The conceptualizers and event orchestrators at Helping Brainz are either working IT professionals, homemakers or students wherein they don’t have any social working or disaster management background. However, they are definitely keen learners, innovators, thinkers and know how to use the desi jugaads (manage a situation with the help of all available resources) during distress. Be it, the disaster during the floods in  Kerala and Assam or the present COVID19 lockdown, Team Helping Brainz used simple WhatsApp groups, Social Media integrations and Google Spreadsheets with the help of few workaholic volunteers at the same time innovative and motivated folks to deliver the goal that is helping the needy. This innovative approach from the Helping Brainz aimed to help the needy without having any of its volunteers on the ground since they considered volunteers’ safety with utmost priority.

During the lockdown, they initially started helping the needy families (like the maids/guards) who were in need. Given that the migrant population started moving homewards, the common man lost his source for daily income, the tensions started increasing – this is where Helping Brainz devised their ‘Linking Shopkeeper-Needy Model’, all thanks to Yedhu Krishna Menon, Swaminathan Lakshminarayanan and Sneha Harsh from Helping Brainz who connected the dots in the layman’s idea. Yedhu and Swami first experimented this by helping the 7 families of Ashok Nagar, Delhi through the Gupta Store and it didn’t stop there, it continued and is being continued. Helping Brainz today has helped more than 4000+ people get 7 days ration from 60+ cities in India with the help of 50+ shopkeepers, who were/are their unknown angels, without having a single volunteer on the ground. The model of work also aimed at helping the local shopkeepers who are in stress by giving them an opportunity to serve the community.

Helping Brainz Lockdown Support Team is a 25 member WhatsApp group which functions from 10 am to 7 pm in 2 different shifts because the majority of these 25 people are either working professionals or students. The team receives inputs about the needy families and migrant labourers from the NGOs, Ground Volunteers, Social Media Channels, Other WhatsApp groups (especially the Migrant Transport Network groups). These inputs are entered into the Google Spreadsheets by the Data Entry Team, followed by the validations by the Due Diligence Team (data validation team talks to each of the families understands their situations, counsel them if required, check the counts of their family members), post which the Data Quality is checked and same appears on a closed Google Spreadsheet’s Dashboard- which indirectly becomes the input for the ground team to handle each location as queued in the dashboard. Emergency cases are given priority. The ground team uses Google Maps, local contacts, to locate a shopkeeper. Sometimes the shop is recommended by the beneficiary and it is located closer to where they are. Once shopkeepers are identified, the ground team negotiates on the price and ingredients for which they are counselled and trained on the due diligence they need to perform among the families. Shopkeepers are assured that they will be paid first using any e-wallet (Google pay, Paytm, PhonePe) and then they may deliver the kits. They ensure that not more than 4 people are visiting the shops in an interval of 10 minutes to buy the goods, thereby ensuring Social and Time Distancing. Ration kits and other donations are validated by the Ground Teams using photographs and videos. Shopkeeper delivers the goods after the family member verifies himself or herself using his Aadhar card number. Along with this fact, they have established multiple checkpoints to ensure due diligence. All photographs are taken within the social distancing norms, after taking appropriate consents from the families. Faces in the photographs are blurred before they are shared with their social media channels and the donors, ensuring their privacy. Food kits are again given to families after a gap of seven days. In the initial phase, the team decided to provide the ration for a week, the reason being that the situation had been unpredictable. The team wanted to reach out to the maximum number of families with the limited fund available.

Owing to the Eid celebration,  a lot of families were concerned about how to feed their starving children. In this context,  Helping Brainz has played a vital role in understanding people’s emotions at the ground level as they were able to perceive the hunger and starvation the country had been going through. Additional counselling was given to labourers and migrants, along with the travel support to a few of them. All the thankful messages and calls from the beneficiaries were the primary source of motivation for the volunteers who were working continuously from the different cities of India and abroad for one cause that is ‘no matter what, no one should stay hungry.’

Helping the needy with a kit of ration would definitely not solve their problems in the long run. The team found out that the root cause of the problem is the unavailability of jobs for the migrants who are now back to their hometowns and also people who have lost their jobs due to the ongoing pandemic due to COVID-19. The upcoming project of Helping Brainz is being scheduled on providing employment opportunities for the needy and the team is actively working on the data, research and integration. Also as part of the improved health and sanitation programmes, Helping Brainz plans to distribute sanitary napkins in the rural townships of Karnataka and Jharkhand – and to conduct healthcare awareness drives in these cities.

Few key artefacts:

• Helping Brainz’s Lockdown Virtual Support Team is working with a dedicated team of 25 members working in 2 different rotations (15X7) reached out, counselled, and donated food to 6000+ people from 60 Indian cities.
• 50+ Shopkeepers connected with the help of this model and helped them run their business amidst the lockdown.
• Is working with a group of ground NGOs from Delhi NCR from a ground support perspective.
• Is working with a backend team including 90% Working Professionals and 10% of Students.
• Had there been NO volunteers on the ground considering volunteers’ safety first, however, ensured the efficient and qualitative food delivery respecting the governmental norms.
• Their approach included appropriate people-validation, due diligence mechanisms. Shopkeepers were also trained on the same.
• TAT for food delivery has been less than 2 hours for all regions (if the number of families/regions <10). TAT for food delivery has been less than 72 hours for all regions (if the number of families/regions <50)
• Only 4 members of the concerned area were allowed to visit the shopkeeper within 30 minutes respecting social distancing.
• A standard kit consists of 5 Kg of Atta, 3 Kg of Rice, 1 Kg Salt, 1 Kg Dal, 3 X 100g of Masalas.
• A Standard kit costs on an average Rs.380 and their donors found it easy to donate.
• If the family members are <4, then 1 Kit is given or if the family members are >4 and <8, then 2 Kits are given or if  the family members are >8 and <12, then 3 Kits are given
• Helping Brainz always blurred all the photographs before sharing it with the donors respecting the Privacy of the families.
•  Consent was taken before clicking any photographs with Social Distancing maintained.

Details of the article contributors:

• Sneha Harsh – Communications and Public Relations – Practice Head, Helping Brainz.
• Kirti Kumari Tikyani – Environmental Sustainability and Media Information Literacy Projects Head, Helping Brainz.