Former students of Kolkata school step up to support retired 'gurus' amid COVID-19

Former students of South Point School in Kolkata have come up to help and support their retired teachers living a lonely life away from their children amidst the lockdown. Calling their organization 'Pointers Who Care' and thinking about the trouble former teachers may face as they might not be able to get out for procuring essentials, these former students are doing anything in their capacity to support their 'gurus'.

As the coronavirus led pandemic struck and the lockdown was announced, the volunteers nicknamed as "primary caregivers", started connecting with doctors and pharmacists to get hold of essentials and delivered them to their former teachers. The entire process happened actively on their WhatsApp group. Even though the group was put together by likeminded people with an agenda to provide assistance to “retired and beloved” teachers, the recent times of COVID-19 pandemic with a cyclone on top of it, posed unprecedented circumstances to deliver the motto.

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Pointers Who Care fight against COVID-19, cyclone Amphan

However, the Secretary of Pointers Who Care, Anupam Sen while talking exclusively to Republic World, recalled that amid the lockdown which began in March-end, they were bombarded with phone calls asking for help ranging from getting essential items to formalities with banks. The volunteers, who had maintained contact with more than 228 teachers through personal visits or phone calls, were mapped out to cater to the surge of needs amid gloomy times. 

Sen said, "What happened during this Covid situation was that we kept receiving one phone call after the other. Somebody saying that 'I don't have medicines', somebody saying that 'I don't have groceries', somebody saying something other 'My bank job got held up."

"Now we started engaging with them on a one-on-one basis. We mapped volunteers to each of these requirements and the volunteers were actually required to work on those requests, and then escalate it to Secretary and President to decide on the modus operandi of executing the requests."

The volunteers worked on the situation in hand and then identified sources like a retail medical store, contacted local branch manager, and involved medical professionals, that were all part of the alumni. For instance, Sen along with Siddharta Banik accompanied  Sheila Gupta, who needed assistance with banking issues, to at least four branches of the bank to cater her needs and resolving the financial hassle. 

Apart from delivering grocery to the doorstep, the people from the organisation also took charge when the cyclone Amphan hit the region. With uprooted trees, dismantled electric poles and damaged water filters due to strong storms, the Pointers Who Care took upon themselves to deliver mineral waters to the retired teachers. 

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Founded in 2008

The group is the brainchild of Nivedita Roy Burman, a 1984 batch pass out who is herself a teacher of Geography at Shri Shikshayatan College in Kolkata. The group was formed 13 years ago to lend emotional support to their retired teachers who are living a lonely life away from their children, many of whom had settled abroad. Currently, there are 40 volunteers in the group but it started off with a handful of alumni. The group, which got registered under the Societies Act in 2009.  The President of Pointers Who Care is Santanu Chowdhury and the main volunteers who remained active during the lockdown are, Arunima Paul, Soumya Dutta Sharma, Sharmila Baul, Abhik Sengupta, Joyjit Ghosh, Nivedita Roy Burman, Siddhartha Banik, Arpita Samadder, Suchismita Bagchi Sen, Rajib Sarkar and Pradip Chakraborty.

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