Vineeth A Vishnu, a 28-year-old native of Kerala, met with a road accident two years ago and sustained injuries on his hip and leg, leaving him bedridden for almost a year. After selling his house in Chingavanam to pay off his medical bills, he lived in a rented house with his mother, with hers’ being the only source of income.
But thanks to a group of good Samaritans, Vineeth and his mother now own a home.
Vineeth received a new house as a gift from a Kerala based group, Different Thinkers and on May 23, moved into it along with his mother.
He came across the Different thinkers group after his accident and joined their Facebook page. The Facebook page of this group has more than 75,000 members from all around the world. The members of the group collectively raised Rs 1,50,000 for Vineeth’s treatment, and paid his rent for eight months. Over the course of an 8-month period following his injury, the group was able to collect a sum of Rs 10 lakh, which they then used to buy a house for Vineeth and his mother in Thalayalaparambu.
This is not the first time the group has raised funds to help people in need. Bibish KG, a member of Different Thinkers, informed TNM about similar initiatives taken up by the group.
During the Chennai floods, this group raised funds to buy food and distributed it to people in Chennai with the help of a group member based in the city. They also bought an auto rickshaw for a psychiatric hospital in Calicut in order to help them transport food to the hospital. Before Different Thinkers intervened and purchased the vehicle, people used to manually carry food to the hospital. The group decided to help the hospital after they received information that due to inclement weather like heavy rain, food was not being delivered to the hospital on occasions.
“Our name stands for itself. We discuss everything under the sun apart from religious talks,” said Bibish, when asked about the ideology of the group.
Bibish also mentioned that this group comprises of Keralites living in India as well as the Malayali diaspora. All the members in the group help in whatever way possible for them. Members of the group donate from Rs 10 onwards to whatever is feasible and can contribute to causes of their choice via cash, online transactions and cheques. The group created a bank account specifically for contributions and provided bank details via Facebook to people who are interested. That is how they were able to collect Rs 10 lakh, which is the highest fund they have generated till now.
Vineeth has recovered significantly since his injury, but he has to undergo one more surgery before he can begin to work again.