Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi actor Jeevan Kumar to the rescue of the needy

The nation-wide lockdown which started on March 22 and is still continuing has had a huge impact on the livelihoods of migrant and daily wage labourers. Many of them are stranded thousands of miles away from their homes without their daily wage jobs which were their only source of livelihood. Multiple instances of people walking back to their native places on foot for days have come to the fore.Those who haven’t dared to make the journey back home are in equally dire straits. Relief drives are being organized to ensure that these people do not go hungry. Actor Jeevan Kumar has been at the forefront of such relief efforts in the city since day 1 of the lockdown. Talking to Hyderabad Times, he details all that he has been doing since the lockdown was announced. “Initially, I started feeding the street dogs around the city. While out on one of my dog-feeding tours I saw a lot of hungry people waiting eagerly for food. I was really disturbed by the state of these people so I decided to do something about it. I thought of serving meals to those who can’t afford groceries and ration,” he said.

He started serving meals in localities around Cyberabad and has gone from serving 500 meals per day to 4000 meals. He has hired cooks from PGs and hostels around the city and six auto rickshaws to deliver the meals to various parts of the city. “I was initially doing this at my own expense. I used to deliver the meals in my own car. But my friends and people from the film industry reached out to help. Then I was able to feed a lot more people. Apart from distributing packages of cooked food, Jeevan has also been delivering groceries like rice, dal and oil to the needy. He has given put his contact number and urged the public to reach out for help whenever required.
“We have distributed vegetables. Apart from that, we have allocated a volunteer for each locality to feed the stray animals in the area. We ensure that these volunteers have biscuits and dog food to feed these hungry animals,” he said, adding, “We have been doing this for the past 32 days now. And we will continue till the lockdown ends. I hope more donors come forward to contribute so we can reach a greater number of people. I want to thank the Cyberabad Police for all their assistance during the food distribution drives. I want to thank all my friends and members of the film fraternity who have contributed to keep our efforts going. In this tough times, all we need to do is help and support each other.”