Canada students raise funds for ambulance, crematorium workers

Students of York University raise about ₹3 lakh to help 100 families

A bunch of graduate students of different nationalities have come together and raised funds to help the ambulance drivers, mortuary and crematorium workers in the city who have been relentlessly working ever since the pandemic struck. The distribution began on Friday. Students of York University, Toronto, decided to launch a fundraiser and had pooled in and collected Canadian $5,000, which is nearly ₹3 lakh to provide assistance to 100 families of these workers who risk their lives and labour in the second wave, said filmmaker and poet Leena Manimekalai who planned this initiative along with her cohorts from the university. “We decided on this after seeing the rise in infections and deaths in Chennai during the second wave and wanted to contribute in a small way. I got in touch with some of the ambulance drivers and heard about how much they are paid for their service. Same is the case with mortuary and crematorium workers too. They have been labouring round-the-clock and going much beyond their call of duty. So we thought it is imperative to help them at the earliest,” she said.