Brave New India: Gen Z, Millennials step up to set up emergency helplines, food stalls to battle Covid-19


Aanya is the Head Of Operations, Ishan Sindwani is Head of Information Technology, Sanya Singal, Head of Design, Tara Khanna, Head Of Marketing, Vaanya Gilhotra – Co Head of Research, Kaira Mahajan- Co Head of Research and Keshang Yolmo- a volunteer based in Kolkata.

Neither is it true for Prakhar Goel a 10th grader from Hill Spring International School Mumbai, who recently singlehandedly set up a website called

Covid-19helpinghands.org, which lists verified resources for covid beds, oxygen, remdesivir, isolation, meal services and pet boardings.

These teenagers have barely lived and here they are dealing with the grim reality of death and working night and day, taking and making sometimes 200 calls a day to procure life saving drugs and equipment for callers across India.

You are assaulted by a terrifying reality when Aanya, who started Help Reach now H3 after her 10th board exams in March 2020, says, “You know that India is in a grave situation when adults are calling teenagers to help them find beds and other resources”.

At the onset of lockdown, H3 kicked off its activities with a ‘stitch your own mask’ campaign. They procured fabric from vendors in Chandigarh whose sales had dropped and employed jobless tailors. ‘We raised 30 – 40k and we spent this on donating 150 PPE kits and rations to the DGP in Chandigarh’, says Aanya. Shortly after they launched a campaign to feed strays called ‘Tray the Stray’. However they say it is in the last 3 weeks that they really feel they’ve made a difference. H3 now has over 50 volunteers spanning the country, all teenagers except one 10-year-old girl from Mumbai who insists on helping out because they found an oxygen cylinder for her mother.

It’s a heavy burden to take on but these kids are very sensitive to the unfolding tragedy, which is sometimes too close to home to remain passive.

Verifying numbers and information

15-year-old Ishan from H3 Delhi who is on an early summer break from Step By Step Noida, because 80 percent of his teachers are infected and his tuition teacher tragically lost her daughter due to oxygen shortage, says he knew he had to act when his 13-year-old friend’s mother died of covid. ‘I have a friend who I talk to all the time. He is only 13 and his mom passed away a few days ago. So it’s a really bad state. But today I was able to find oxygen for 4 people in the NCR region after calling 30 or 40 numbers and even punching a hole in my desk. That’s another thing we don’t know if all the numbers we are getting are fake or not. Lots of people selling fake remdesivir, etc. Aanya or Keshang will take a bunch of phone calls for requirements and they will send it on the Whatsapp group. We get various leads and we call and verify by asking if they have it available. That’s how we are operating’.

They have now become so experienced that they have gained a basic knowledge of drugs and medical terminology they never imagined they would. However they are smart enough not to offer medical advice.

‘You’re a lifesaver’

19-year-old H3 volunteer Keshang who studies in the Heritage Academy Kolkata get calls at 6 am. ‘I didn’t sleep yesterday because I had a patient who is 60 in Delhi who was not getting a bed. Someone told me there’s a device called Bipap, which acts as a substitute for ventilators. I gave the patient the lead and it really helped. Now his SP02 is 66-67. He’s still finding beds but at least he’s stable. I didn’t even know there’s something as Bipap and Cpap. I get 12 to 13 calls every day regarding critical patients and lose some. Yesterday I had a breakdown I lost my uncle but we still have to help other people. You can’t save every patient but if you save one and they say you’re a lifesaver – it encourages me to continue this work’.

99 percent of their requests are from Delhi, but they have helped many in Indore, Bangalore, Mumbai and even Shimla. They have even received a request for a crematorium space in Delhi – which is when it got really dark for them.

Discrepancy between demand and supply

The main challenge that is faced by H3 and other organisations doing similar work is that leads expire at lightening speed, because of the huge discrepancy between demand and supply.

‘I have 40 contacts on my phone just for oxygen. Rahul oxygen, Oxygen 1,2, 3 etc but leads expire within 30 seconds. It will stay for maximum 20 mins’, says Aanya.

This generation is super active on social media and they know how to milk twitter and Instagram to the fullest to get new leads and amplify requirements and resources. Aanya explains, ‘one advantage we have which other generations don’t is technology. If a 60-year-old man is looking for a bed for himself. He won’t have time to register himself on sites, he won’t know how to look for hashtags and autogenerate a hashtag or retweet something. People’s attitude has changed, my relatives are asking me for help. Adults are taking us seriously’.

Helping Hands

Another enterprising teenager using technology to assist people in this spiraling crisis is 16-year-old Prakhar Goel from Mumbai. He created a slick website in one day called

www.covid-19helpinghands.org for verified covid resources. It was up and running on Saturday 24th April and received 11,000 hits in the first 48 hours.

Prakhar is not new to community work. During the first wave of Covid, he along with 4 friends started the Bombay food project to combat hunger in Mumbai resulting from lockdown. In 12 months they fed 8,000 people. Prakhar says, ‘there was a lot of misinformation being spread all around twitter, instagram etc. That’s why I thought of making this website to collate everything. We use only verified sources. Every contact we get we cross- reference it with other organisations’.



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