Three School Kids In Meerut Help Patients Find Hospital Beds And Oxygen Supplies Via WhatsApp

Oxygen supply via WhatsApp: Three teenagers - Ansh Garg, Avani Singh and Rishay Gupta - from Meerut have created two WhatsApp groups to help patients easily locate hospital beds and oxygen supplies in the time of need. "We spread the word on personal level. Later, those who were helped also joined to help others. We've 200 volunteers," Rishya told ANI how the system works.

3 teenagers-Avani Singh & Rishay Gupta from Meerut & Saharanpur's Ansh Garg help patients with hospital beds & oxygen supplies via WhatsApp

"We spread the word on personal level. Later, those who were helped also joined to help others. We've 200 volunteers," said Rishya pic.twitter.com/ILNzbZ6o1M

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 21, 2021

It was Ansh Garg, a resident of Saharanpur and student of class XII, who wanted to first identify and highlight verified resources to enable facilitation and access to medical supplies such as the availability of oxygen cylinders and beds in the locality when the second wave hit a high in April this year and hospitals were overwhelmed with requests for admission. His two friends, Avani and Rishay also joined hands and brought in 250 students from across India.

Soon, two full-fledged WhatsApp groups were launched - 'Covid-19 Sahayta Kendra' and 'Sahayta Kendra Volunteers'. The first group invited students who would devote time every day to find verified leads on hospital beds, ventilators and oxygen cylinders across states. People who joined the second group would then work on the genuine information and pass it on to people in need and, most importantly, on time. The groups have by now helped hundreds across Meerut to Nagpur, Kolkata to Bengaluru, TOI reported.

"We can't come out of our houses but had advantage of technology. We connected people from different cities. With their help we circulated verified info. We've 2 groups-one where we take requests & other for volunteers who verify leads & provide info within 10 mins," 17-year-old Avani told ANI.

We can't come out of our houses but had advantage of technology. We connected people from different cities. With their help we circulated verified info. We've 2 groups-one where we take requests & other for volunteers who verify leads & provide info within 10 mins: Avani Singh pic.twitter.com/vm6rtY4EfE

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 21, 2021

Ansh added that good information has the power to save lives, so, in the first week of May, they created an online student group and named it 'Studomatrix'. They have also developed a database of verified leads that could be passed on to patients.