“The idea of launching an auto with oxygen support began as a small initiative to cater to the people in North Chennai who didn’t have the means to afford private transportation.
It, of course, stemmed from sheer helplessness and desperation given the sudden oxygen crisis in the country since April. Having dedicated my entire life to the service of others, I knew I couldn’t sit back and just spectate. So I went about gathering the initial funds from my NGO and got busy in search of agencies that could refill medical grade Oxygen
Now, while the normal capacity of these air cylinders in ambulances are around 10-12 litres, I realized immediately that that could barely be of any help. Only tanks of higher capacity could serve people throughout the day without easily running short and that got me to customize 50 Litre cans, with the help of a good friend to kickstart our mission.
And in a little while, our auto started catering to people all across the city. With ambulance waiting time peaking upto to almost 5 hours, our volunteers have been receiving around 300-400 calls till date from families in need of temporary breathing aid.
Of course, given the resources, we can only cater to a small fraction of them but it does break my heart a little, everytime we have to deny a request due to practical constraints.
Nevertheless, what keeps me at it, are the heartfelt messages and happy tears in the eyes of families whose members have been saved by this small act of kindness. It means the world to them and also makes the whole roaming around without food or sleep completely worth it for people like me!
Going forward, my team of volunteers are also looking to install more such vehicles through the funds we’ve been able to gather so far. We want to make every penny of these donations count and do whatever is within our possible capacity to save our people!
In the end, it’s the lives that ultimately matter, isn’t it?”