CHENNAI: In a bid to help street vendors of the State, United Way Chennai, an NGO, had started a fundraising campaign in May, and so far, they have supported 260 such families.

“When the pandemic began, we observed there was a segment of population that was not rich enough to get employee benefits, and not below the poverty level to quality for all subsidy schemes - the street vendors. Upon research, we realised that most of them are struggling to make their ends meet,” said Shruti Ganesh, Communications Manager at United Way Chennai.

She added, “Since there was no one on streets, these vendors had no money. In Tier 1 cities, we gave Rs  7,000 per family, and in Tier 2, Rs  5,000,” she said. Their campaign – United for Street Vendors – has raised about Rs  15 lakh. Shruti added, their aim was to reach out to 300 families, and were waiting for more aid.

The NGO has found a lot of fan following among celebrities too. “We have received a lot of online support with people like Dulquer Salman and Sid Sriram tweeting about us. It is heartwarming because the moment we put out a word, a lot of people came forward,” she said.

The NGO ensures the aid reaches the right people, by doing a background research on them and confirming the same with the Chennai Corporation. People willing to donate can log on to http://bit.ly/unitedforstreetvendors