Kottayam: When the August deluge unleashed death and destruction on Kerala, a few students in Kottayam district fought the waves of devastation with compassion.

Students of Saintgits College of Applied Sciences, Pathamuttom, Kottayam, collected around 5,400 notebooks and handed them over to the district collector as part of their effort to help children affected by the floods.

The students' campaign was aptly named 'Kuttik oru koottu'. The programme is aimed at helping schoolchildren, who had lost their books in the floods.

The books were collected by students, faculty and programme coordinator Sanju P Cherian. The books were handed over to Collector B S Thirumeni on September 11.

"The thought was simple. How will the children start studying onceeverything settles down? They lost everything in the floods. That is when the idea struck me. If each of us were willing to do a small part, a lot of kids could smile again. I presented the idea to the college management and they were more than happy to help. As books areessential for any student we decided on donating them. The studentsand faculties wholeheartedly supported the idea and everything was put into action immediately," Sanju said.

After all, "a kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal", as Steve Maraboli said.