Ranchi: Professor Arun Roy from Mumbai, with the help of his students and friends, has managed to arrange six Oxygen concentrators, each of seven litres capacity, at the Jharkhand office of Indian Medical Association, Ranchi. These concentrators arrived in the state capital on Tuesday.
Out of these, five will be sent to Bagodar (1), Giridih Sadar (2) and Anjuman Islamia Hospital (2). One will be used at IMA’s Ranchi campus. The Giridih MLA, Sudivya Kumar and Bagodar’s Vinod Singh have expressed gratitude to the donors.
Reeza Garewal from Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Mohd Abdul Qadir from Houston, US have donated four and two concentrators, respectively. Dr Raj Chandra Jha and Dr. Vishnu Rajgadia, Director of Jharkhand Foundation, both from Ranchi, had coordinated with Prof Roy to scout for the most suited receivers and on other operational matters.
Reeza Grewal, a friend of Prof Roy, with her brother and friends has formed a group called Sikhs United, with the purpose of reaching out to people struggling with Covid-19 infection and its after-effects. Their focus is on serving people mainly in the interiors of India. Jharkhand is the first state chosen by them.
The friends of Prof Roy had collected rupees four and a half lakhs for this purpose. One oxygen concentrator costs between Rs 55,000 to 95,000 in India. They have purchased and sent concentrators and masks to Koderma, Daltonganj, Giridih and in areas of Doranda, Ratu Road in Ranchi. They plan to distribute fifty thousand masks which are being manufactured in Ranchi itself employing women, mostly.
Prof Roy is a Ranchite, having been educated at St John’s School and St Xavier’s College before moving to Mumbai in 1994. He taught there till 2004. After that, of his initiative, he started visiting the rural areas of the country, taking free sessions on conceptual learning for the students and teachers of the government schools.
“As I am from Jharkhand, and worked in the rural parts of it, I am well aware of the situation, how much people in Jharkhand need such support. And thanks to Vishnu (Rajgadia) Ji, we have chosen Bagoder, Giridih and Islamia Hospital to donate Sikh United’s oxygen concentrators,” Prof Roy told eNewsroom.
Prof Roy is coordinating with her team also to offer financial help to the families which have lost their bread-earners. Some people from Europe, Canada and the US have already approached the group for offering further help to the people in Jharkhand. For further information on Sikhs United to receive and offer help, one can visit http://SikhsUnited.nl.
During the labourers’ migration from Mumbai and then Farmers’ movement, his friends had collected more than rupees eight lakhs, separately, to serve those who needed immediate help. They intend to serve Jharkhand for at least a year from now onward.
For offering and receiving help for this venture, one can write to him at, we.the.people.india30@gmail.com.
