Coronavirus: DU mobilises over 1,000 alumni in close to 40 countries

NEW DELHI: Over a thousand alumni of Indian institutions settled in close to 40 countries have offered to help other alumni or Indian students stranded in their countries.

These countries include Afghanistan, Belgium, DR Congo, Nepal, Qatar, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Senegal, Switzerland, Vietnam, USA and United Kingdom. Hundreds from within India have also offered to help.

Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the alumni networking platform of Delhi University (DU), almaconnect has been soliciting support from its worldwide alumni network to offer help to DU alumni and students located across the world.

Indian nationals have been stranded at various locations because of protectionist measures taken by various countries to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. These measures include shutting various institutions, corporate offices, universities within the country, imposing travel restrictions on people and shutting down trains and commercial flights to close the borders of the countries. This has resulted in chaos for many, including expatriates stuck due to travel restrictions but without any place to stay where they are now. This problem has occurred within India as well with students stranded in states away from their homes.

Accommodation, local help

The alumni have volunteered to offer accommodation or local help to other DU alumni and students at their locations. Help will typically be offered in two forms: local accommodation (in India and abroad) and also local support for parents and relatives.

Colleges and Institutions whose alumni have signed up include the Indian Institutes of Management or IIMs; Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs; Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, or BITS, Pilani, NMIMS, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Faculty of Management Studies, or FMS; SP Jain Institute of Management and Research; University of Calcutta; University of Mysore; Lucknow University; St. Stephen’s College, Hans Raj College, Shri Ram College of Commerce and many others.

Anyone who wants to offer help at their locations just has to fill up a form mentioning their name and contact details like phone number, email ID, current city and country and college.

The coronavirus pandemic has infected over 4,00,000 people globally and claimed over 17,000 lives across the world.

Also read:

• Coronavirus: Around 70 medical students stranded at Bangladesh border
• COVID-19: IIT Delhi to help alumni stranded in foreign universities

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