Actress Pallavi Joshi and Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri to help Covid-19-hit children and families for adoption

Who thought who will take care of the kids if both parents go into hospital with COVID and don’t return? High incidents of deaths in young Indians has implored state agencies and NGOs to step in even as adoption’ pleas online for COVID orphans stoke fear of child trafficking.

Actress Pallavi Joshi and director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri have joined hands with an NGO to adopt children and families who have been impacted by Covid-19 pandemic. As India is going through one of its worst phases in history, with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic squeezing the country’s health infrastructure and its economy, a good samaritan has come out to lend a helping hand.

Actress Pallavi Joshi and her filmmaker husband Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri to offer counselling sessions, headed by experts, for children orphaned due to Covid-19. The couple runs I Am Buddha Foundation, through which it has been helping individuals from the film fraternity affected by the pandemic. “These counselling sessions are aimed at children and young adults who are bearing the emotional brunt of having lost one or both parents in the pandemic,” says Joshi.

For this, the couple has tied up with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), an Indian statutory body that works under the aegis of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Agnihotri says they have roped in a panel of psychologists to offer their expertise. The sessions are conducted under supervision. “We are also looking at children whose families are in quarantine. Sometimes, extended families are at a loss of how to deal with a child who is going through emotional upheaval. There is the tendency to experience rage and anxiety because they are being looked after in foster care,” he adds.

Even small initiatives during a pandemic can help save a thousand lives and this couple is doing their bit. Pallavi and Vivek along with NGO will focus on helping the children and families suffering because of the prevailing situation.