- Thursday, March 06, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
For Subhadra, it could not have been more pleasantly surprising.
The 46-year-old woman from Kerala, one of India’s southernmost states, had asked for help to feed her children and she ended up receiving millions in donations from strangers on social media, the BBC reported.
Subhadra, according to the report, had requested her son’s teacher for Rs 500 (£5) to buy food after her husband passed away in August.
The teacher was so moved by the family’s plight that she launched a crowdfunding campaign on social media to help it out.
By Sunday (18), Subhadra’s family received Rs 5.5 million (£54,891) in donations.
Subhadra, who uses only one name, had been struggling to feed her family since the death of her husband. She also could not look for a job since the youngest of her three sons has cerebral palsy and needs care all the time.
On Friday (18), she approached Girija Harikumar, who teaches at a local school where Subhadra’s second son studies, for help as her children were starving.
Moved by their condition, Harikumar took a deep interest in helping the family out. A Hindi language teacher, she told the BBC that she had asked the student, Abhishek, to know whether his family was facing problems since his father died.
This was the first time the boy or his mother had asked for help, she said.
“I gave her 1,000 rupees and told her I will do something,” Harikumar told the BBC.
She then went to the family’s house and witnessed the hardship they were facing.
“There was just a handful of grains in the kitchen and the children had nothing to eat,” the teacher said.
“I thought there was no point giving Subhadra small amounts of money now and then as it would be totally inadequate for the family,” she added.
The same evening, Harikumar posted on Facebook about the family’s plight and requested people to help by sending whatever amount of money they could afford.
She also shared Subhadra’s bank account details in the same post, so that the money could be directly sent to her.
The post went viral soon and by Monday, Subhadra received Rs 5.5 million from people who are complete strangers.
Some of the money received will be used to complete a house that Subhadra’s late husband started building. The rest will be kept in the bank for the family’s expenses.
The fund-raising appeal has been closed, the report added.
