Divya
My SaathNirbhar Story:
How beautiful it is to connect with complete strangers to unconditionally support people around. That’s how Divya’s story of Covid’s response commenced. She had been a part of an informal, intergenerational WhatsApp group of women from across IIMs. They came together voluntarily to provide relief during the time when help became a luxury.
The group came together organically and set up a system that allowed people to come and go, and support people without any strings attached. Divya and her team connected people to donors, continuously updated the directory, arranged for plasma, blood, medicines, and relief supplies. She shared how the volunteers were in the situation headfirst and they did not even get the time to deal with the emotional fatigue they experienced while sailing in a sea of SOS Calls pouring in from every corner of Delhi-NCR and neighboring regions.
One of the biggest challenges for Divya was her introverted personality, hesitant to seek help. She shares that for her, seeking help is harder than helping somebody. But, the realization that the no. of deaths is not just the statistics kept them moving. The aftermath of the Covid lockdown gave birth to another project called ‘Project Fairy lights’ which addresses the not so talked issue of dealing with trauma. A shareable resource bank was created with the help of mental health professionals.
Divya shares that the personification of risk stayed with every volunteer, but the desperation to save and support kept the team going amidst the chaos.
About Divya
Divya is a mother, bibliophile, foodie, citizen environment activist and marketing strategy consultant. An alumna of IIM Kozhikode, she worked as a marketer in large MNCs such as Reckitt and GSK. As she took a break from her corporate career to spend more time with her child, she saw first hand how the pollution in Delhi impacted the health of its children. That prompted her to jump into her first stint in public work with Warrior mom's- a pan India advocacy group of mothers working towards environment action. She followed this up with volunteer work during the pandemic with a few members of the Women of IIM network. As she was doing this, she realised the deep lasting impact the pandemic had, especially on children dealing with loss of loved ones. This prompted her along to initiate Project Fairylights - a page for caregivers of children dealing with the loss of a loved one.
Divya lives in Delhi with her son and husband. In her free time she enjoys reading books and traveling to the mountains.
