Nanma pravasi Help Desk

The Government made effective interventions to control the community spread of Covid-19 inside the State borders. But a larger issue remained outside, even outside the nation. The expatriate communities from Kerala were facing far more worse situations. This was more evident in the case of Keralites living in GCC countries. Congested labour camps, lack of adequate facilities or access to medical care and the intense scare about disease outbreak have put these people in extreme emotional stress. Absence of clarity in available information and awareness about disease is worsened by the situation of being cut off from any contact with their own families back home. In fact, many families of expatriates had started feeling the pinch of the situation. Food and other essential material were running short, often driving them to intense trauma

Since the commencement of the initiative, the Nanma Pravasi Help Desk has registered around 6450 concerns in around 20 days. The help desk also provided necessary expert medical advice for around 200 requests. Costly and lifesaving medicines were arranged in various GCC countries, for around 20 expatriates.

Dr. Suresh Kumar, founding director of the Institute of Palliative Medicine WHOCC, and Dr. Mujeeb Rahman, prominent social activist serving as the Superintendent of MES Medical College, came together to provide leadership to the initiative. A dedicated number was activated to contact the Helpdesk through WhatsApp messaging or phone call. As many as 40 competent and socially-committed doctors, specialized in various fields of medicine, voluntarily contributed their expertise and addressed the mental health and physical issues of the Indians stranded abroad. A carefully-selected 30-member volunteer team led by a doctor and mostly consisting of medical under graduates operated the helpdesk and acted as a link between the expatriates needing help and the expert doctors pool.

Non Medical Needs Along with the medical needs, there were many non-medical concerns registered with the helpdesk. This included queries on Visa-related issues, request for food material for expatriates as well as their family members in Kerala. Most of the callers were worried on hearing about the acute shortage of food and other essential resources back home.

In order to address the non-medical issues of the expatriates, a network of social organizations and influential persons abroad, especially those in the Middle East Asian countries, was created. This network gradually got consolidated into a consortium of social organizations under the Nanma Foundation.

In Kerala, another network of police personnel and community volunteers was formed to assess the genuineness of the requests and arrange food material kits and other essential materials to the family members of the expatriates in distress. Till date, around 5711 food kits were distributed to the kin of expatriates, who were facing hardships.