Madras day: Individuals recognised for social service in Chennai

CHENNAI: As the city gears up to celebrate Madras Day, "En Chennai Young Chennai" honours 24 city-based achievers with special awards on Saturday here.

The awardees were identified as those who have shown unity, expressed commitment, and fought for the rights of the people, environment, natural disasters, pandemic and overcame unexpected situations in the past ten years to revive Chennai.

When 'En Chennai Young Chennai' awards were introduced in 2021, they honoured ten individuals and institutions. As they stepped into the second year, as many as 24 people were awarded in different categories such as social work, business, and entertainment. Under the entertainment category many actors, musicians and directors were awarded.

Several people were recognised for doing social services and CSR activities in the city over the past few years. One such award was Preetha Mahesh, founder of Soul Palliative Care, who won the ‘Women of Wonder’ award. During the pandemic-induced lockdown, when the hospitals were occupied by Covid patients and small clinics were closed fearing the spread of the infection, she stepped out to help people who were unable to get treated for various health issues.

“Usually, we get fewer patients, especially cancer patients and senior citizens who are bedridden. But, when there were no clinics or hospitals opened and even due to lack of transportation, we received multiple calls on a single day and attended several patients for various problems like changing their urine bags, wound dressing, and bedsore dressing. We did this service round the clock, ” said Preetha.

She recollected an incident which happened during the pandemic when a 78-year-old senior citizen who was Covid infected patient was unconscious in the bathroom. His wife was a bedridden patient, and his son was mentally challenged, nobody was able to help him out. Even the neighbours were scared as the entire family was isolated. For over an hour, he remained helpless until the nurses from the palliative care visited, and he was treated immediately.

Similarly, Gowtham of Walk for Plastic won the ‘Change makers’ award, who has been collecting plastic in the city to make Chennai litter-free. They have over 13,000 volunteers across the globe and collected more than 22,000 tonnes of plastic waste in the last three years.

“Of the collected plastic waste, we have recycled, and the remaining has been given to the waste mart. Also, we have adopted three children from a rag picker family, and are helping them with their education. Our motto is to make litter-free places, and we have a team walking to pick plastics every weekend. This award is encouraging us to continue our service to save the environment, ” said Gowtham.