Hyderabad: At a time when a majority of professional sports persons rest content after making contributions when natural calamities destruct the nation and wreak havoc all over or during the current COVID-19 terror, only a handful of celebrities are physically around consoling the people, who have been subject to traumatic times.
Tinsel town personalities also prefer to contribute to the cost but stay away from actually being on the ground.
To the select few, who go the extra mile to personally handover succour to the victims, belongs the tennis professional from Suryapet, Rekha Boyalapalli, who is currently based in Hyderabad.
A top 50 player on the AITA circuit, who has also made a name for herself in ITF World Tour with her exploits, her obsession is for tennis but her passion is elsewhere-helping the needy and the accursed have-nots.
It is to reach out to a larger section of such anguished families that she floated Rekha Charitable Foundation, which has been in the forefront of helping people in dire straits.
Besides distribution of protein-enriched food to pregnant women and postnatal mothers, They frequently visit orphanages, slums and homes for the aged and also distributes food near hospitals.
“Rekha was moved seeing the misery caused by COVID-19. There were heart-rending scenes all over and not everyone in distress was receiving succour. Rekha thought the Foundation had to attend to these people, first and foremost. Apart from the daily wage earners and slum dwellers, they also distributed vegetables and essential commodities in the presence of senior officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in some localities of Hyderabad,” explains the Chairperson of Rekha Charitable Foundation, who incidentally holds a diploma in Swadharma Yoga.
Adding further, Rekha says “One of the worst impacted was the migrant labour class. She had come to the State to earn a livelihood. With real estate activity, like everything else, having come to a grinding halt due to lockdown and COVID protocol, they had nothing to eat and no place to live. Noticing their desperation to head to their native villages, Rekha with her Charitable Trust decided to make transportation arrangements when lockdown relaxations were announced. Rekha Charitable Trust volunteers did a great job.”