A 60-year-old retired auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) in Odisha has donated her two month’s pension to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and PM CARES Fund to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Kusumlata Sahu of Bhadrak district, one of the Covid-19 red zones in Odisha, on Thursday walked up to the tehsil office in Dhamnagar area to handover a cheque of Rs 50,000 as her donation to the chief minister’s relief fund.
Sahu, who retired as an ANM worker in Ganjam district in March last year, gets Rs 25,000 as a pension.
“PM Modi and CM Naveen Patnaik have been hailing our community as Corona warriors. But we too have some responsibilities. So, I thought of contributing something to the CM relief fund,” said Sahu.
A few days ago, she had donated Rs 10,000 through online to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund).
Sahu also plans to distribute dry ration packets with cooking oil, flour, flattened rice, potato, onion and biscuits to 150 poor families in her locality from Saturday.
“While people like us have a pension to fall back upon, what do poor people have? So, I have decided to distribute the dry ration packets that would help them in the lockdown period,” said Sahu.
The dry rations would cost her Rs 30,000.
Bhadrak is among the top four Covid-19 hotspots of Odisha with 19 cases. Till Friday evening, Odisha has reported 149 cases.
ANMs in rural and urban areas perform antenatal care and post-natal care, conduct immunisation sessions, counsel for family planning and delivery of contraception, follow-up visit for chronic illnesses, including diabetes and hypertension and support special outreach camps.
