Whitefielders join hands to install tea/coffee vending machines in Bengaluru’s govt hospitals
Dr Shashi K
BENGALURU:
At the peak of Covid 2.0 in the preceding two months, Karnataka’s healthcare infrastructure came close to being overwhelmed and doctors, nurses and support staff in government hospitals were stretched to the limit, working round-the-clock to care of Covid patients.
While help and support has flowed in from all quarters, most of it is focused on big initiatives. A group of Whitefield volunteers realised, while talking to healthcare workers, that hospital staff did not have easy access to the much-needed cup of refreshing coffee or tea as they neither had the time nor were they allowed outside their ward (due to Covid-related restrictions) to take a tea/coffee break.
This is what one of our volunteers had to say: “We all experience the pain and desperation caused by Covid. Our heart goes out to the frontline workers who have been working non-stop for more than a year, saving innumerable lives.”
In such a situation, many of us would have given up, but our frontline workers — doctors, nurses and support staff – are no quitters. They have been working tirelessly 24/7 tirelessly to save as many as they can from the deadly virus.
Immediately, the Whitefield group came together, raised significant funds through friends and relatives, and set up free tea/coffee dispensing machines at various government hospitals. Helping them in the worthy cause were companies dealing in tea/coffee vending machines like Georgia Coffee and Nestlé, who came forward to support the initiative.
Coffee to fight Covid blues!
This initiative may sound small, but once you see the happiness on the faces of doctors, nurses and medical support staff it cannot be described in words. Just a five-minute break with a hot cup of coffee takes away their stress and they are ready to jump into the Covid-fighting fray again for the next few hours! The volunteers collected around Rs 6 lakh for dispensing machines and supplies for the next three months, and have so far supplied six machines in various hospitals .
These include two coffee/tea dispensers in St John’s Hospital and one dispenser each in Victoria Hospital and Bowring Hospital, all funded by individual donors, besides one dispenser in Jayadeva Hospital sponsored by Georgia Beverages and enabled by a volunteer group, and one dispenser in Vani Vilas Hospital, sponsored by Nestlé and enabled by a volunteer group.
The Prestige Ozone community in Whitefield raised Rs 2.3 lakh in a day to provide a tea/coffee vending machine with 3 months of supplies to one government hospital, and also roped in sponsors like Nestlé and Georgia Coffee to provide the facility in two government hospitals.
More machines soon
Furthermore, four more machines are in the pipeline and will be donated soon to Kolar, KC General Hospital and Mysore Medical College.
Notably among the volunteers, Siddhu Allapur helped install and set up the machines at Bowring Hospital and St John’s Hospital. John Zachariah got a request from the Covid management team of St John’s Hospital, requesting help to install a tea/coffee vending machine. John is from a family of doctors and appreciates the efforts that the doctors put in everyday. Along with two other friends, he organized a tea/coffee vending machine for the hospital, along with premixes and 2,000 cups.
Our plan is to cover a majority of government hospitals in Bengaluru with at least one tea/coffee vending machine, and those who wish to support us can visit www.e-sevahub.com.
(Dr Shashi K is CEO, SAGE Sustainability, and a resident of Whitefield)
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Well done Whitefielders! Good initiative indeed.