Helping people to be positive

On air, Radio Jockey Ankita Gokhale of Hubballi might have repeated the sentence ‘The fight is against the virus and not the patient’ every day since the outbreak of the pandemic. However, she understood the gravity of that statement only when she was tested positive for Covid-19 on August 15, 2020.

Before she contracted the virus, Ankita, as a Covid warrior, used to create awareness through radio while personally reaching out to migrants and labourers by providing them food packets and water. But after she went through the Covid-19 journey herself, she resolved to ease the sufferings of others.

She is supporting Covid-affected families even during the second wave.

"The pandemic is testing humanity at various levels and during my ordeal, I realised that apart from the economical and other crisis, it is loss of human relationships that is taking a toll," she says adding that none of the neighbours in her Galli (street) came forward to offer even a word of solace while her family lost two of the relatives to Covid-19.

"We have been living in Hubballi for over 40 years now and our neighbours were like extended family. But the day my report turned ‘positive’, their doors were slammed on us. More than the symptoms of the virus, it was disowning by our people that emotionally drained us the most,” she says, adding that it was then she decided to help others.

"I came across a number of helpless Covid-19 patients like me and realised that even a word of compassion and moral support can help save many lives." So, with the backing of her radio station, she began airing awareness programmes and even responding to hundreds of people who contacted her for help.

Ankita, also a motivational speaker, is currently not just creating awareness against discrimination of Covid-19 patients but also giving psychological counselling to affected persons and their families. She is bridging the gap between distressed people and the authorities. She has been receiving several queries on beds and hospitals. For instance, a caller from Bengaluru wanted a ventilator bed for his relative in Dharwad whose condition was serious. Ankita immediately intervened and helped the patient get treatment at KIMS in Hubballi.

In another incident, a visually-challenged man and his physically challenged sister who lost the sole bread-earner of their family to Covid-19 were able to get financial support from the listeners of Ankita's programme. Ankita personally gave the man a musical instrument to conduct music classes.

Spending from her own pocket, she has been regularly providing grocery kits to around 35 distressed families. "My husband is a construction worker and our savings exhausted in the initial phase of lockdown last year. We had no work, no money. Ankita helped us run our family in such crucial phase by providing groceries," said Farida Khanam who works as a domestic help.