For senior citizens who need vaccine help

HYDERABAD: India launched the world’s largest mass vaccination exercise in January 2021. In the Phase 2 of the exercise, an estimated 100 million senior citizens aged 60 years and above will be vaccinated. In Telangana alone over 5 million senior citizens will be administered the vaccination. However, senior citizens (specifically those residing in homeless clusters, slums, and old age homes) are not well versed with technology to register themselves for the vaccinations.

The fear of contracting infection along with the travel time and waiting time at the distribution centres, are hindrances that can slow down the vaccine distribution machinery. 
There is an urgent need to set up systems that can meet these challenges. The Robin Hood Army, a volunteer organisation that has thousands of young professionals and citizens as members, has announced the launch of #SeniorPatrol, a tech-enabled system through which Robins, who are spread across every neighbourhood in India will help millions of senior citizens in two ways:

• Support senior citizens with online vaccine registrations on the Co-Win platform.
• Physically bringing the elderly to the vaccination centres to receive both the doses of the vaccination. Details on 8149948776.
• The process will be simple - If you are a senior citizen living alone/ or a worried relative of a senior citizen staying away from you, you can fill out a self-explanatory form on the organisation’s website, requesting for Robin Hood Army’s service. A Robin will reach out to you within a few hours of the request. 
• The Robin Hood Army has a force of 100 thousand Robins across 150+ cities and is confident of serving millions of senior citizens pan-India.

“On the day of the launch of the #SeniorPatrol, the first request to Robin Hood Army Hyderabad came from the kin of a senior citizen. She asked for help to vaccinate her grandmother residing in a village about 30 km from the nearest Hyderabad Chapter. In response to the request we travelled to the village and sensitised the village authorities and the elderly. The village sarpanch arranged for all the elderly to be taken to the vaccination centre!”, say Robins Srujan and Praneeth who turned one request into an opportunity to make a difference for an entire village.

Robins Amishi Gupta, Harsh Ailani and Prakash Dheerwani who are leading the Senior Patrol effort in the city said “In these difficult times, it is the responsibility of the youth to take care of the seniors in our society. We are not only helping the elderly with registration for the Covid-19 vaccine and taking them for the appointment, we are also spreading awareness and dispelling concerns. Additionally, we are actively surveying slums and shelter homes in the city and helping with registration, documentation and assisting senior citizens in getting vaccinated on time.”

Barish Bose and Manasi Thakkar, RHA Hyderabad city representatives added “There are 100 million senior citizens whose lives are most vulnerable – even with the country’s cases flattening, the risk of a second wave/mutation is real. Civic Society has to step in to support the government. The Robin Hood Army is ready to do our share. We will extend logistics support for free.”