THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The flood relief collection centre set up by the city corporation has received an enormous response. "Though the city has not been flooded with water, it is flooded with the love of people and their support to flood-affected victims," said a volunteer at the collection centre. Over 850 volunteers comprising those who had worked during the last year's floods volunteered all day on Monday at the flood relief collection centre.
"Last year we went to 25 camps in Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha with the medical team. Wanting to help them motivates us," said Anamika Thonnackal who's volunteering at the centre with her brother Arun Kumar Thonnackal.
Arun Kumar said: "The only difficulty we face is the distance to travel from the city to the affected area."
Despite a personal mishap during the flood relief work, Vasanth Krishna, works all day with the loading wing at the collection centre. "How can I sit idle when people suffer in my state?" asked Vasanth, a senior mentor of Green Army.
"When we went door-to-door to collect relief materials, we faced a lot of negativism. Piles of relief material were hoarded. Fortunately not this year," said Devika R, a volunteer at the packing and segregation section at the centre.Citing the difference in sending relief material this year, Thomas Varghese, a representative of Green Army said: "One load of relief material was dispatched from the centre every three hours.
However, this has increased to seven hours as we are receiving a cold response from people. Also, lorries to send collected materials were available aplenty last year but no lorries are taking initiatives this year."Students from flood-affected areas in the district are also involved. "Even though I'm unable to go back to my hometown, I feel better when I'm volunteering," said James S, from Idukki.