Philanthropy comes from heart: 'Masaan' Filmmaker Manish Mundra on helping people during COVID-19 crisis

New Delhi [India], August 27 : Philanthropy is something that comes from the heart, says filmmaker Manish Mundra who after years of helping people with medical, education facilities, turned a 'messiah' for lakhs of Indians during the coronavirus crisis.
From supplying PPE kits to hospitals to distributing dry ration to the needy, the 'Masaan' producer did it all from Nigeria, a country that was thousands of miles away from his nation.
Mundra in an interview told ANI about his plan of action and told that it was through the "power of social media" that he could make things work.
Mundra, who is also the CEO of a petrochemical company in Nigeria has been providing financial assistance for medical and educational needs of the underprivileged for years.
"It wasn't just me. It was a team that was created through social media. People joined hands and the level of trust we had on each other was unbelievable," Mundra said.
"So, I was sitting outside the country, and my main job was just to communicate with the hospitals and make payments for PPE and other things, and rest of the coordination, whether it was sorting addresses from social media, collecting, collating the names and addresses, procurement, production, logistics, movements and location and all, was done by these individual people," he added.
The 47-year-old filmmaker believed that he would not have been able to provide the level of help without the team that was created through social media.
"We all came together without meeting in person, that's the power of social media. Without knowing each other we got connected and we did the job. It is totally unfair to say it was me and it is very fair to say that without them it would not have been possible. It was a joint effort," he said.
Mundra began helping by providing PPE Kits to frontline warriors, following which he arranged dry ration for the needy ones who had lost their livelihood owing to the lockdown.
"The first thing that I noticed was that the doctors and frontline workers should have the PPE kits and that is why I started focusing there and soon through social media we could get ideas about the requirements and the suppliers," Mundra said.
"We then started sending the kits to hospitals that were identified for COVID-19 patients. I think we have done around 60,000 kits till now. The next big problem was of food that the society was facing because of being jobless due to lockdown. So, we started focusing on food grain and dry ration and reaching to people with meals. Then there was a crisis of migrants moving. We worked on that also," he added.
Besides helping people with dry ration, the filmmaker's team also provided them with cash help.
He believes that philanthropy is not always about money and that every individual who is fortunate enough to help others should do it in some way.
"One way or the other everybody should contribute. It is not necessary that we contribute by money, its by time. As much contribution I have done for whole philanthropic act during the coronavirus crisis with money, my teammates did with the time," the 47-year-old film producer said.
"They are equally at the same level with the work that I did. It is not necessary that everybody has to put in money, some people put in time, some people just put in the ideas. So, its 'tan man and dhan'. It has given me best peace of mind," he added.
The coronavirus crisis has hit the country in many different ways. With hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs, it is quintessential that the fortunate ones step forward to help those who are finding it difficult to make their ends meet during the crisis.
While many celebrities donated to several relief funds, Mundra made it his aim to provide help to those in need through his team.