When girls broke their piggy bank, an elderly woman her surgery fund to help Wayanad

At Chiyyaram in Thrissur, Class 7 student Sivanandana and her sister Shivanya, a Class 1 student, handed over to their parents the Rs 3,050 that they had collected over the past year. “They were mostly coins of Re 1, Rs 2 and 5 that I had given them. My elder daughter wanted to buy a new TV and the younger one a bicycle. They were moved by what they saw in Wayanad and Sivanandana said she wanted to contribute. Shivanya also agreed. Both of them agreed that the TV and cycle could be bought later,’’ says their father C S Saneesh, a goldsmith. The family lives in a 600-sq-foot house in the village.

Edathil Sreedharan, 64, a fish vendor at Panoor in Kannur, contributed his day’s collection of Rs 53,000 to the CMDRF. “I always watch TV news while eating… It’s a daily habit. But after watching news of the Wayanad tragedy, I just can’t eat anything… the food just won’t go down my throat. Giving up a day’s earnings is the least I can do. There are people who have lost everything in Wayanad,” he says.

Savithri L, 76, a native of Anad village in Thiruvananthapuram, donated Rs 25,000 — the money she had kept aside for a corrective surgery for her bow legs. “I had managed to save a little from my agriculture labour pension. I thought I would finally get the surgery done because the pain in my legs was getting unbearable. But when I saw photographs and videos from Wayanad, I thought their pain was much greater than mine. At least I get to eat three times a day. My surgery can wait,’’ she says.

The parents of Muhammad Fidel, a Class 2 student who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, made a difficult decision — they decided to hand over their son’s savings of Rs 16,000 from the piggy bank to the CMDRF. “We were hoping to buy a car that can accommodate his wheelchair. He agreed to part with his piggy bank, where he saved his monthly disability pension amount (Rs 1,600). The car will have to wait. It was his decision to help the people of Wayanad,” says his mother Thasni. Her husband Noufal Shah works in the Gulf.

At Chembilode panchayat in Kannur, the 22-member Haritha Karma Sena, a women’s self-help group that collects non-biodegradable waste from houses, contributed Rs 40,000 to the CM’s Fund. Most of these women come from families that are below the poverty line and sell waste for recycling.

Haritha Karma Sena co-ordinator D Jisha says, “We had set apart 10% of our income for emergency situations — the treatment of a Sena member or her family, etc. We decided that we would contribute that money to the people of Wayanad. They deserve it more than anyone else.”

The CM Relief Fund has in the past received similar contributions during disasters and emergency situations, including floods, from people across Kerala and expatriates from the state in the Gulf and elsewhere.

During the Kerala floods in 2018 and 2019, too, people from across the state and beyond had contributed in huge numbers. The CM Relief Fund had collected Rs 4,970 crore during the floods and Rs 1,129 crore during the pandemic.