(Image source from: The News Minute)

For galore Indians living abroad, watching what was on in their home country during the Kerala floods was difficult. For a group of women who lived in Switzerland, it was no different. When Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan appealed to people to donate to the CM's Disaster Relief Fund, they too desired to do their bit.

The group of 16 women, all living in the Swiss city of Baden, came together and worked for three days to raise Rs 1.8 lakh for Kerala flood relief. All this, by selling lunch boxes with Indian food to locals and other Indians living in the city.

"The idea was good, but we realized that it would require a larger investment than we could afford, and also formalities and permissions to set it up. We needed something that would allow us to help quicker," tells one of the women Bandana Maheshwari to TNM.

After checking with their networks, Linija and Bandana were able to find 14 other women who were curious in the initiative.

Related content: Kerala Authorities: Rebuilding After Flood Will Cost $3.7bn

Collectively, they decided it would be best to set up and deliver meal boxes with Indian food for all three meals.

Everyone got on board speedily, and after readying and popularizing the idea through social media and flyers for just two days, the women decided it was time to swing into action.

"It was challenging because everything was happening so quickly. Till the midnight of August 21 we were still getting orders," Bandana narrates.

On August 22, the plan was set into motion.

Two locations were decided where some women would cook the vegetarian and non-vegetarian food respectively. There were some women who were packing lunch boxes, and three women who had cars were accountable for delivery. The responsibilities would rotate over the three days, depending on who was free when.

"We used what we were going to donate individually as the capital for this project," Bandana says. "While the first day was a bit chaotic, we had gotten into the groove by the second day and then things went smoothly."

By Sowmya Sangam