At first sight, they are no different from thousands of middle-aged couple in Andhra Pradesh, who are coping with the Covid pandemic. In fact, Kasi Annapurna has tested Covid positive once and her husband G. Srinivas, twice in the last one year. But this hasn’t deterred the couple, from East Godavari district, going all out to help the residents of K. Jagannathapuram village, weather the pandemic.
It was early this year that the entire family was hit by Covid, following Srinivas’ brother’s return from Mt Abu in Rajasthan. The family who lives in nearby town of Amalapuram took refuge in their ancestral home.
Annapurna, a former Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency representative, said, “In March, our family tested positive and went into isolation at our ancestral home as most of the government isolation centres were shut down after the first wave.”
However, with Covid cases on the rise in the prelude to the second wave, the couple, on recovering, decided to convert the sprawling house into a makeshift isolation centre for the needy inhabitants – basically for people who didn’t have enough room in their own homes but needed to isolate themselves.
“After we recovered, we felt we should help others who need space to recover. We made arrangements for Covid positive people with no space for quarantine facilities in their homes. Apart from food, and steam inhalation facilities, we organise medicines and medical attention, through local government services,” Annapurna said.
Since then, at any given point, the house has been a temporary refuge to around 15 persons who need to go into isolation. The couple and their extended family, also organise food and nutrition for such people who usually test negative in around two weeks time.
Apart from converting their ancestral home into an isolation centre, the couple and their family are helping out villagers with food, succour, and organizing the last rites of Covid victims.
Srinivas sets out everyday to supervise help for Covid hit people and their families. Irrespective of their caste or creed, he organises the last rites of many Covid victims.
In fact, the couple’s home has a long history of providing refuge to the local people in times of natural calamities.
Annapurna credits their humanitarian efforts to her late mother in law who used to open the doors of their home, to less fortunate of the people whenever natural calamities struck the area.
The village, with a population of around 4,000, is located in the Konaseema delta region of East Godavari district, and prone to flooding during monsoons and cyclones.