UAE teen helps gather five tonnes of aid for Chennai flood victims

This content was originally posted in 7DAYS UAE website at: UAE teen helps gather five tonnes of aid for Chennai flood victims A humanitarian organisation led by a 15-year-old UAE school pupil has donated five tonnes of relief aid to help the flood victims of Chennai. More than 400 people were killed and a further 1.8 million displaced in the heavy rain that hit southern India in late November, causing an estimated $15 billion of damage and loss of property. The floods affected the Coromandel Coast, which includes the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the union territory Puducherry, with the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu being hit the worst. “When the depressing news of floods and the subsequent damage in Chennai came to Dubai, we decided to do something about it,” said Rohan Kapur, founder of Serve the Heroes and a grade 10 student at Delhi Private School, Sharjah. Rohan decided to collect relief items from people in Dubai and send it to Chennai through local NGOs. Using the hashtag #ServeChennai, Rohan and members of Serve the Heroes spread the message across social media inviting people to donate. He said: “The response was great, we had students collecting relief from their buildings and bringing them to us. “Kids as young as four were spreading the word and a man donated 33 blankets, which was very heartwarming.” The items collected included food stuff, toiletries, new clothes and blankets, which were gathered and sent through a Dubai-based NGO, People Helping People. After sending the first delivery of six large cartons of relief, people still wanted to contribute, said Rohan. “Many people got in touch saying they still wanted to contribute as the situation in Chennai was terrible. “People still needed more, which is when we decided to have a second shipment. “Within two days, we managed to pack 10 more cartons and handed them to another NGO sending relief to Chennai called CRI Pumps. “The response was so overwhelming that we airlifted over 5.5 tonnes of material in total. Due to weight constraints, we also donated a lot of stuff to the Ree’ah Charity box.” A total of 50 people were involved in collecting, packaging and sending the goods to Chennai. mahak@7days.ae             Read the original story at: UAE teen helps gather five tonnes of aid for Chennai flood victims