The Lockdown Santa

Foot Soldiers: Anuja Yadav

Anuja, a resident of Bhugaon, lives just 2 km away from Athashree society. It is a dwelling of
more than 30 senior citizens, with 92 years old as the oldest resident. On her first visit to the
society, she was carrying a poster of FSC, creating awareness and assuring the senior citizens
that assistance was just a phone call away. Since that day, Athashree is her second home and
Anuja has been attending to requests from there without any lag.

Senior Citizens, because of their age, at times have specific needs to cater to. Athashree was
located in a remote area and most the procurement was done from surrounding areas. Due to
lockdown, the procurement became difficult for the caretakers living at Athashree. Hence
every week, Anuja started delivering the necessities in her car. The grandies at Athashree
started calling her car as heaven sent car.

One trip to Athashree was whole lot of task for Anuja. There were over 30 senior citizens
residing and everyone had a separate request. From these request, a cumulative list of items
to procure was made. Then marking the products as per the priority, brands needed and
placing the orders to the vendors, was done. In case of special items and a few medicines,
which were not available in the nearby areas, Anuja, took the required permission from
authorities to go to other parts of the city to procure those items. Once all the procurement
was done, the items were segregated, as per the request slips and name tag it along with the
bill to deliver it at Athashree society.

Anuje took all the necessary precaution before delivering the necessities. She will take bath,
wear double mask & gloves, sanitize the items and then like a supergirl will reach Athashree
for delivering of items.

Anuja has a now become like one of the resident of the society. She was not only helping in
deliveries but she has also started helping them in knowing a few other basics of new age life.
There were many residents who were not well versed with doing online payment and she has
educated them well.

For residents, Anuja was a Santa during Lockdown.