City lad helps Indian students evacuate from Ukraine

Pune based Nitesh Singh and his Team SOS India feel like superheroes after helping Indian students evacuate from Ukraine.

Pune based Nitesh Singh and his Team SOS India feel like superheroes. While the rest of the country was occupied with so many things, Singh and his volunteers helped the Indian embassy to evacuate thousands of Indians stuck in the war torn Ukraine. While sitting in Pune and other parts of India, Singh and his team were able to arrange for buses for Indian nationals from different cities in Ukraine to the borders, and food and medicines for the same as well.

New Delhi, India - March 07, 2022: Indian students, returned from Ukraine amid crisis after Russia invades Ukraine, received by emotional parents and other relatives at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in New Delhi, India, on Monday, March 07, 2022. (Photo by Amal KS / Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

“One of my team members said that we were like superheroes working in silence, helping people, and I feel that’s so true, we were like superheroes. I feel proud that we never stepped foot in Ukraine yet we have developed a strong network there. I feel like a superhero, because people don’t even know what we were doing the past few months,” Singh shares.

Interestingly, it was Singh’s friend from Ukraine who he was in touch with on Twitter. “He informed me about the situation in Ukraine, before it became a worldwide issue. We made Google sheets to collect information about the Indian students in Ukraine and started circulating it,” Singh recalls.

Singh reveals that they appointed an Indian volunteer in every college, in every district. “We knew the biggest problem we’ll face is the logistics. We started calling local transport services in every district and connected the volunteers and the local vendors,” he adds.

Singh also claims that Team SOS helped around ten to 11 thousand Indian students from the country. “My team used to get only two to four hours of sleep. Because they were working on their regular jobs and then volunteering. It was mentally and physically exhausting. And to be honest, we were scared if we will be able to save the kids,” he explains.

Volunteers from Mumbai, Jammu, Pune and other parts of India sat in their garages, terraces, shops to work for this cause. Singh mentions he also learned basic Ukrainian language to communicate with the locals over a call.