A video of Kerala policemen trying to get a runaway Covid-19 positive patient in Pathanamthitta into a vehicle made four first year engineering students pitch in and donate 60 PPE kits – 30 to the police station at Chevayur and the rest to the Calicut district collector’s office, on July 22. “The policemen had barely any protection. They often work in containment without sufficient protection. The police force is working overtime during this pandemic, and they need all the protection they can have,” says Christy Thomas, one of the four. “That video set us thinking about contributing, and what better than PPE kits so that they can of use to the policemen,” he says.
From left, Leo Lorence, Akshay Krishna and Christy Thomas | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Leo Lorence, Akshay Krishna, Adithya Madhusoodanan and Christy have been friends for the past 12 years. When the lockdown confined them to their homes, the friends ventured into web-designing and web-development with their start-up, Muon, in April. The amount they earned from their initial project, Rs. 30,000, was used to buy the PPE kits. The Collector has assured them that the kits would be given to health workers on Covid-19 duty.
Adithya Madhusoodanan
Before embarking on the ‘project’ their homework included visiting the police station at Chevayur and enquiring how they could help in the effort to contain the pandemic. “The policemen are taking a greatest risk. This is the least we can do...only if we, as a society, take an initiative and chip in however we can so that the disease does not spread more,” Christy says.
The four, aged between 19-20 years old, have been friends since they were students of Silver Hills Public School in Calicut, the bond strengthened during their entrance coaching. Christy is a student of NIT Calicut, Leo is from IIT Kharagpur, Akshay studies at IIT Madras and Adithya from NITK. “People take a lot of things for granted we wanted to set an example for people who feel they are young and cannot do much. We want to show that however little, every small effort counts,” he adds.