R. Vijayakumar's house at Vembuliamman Koil Street in Old Pallavaram has always been more than just a living space. It supports a cause. Since 1994, it has doubled as a free night tuition centre educating underprivileged children. In what comes across as a rite of passage, many beneficiary-students have gone on to become teachers at the centre.

During the lockdown, the tuition centre has been experiencing a lull. However, the house is as busy as ever, now doubling as a centre that prepares, packs and distributes food and safety kit to the homeless and the visually-challenged.

Vijayakumar provides free food, safety kits including cloth face masks, gloves and hand sanitisers to them, and some of the students are engaged in stitching masks.

“Students and the staff at the tuition centre coordinate the relief work which involves distributing free food and safety kits to needy children and the aged,” says Vijayakumar. A special team has been formed to provide free food and safety kits to the needy in adjoining areas including Anakaputhur, Jamin Pallavaram, Chromepet, Tirusulam, St. Thomas Cantonment and Pammal. The focus is on visually-challenged persons as most of them lost their livelihoods.

People queueing up at Vijayakumar’s house to collect the kit is a common sight. On an average, 700 persons including 300 visually-challenged are provided food and safety kits. During the complete shutdown every Sunday, volunteers travel between St. Thomas Mount and Vandalur to distribute food.

These visually-challenged persons would earlier travel by suburban trains that shuttle between Chennai Beach and Chengalpattu selling fancy items to commuters. When the lockdown came into effect, many visually-challenged persons migrated to their relatives houses in localities on the city outskirts mainly Pallavaram, Anakaputhur, Tambaram and Kundrathur.

“We stay together in small groups in a thatched house to help each other during this crisis. Volunteers help us in getting free food and other items. We hope to find some work to earn an income on a regular basis,” says K. Marimuthu, a visually-challenged person from Anakaputhur near Pallavaram.

“We are doing it on a small scale with our limited savings. Nevertheless, we will continue our volunteering work during the lockdown period,” says Vijayakumar.