Helping hand beyond student politics

Friendship and humanity are beyond politics. A group of student politicians is Kerala has proved this.

An activist of the Congress's student wing Kerala Students Union (KSU), who is suffering from kidney ailment, is receiving a helping hand from the Student's Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the CPM, both in terms of cash as well as by offering organs.

Twenty-two year old Muhammed Rafi, a native of Kayamkulam in Alappuzha district, who is a local KSU activist, has been undergoing treatment for kidney ailments over the last one year. He hailed from a weak financial background with his mother the only breadwinner by working as a maid at nearby houses.

Rafi, who studied at an Industrial Training Institute, was diagnosed with kidney ailments about a year back.

"It required Rs 7,000 per week for dialysis, medicines and other medical expenses, which my mother could not afford. A local unit of KSU already initiated a fund mobilising drive and could pool over Rs 3 lakh. But now the doctors suggested kidney transplantation as the creatinine level is shooting up rapidly," said Muhammed Rafi.

His friends in the SFI who came across his plight initiated the fund mobilisation drive. The SFI area committee of Karunagapally, close to Kayamkulam, as well as the Idukki district committee, took the drive through social media. The SFI's drive even has Muhammed Rafi's picture with the KSU headband.

Muhammed said that already a former SFI activist Shanavaz Khan and a Youth Congress worker offered to donate a kidney. But a final decision has to be taken after going through the medical screenings as well as other organ transplant procedures involved.

SFI state committee member Krishnendu K V said that some SFI leaders who came across the plight of Muhammed Rafi through social media shared the same on SFI's websites also.

"Politics never come in the way of such humanitarian activities we used to initiate. Hence we did not mind sharing Muhammed Rafi's picture with the headband of another party. We are indeed happy that he is now getting considerable help," she said.