed to find an ambulance lead on Instagram but I guess it was too late, he started desaturating and he passed away as soon he entered the hospital in an ambulance. I know how it feels, I’ve felt the same numbness”.
Role of social media influencer during the pandemic to provide Covid-19 Aid
That sorrow and pain triggered her to do something good. Being a fashion influencer she already knew the power of Social Media. She has a decent amount of followers on Instagram which helped her to spread verified information to people. She joins hands with few people and created a team named Covid Aid Lucknow. The team was working day and night to provide as verified help as they can.
Arushi focused not only on spreading information but to provide the right and verified leads. She told us, “when a person is in panic, they do not have time to verify the leads, so we make sure that each and every lead is self Verified by me or my team”.
There’s definitely a decline in the number of cases but Arushi and her team are in the process of helping people. Their motive is to keep on helping people even after Covid-19 ends. As she said, “This pandemic made me realize there’s nothing bigger than humanity! Rest everything is materialistic. I have seen Rich and Poor, fighting for a bed and this was the biggest lesson ever”.
Also Read: Brands Helping During COVID-19 Pandemic.
Dr SARAH FATIMA KHURSHID
Dr Sarah Khurshid is currently working as a Junior Doctor in Era Hospital, Lucknow. Being in this most prestigious position is not easy when you are a doctor, counsellor, or daughter as well. Throughout her journey, she has maintained that aura to stay calm, strong, and positive because if you can’t have any of these qualifications, you can’t survive. Apart from her patients dealing in the hospital, she wanted to help a larger group of people. During the second wave, she had realized that there was a limit to helping patients because people need medical supplies, basic necessities, and prompt access to data and information.
Dr Kurshid was getting calls from patients under home isolation, who were clueless about how to arrange oxygen cylinders or hospital beds or medicines for their family members. That’s when she decided to use the power of social media. She made her public account on Instagram and started reaching out to people. She met some individuals with a simple goal to help and create public awareness. Hence CovidAidLucknow was formed and she became a major part of it.
She started consulting patients online through Instagram, WhatsApp, and On-call as per their needs without taking any fee. Her only appeal was to donate plasma or blood or to help others in any way possible way.
While talking to Social Sikka she said, “The negative news does affect me but I always say to myself that I have to pick myself up and help 10 more people”.
ACHYUT TRIPATHI
Achyut Tripathi is pursuing his graduation from Lucknow University. Being a student it wasn’t easy to help people outside but somehow he made his mind to at least find some alternative. He had a vision of executing something reliable and powerful at the same time and he took the help of social media. On April 18th when the covid cases started rising, he and his friends made a group of 47-50 members to provide as many genuine leads as they can. There were many other social media influencers during pandemic who were providing information to us to spread to the world.
The team started by collecting data from hospitals, food suppliers, oxygen cylinders, ambulances, and also from other’s social media platforms. Data collection was the most crucial work they had due to the spread of fake rumours and numbers. It was a very tragic situation because people were dying every now and then and some people were still juggling around to spread misleads for the sake of getting attention on social media.
But he did not stop. Along with his team, he made another verification team that was busy doing self-verification of the collected leads. There was a time when people got agitated because of late-night calls from us. Although, Motivation from families, print media, and radio pushed him and the team to go a long way.
How Social Media became the most reliable help during Covid-19
Instagram and Twitter were the most helpful tool in the pandemic while providing help to people. The team had started getting cases from these two platforms due to which he made a case handling team separately. In this, the team was kept on checking the patient’s needs and requirements and handled accordingly. They have been helping towards plasma and blood donation even though a lot of their team members got done it several times.
The most heartwarming thing was when some Covid positive members constantly reaching out to people while staying in home isolation.
Must Read:- Facebook COVID-19 Announcement Tool Launched In India.
Achyut started the initiative of adopting 21 slums and 11 villages around Lucknow under the Swapna Foundation. Under this, his team is providing help of medicines, food, education to orphan children and animals.
While having the conversion, Achyut stated, “We have seen people dying at the age of 22, we have heard the voices of deep sorrow, we have seen the cases where the whole family died. It was our mistake to take this pandemic for granted”.
PRIYANKA SINGH RAGHUVANSHI
Priyanka Singh Raghuvanshi is currently running an NGO called Shiv Foundation. A person who belongs to a transgender community is serving people day and night of Covid-19 survivers. She has issued a free-of-cost ambulance that is helping covid-19 patients and to carry the dead bodies. With the help of her foundation, she has provided around 248 oxygen cylinders for corona patients.
Social Media has helped her a lot to spread awareness and to provide help. With the help of her Instagram stories, she circulated her contact number to send immediate help in case of an emergency. When the death numbers were rising, people were roaming around to arrange a vehicle for the last cremation. Even though, most of them were not able to afford the hiking price of ambulances. Priyanka provided a free-of-cost ambulance to hundreds for carrying the dead bodies.
