Worthy sell-off: Portraits, trinkets, photos form art and part of raising COVID relief funds

Prasanna Pandian, a Chennai-based architect sketches portraits during his leisure time. But he never sold them till he came across a colleague’s social media account selling digital portraits to raise COVID relief funds. It inspired him to do the same and donate the money to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund and NGOs.

“Besides portraits, I have been selling building sketches, customisable WhatsApp stickers, etc,” said Prasanna. In less than a month, he sketched around 25 portraits and collected Rs 53,800.

A photographer, Arun RS, does macro photography and also travel to villages to capture frames. When the second wave of the pandemic hit the State, he put up the prints in his portfolio for sale to fundraise.

“When the lockdown was imposed, I saw many volunteers distributing food to the needy and that inspired me to use my passion in photography to help others. So I started selling my photos on Instagram,” Arun said. “So far, I have contributed Rs 16,000 to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund,” he added. Apart from this, he contributes an amount to the animal welfare board every month.

Bhagyalakshmi, owner of The Trinket Shop, an Instagram jewellery store, set aside a per cent of her profit towards COVID relief fund.

“As the second wave hit, we had to face loss of many lives. Others’ struggle made me realise that my life has been better and I decided to do part to help them,” she said.

She also urges others to do their bit to help those in need and contribute what they can to the relief foundations. She has also offered free shipping to her customers if they are ready to make a donation to the COVID relief fund.