Octogenarian Dipti Bhattacharya and her husband ran out of their regular medicines last week and all the neighbourhood pharmacies refused to deliver. A group of young volunteers came to their rescue, bringing them the medicines in an hour.

Several senior citizens across the city have been showering blessings on Let’s Help, a non-profit help group formed by professionals from the city that has been in operation since March 17.

The group’s mission is to provide senior citizens with essential services, home-cooked food and medicines during the lockdown.

It all started with a Facebook post by Debayan Datta, 33, who works in the hospitality industry.

“Many of my friends work in other cities and countries while their elderly parents live on their own in Calcutta. To help the aged and vulnerable, I wanted to start a network of services that would provide them essentials at their doorstep at no charge in these trying times. So I posted on Facebook, calling for volunteers,” Datta said.

Entrepreneur Debjani Mookherjee, professional Turni Dhar and brand strategist Luna Chatterjee were among the first to respond.

Together, they started helping senior citizens, getting them everything from hand sanitisers and masks to groceries.

“We began by helping senior citizens get hand sanitisers at the market rate when it was not available in any store,” Dhar said.

Soon, they moved on to supplying groceries, homemade food, medicines as well as pet needs to nearly 100 senior citizens in the city.

“We passed the word around through social media and WhatsApp. The response was phenomenal. Not only did we reach out to senior citizens from across the city, our number of volunteers grew as well,” Chatterjee said.

The group now has around 190 volunteers, including medical professionals.

“When we needed medicines, I tried contacting several pharmacies but none of them would deliver. We are too old to go out and buy things. My niece came to know about this volunteer group and contacted them. We got our medicines in an hour. I was so relieved,” said Bhattacharya, a resident of Survey Park.

Volunteer Zeeshan Majeed, who runs NGO Anti Hunger Squad, delivered medicines to a blind senior citizen at Park Circus. “He had no one to help out during this time and reached out to us,” he said.

An elderly couple living at Central Park in Jadavpur ran out of provisions and Dhar offered to buy the essentials for them. “I bought the stuff and then approached police for help with transport. They arranged an auto for me and I was able to deliver the goods,” Dhar said.

That’s been the motto of Let’s Help so far. Members from different professions have joined the platform to reach out to their para people or the helpless.

Mookerjee, who runs the Nanighar app that delivers home-cooked food, has been supplying meals to 12 senior citizens. “With household help not turning up, I am getting many calls from elderly couples for home-cooked food,” she said.

“A couple of days ago, an-80-year-old contacted me asking for masks. After depositing her essentials, I also promised her home-made food.”

The volunteers can be contacted at 8961907625 or md_nehal@ymail.com.