Vijay Deverakonda announces Rs1.30 crore fund to help those affected by COVID-19 pandemic  

Actor Vijay Deverakonda on Sunday announced Rs1.30 crore fund to help those affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He also took to Twitter to make two major announcements as part of this initiative.

“None of us were prepared for this. But we are fighters. We shall survive this and come out of it strong. This thing hit me hard as well, but I am here now. I am here with my incredible team that never says no to a fight and we are happy to announce a Rs1.30 crore fund to help as many as we can. All we need is love, kindness and support and I am sending you all, my love and strength,” Deverakonda tweeted.

Along with the tweet, he also shared a video in which he spoke at length about the two major announcements.

In the video, the actor said that in July 2019, he started a secret project. The goal of this project is to employ one lakh people. He said since many people lent him their helping hands when he needed it, he wants to help those in need of helping hands now.

Elaborating on the secret project, Deverakonda said he hired 50 people for this passionate project in August 2019. The first goal was to employ 50 young boys and girls. In September 2019, via an organization called TDF (The Deverakonda Foundation), 650 young boys and girls from rural areas sent their profiles seeking employment. By October 2019, they shortlisted 120 from which 50 were handpicked and were trained to their best potential.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the employment plan got stalled but Vijay is proud that two people have already received their offer letters. He added that the rest of 48 people are on the verge of getting employed soon. After the crisis, Vijay said his team would be happy to accept more youngsters and train them based on their skills set for employment.

Deverakonda also announced that in order to help middle class families affected by COVID-19 crisis, he’s starting a Middle Class Fund and investing Rs 25 lakh into it to help them when all this is over. Those from middle class families who have no source of income and are struggling to meet daily needs like essentials, could log on to www.thedeverakondafoundation.org and share details.

On the career front, Vijay will be next seen on screen in Puri Jagannadh’s multilingual action-thriller, Fighter, which also stars Ananya Pandey.