Stepping up in the face of the crisis | Damini’s COVID care Kitchen

Khatabook shares the inspiring personal stories of employees who are doing their bit in a time of crisis.

In the past few weeks, India’s struggle with the Pandemic has become real. We are all collectively facing a crisis of a lifetime. In this challenging time, a community of people is raising to help others despite their individual struggles. One such inspiring story is our very own Senior Product Manager, Damini Mishra, who has initiated free meals for COVID patients.

When a close friend of Damini tested positive, she realized how difficult it is for COVID patients in home quarantine to manage their daily food. Even though she just came out of a stressful phase of a family member’s COVID recovery, Damini decided to step up and do her bit for society.

Damini has been providing three meals a day in Koramangala — BTM — HSR area, Bangalore, to those who have tested positive and live alone or with entire families affected by the Coronavirus. Damini initiated this service with a tweet about her volunteering which went viral with more than 2K retweets, indicating how badly this service is needed. She also added her details to the volunteering Google sheets that are doing the rounds around the country to help people affected by COVID. Damini had also shared about her volunteering on Khatabook’s internal Slack channel to let the rest of her co-workers know if they needed her help or know someone who could benefit from it. She operates out of her home kitchen. Her brother and househelp are helping her with this initiative. They are delivering meals to 5 people at a time.

With a bit of time discipline, a team of very supportive work colleagues, and a flexible work environment, Damini is efficiently managing home meals for COVID patients along with her work and other commitments. Also, 3 years of past work experience in the social sector came in handy for Damini in operationalizing a volunteering activity.

When asked what inspired her to step up despite this being a difficult time at a personal level for everyone in general, Damini says, “I believe that in a time like this, one should identify their strengths and leverage them for those in need of support and contribute to society’s benefit. I am a strong believer of paying forward.”

Khatabook is proud of Damini. She inspires her co-workers to be better humans and do their bit in whatever capacity they can.

Do share your story of stepping up in the face of the crisis with us.