Actor Rajshri Deshpande reaches out to the needy via a crowdfunding platform

It’s been a tough time under lockdown for the families of migrants, farmers, health workers and minorities who are in dire need of daily food and ration. A few citizens have stepped up to do their bit and help them in these unprecedented times. One of them is Rajshri Deshpande, the actress, who was in Pan Nalin's ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’. Someone who dedicates her time extensively to humanitarian causes, Rajshri supports the Ek Nabhangan Foundation and has extended help through Ketto, the crowdfunding platform co-founded by Kunal Kapoor Varun Sheth.
'My team has started going to different areas in Marathwada'
Speaking to BT, Rajshri said, “I have been working in the drought-hit villages in Marathwada for the last five years. I was actually busy with work in my school in the village when the coronavirus pandemic hit. I had to stop my construction and immediately started the relief work. The aim to give people basic ration and other things. The team is there and doing the work of distributing food grains and PPE kits to many people in Marathwada district and Mumbai.”
She adds, I was raising funds through my NGO, but I was done with my resources. I wasn’t able to reach too many people and Kunal told me, ‘Let’s do this.’ They will raise funds for me and we will support. My team has started going to different areas in Marathwada. The labourers from interior villages working in brick kilns, sugar farms and factories, construction sites and independent farmers who are back to their hometowns there, are in need. Most of them are daily wage labourers and do not earn currently and are struggling to get access to food, health supplies and other essentials owing to the national lockdown. Also, with the help of Shah Rukh Khan’s Meer Foundation we successfully distributed 2500 PPE kits in the government hospitals of Aurangabad city. We want to be able to provide PPE kits to many more healthcare workers out there,” she adds.