Covid-19: Meet ‘Team Avengers’, a WhatsApp group of volunteers that saved several lives

44 year old founding member and volunteer of the initiative Deepshikha Singh Khan told the Indian Express that merely sending condolences is not enough and something concrete needed to be done to change the situation. (Credit: The Indian Express)

Amidst the Covid-19 second wave crisis the country is going through, a number of initiatives by NGOs, philanthropic organisations and private individuals are winning hearts and more crucially saving lives. One such initiative has been taken by Team Avengers who are trying to come to the aid of people looking for food, ration kits, medicine, Oxygen cylinders, availability of beds among others, the Indian Express reported.

Weeks into the second wave of Coronavirus, six close friends, who had seen several people breathe their last due to lack of facilities, formed a WhatsApp group named ‘Team Avengers’ on April 26. Abhijeet Dutta, 45, who is the founding member of the initiative told the Indian Express that he had an urge to help and that made him contact his family and friend circles who readily joined the initiative. So far as the origin of the catchy name of the initiative goes, Dutta said that the name was chosen by him as just like every member of Team Avengers had special powers, every human being also has the power to help others.

In less than a month of its formation, the initiative is providing help in Gurgaon, Noida, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Jhansi among others. 44 year old founding member and volunteer of the initiative Deepshikha Singh Khan told the Indian Express that merely sending condolences is not enough and something concrete needed to be done to change the situation. Hence she started cooking food and delivering home cooked food to the needy. Till now, the team has been successful in providing at least 3000 cooked meals to the needy, Covid-19 patients, their family members and other hungry people on the streets of Delhi-NCR.

Plunging into such a situation was not easy for the members of the initiative as the demand for resources, contacts, medicines and leads was overwhelming for them. Dutta said that the team at times felt helpless in front of the sea of demands of severe Coronavirus patients. He also said that many times the team remained unsuccessful in finding the ICU beds or Oxygen cylinders for the patients. As time progressed, the team understood that helping even a handful of Covid-19 patients mattered a lot. As their network spread, the team also got equipped to help a larger number of people than before. The team of six has now grown to about 55 volunteers including doctors, researchers from the United States who joined the initiative to provide teleconsultation to Coronavirus patients.

Close to one month after the initiative began, the volunteers have some proud moments during which they could save some precious lives. Founding member Ruchi Mahajan recalled that in one instance the team could save the life of a person by providing Oxygen cans till the time they managed to find a hospital. Summing up Khan added that there are many lives lost everyday for want of resources and facilities but such small wins keep the group motivated and running.

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