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Philanthropy on wheels

All it took Feroze Akram to collect almost Rs.30 lakh worth of material for the flood-hit in Kashmir was a truck and some goodwill, says Amrita Madhukalya

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There is a strong possibility that Feroze Akram has more faith in the basic human instinct of giving than you or I. For he is just done with a 23-day journey on a hired truck through large parts of the country collecting winter clothes, money and material for those displaced by the Kashmir floods. Armed with smiles, songs, some art and a can-do will, Feroze and his team managed to collect Rs.25 lakh worth of winter clothes as well as Rs.3 lakh in cash and material.

The 25-year-old from Karim Nagar in Hyderabad is a wanderer of sorts and loves to explore places with little money on him. In September, when floods devastated large parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Akram had returned home for a while. "I was concerned for my friends in Kashmir. And, with the help of an activist friend in Hyderabad, we managed to collect plenty of material," he says. But they soon realised that the cotton clothes they had collected were of not much use in the state. So, he kept the clothes and sent materials like medicines and food to Kashmir through Indigo airlines.

"Storing and transportation was also bit of a problem. Then, Vishakapatnam was ravaged by the rains, and we diverted the clothes there," says Akram.

Akram was overwhelmed by the generosity of people. "People love to give, particularly during calamities. If resources are channelised in time, there are so many corners of the country that need our help," he says. .
Hoping to help out those in Kashmir, he started with the idea of an art caravan with friend Lalitha Soujanya, who later had to pull out of the travel plans. He then roped in another friend, artist Poornima Sukumar, and hired a truck – and 'Winter on Wheels' was ready. The team started from Hyderabad and travelled to Nagpur, Bhopal, Indore, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Agra, Delhi, Hissar, Ludhiana, Pathankot and then Jammu and Kashmir. For funds, they got help from SaddaHaq.com, which gave them Rs.95,000, and also picked up contributions of Rs.1,13,000 from crowd-funding website Ketto.org.



"The rest was from people on the journey. Some gave Rs.500, some Rs.1,000. We designed an art project, and let people draw and leave their handprints on a canvas on the truck," says Akram. They usually travelled through the night. "There were many on the way who volunteered to help with logistics on Facebook," he says.

A student of genetics, Akram dropped out of college in his final year. "I was enamoured by theatre," he says. In 2011, he carried out the Cycle Natak project, which saw him travelling across the country on a cycle performing for people in various villages and towns. Today, travel is a way of life. "I love the uncertainty of travelling."

It is this uncertainty that has helped craft memories. As they neared Bhopal, the driver of the truck told them that he was missing home and they took a detour to his village. "We celebrated Diwali in his house, washed the truck in the Narmada, and had great fun," says Akram.

Akram, who finally reached Srinagar in November just in time for the winter and successfully distributed the aid, summarises his thoughts simply: "Why do we need such a huge gap between philosophies and practicality? All we need is the will to help."

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