Bengaluru students conduct vaccination camps in villages

Thanks to their initiative, over 1,500 people along the Karnataka-Maharashtra border are jabbed

A student group from Bengaluru is helping authorities in fighting vaccine hesitancy and getting more people jabbed. Bangalore Student Community raised a little over Rs 4 lakh via online campaigns and used those funds to hold two vaccination camps along the Karnataka-Maharashtra border between June and July this year.

Between the two camps, they have vaccinated 1,569 people living in these border villages and they are planning to keep the initiative going.

“We are organising a sports fundraiser to be able to hold the third camp. We hope we can make a bigger impact in the days to come,” says 19-year-old college student Yug Jain, who’s doubling up as a project manager for the Community, which comprises 3,000 volunteers, aged between 16 and 23. The students will organise a sports fundraiser ‘Play To Vaccinate’ on August 28 and 29. They are a driven lot and that’s evident when its 22-year-old founder Dhruv Jatti shares, “Our team travelled to the villages near the Karnataka-Maharashtra border and started by educating people about the importance of vaccination. The locals were cooperative and that made it easy for us to hold the vaccination camps, for which we had teamed up with a hospital from Bengaluru.”

While they were organising the second vaccination camp in the last week of July, the villagers were hit by floods. “In addition to conducting the vaccination camps, we decided to help with flood relief efforts. We distributed relief kits to the villagers and also rescued and fed animals,” informs Jatti.

The students say they try to step up whenever they can. “Last year, we started an initiative to help migrant labourers in Bengaluru. This year, the rural community needed our help. Similarly, there will always be someone in the society that is in need of help and, as the youth of the country, it’s our duty to step up and offer help,” says Jatti.

Volunteering while juggling studies doesn’t come easy but it’s been a good learning experience. Hear it from Tarika Vijayanagar, the 20-year-old who handles the social media communication for the Community, “Social media has played the biggest role in bringing so many youngsters in the city together for a common cause,” she realised. The young community is committed to the cause. “We use the fundraiser money only to hold the vaccination camps. Other expenses like operation and travelling costs are all taken care of by us students,” says Jatti.

To join the Bangalore Student Community, message @blrstucom on Instagram.