Helping those who need help - II

How organisations are doing their bit towards fighting COVID-19

Listen to this article on SoundCloud, narrated by Ajinkya Shinde for DefeatCovid

This article is a part of a series where we talk about how different companies, business groups, and people are contributing by devising solutions through the combined use of technology and social service. Please stay tuned for the other parts!

Coronavirus by far has become one of the most dangerous pandemics to ever hit humanity, and we are still reeling from its impact. World governments are trying to find ways to combat the deadly disease and contain it's spread. A WHO envoy was quoted by The Guardian as saying that it is highly uncertain whether a vaccine could be possible for the contagious disease.

However, we must not all loose hope in the face of adversity and continue to take small steps towards our goal. After all, we as a race are incredibly powerful - we have conquered galaxies and left footprints on the moon!

There are many organisations that are helping devise solutions to fight the pandemic at large. Those who can't contribute by developing medical equipment, are finding newer ways to contribute. As a way of saying thank you to them, we would like to list some of them whose contributions we feel are truly great and notable. However, we do recognise that this article doesn't serve as a benchmark of some kind, and as we fight on, others may contribute in more ways than one, sometimes even in ways far greater than the others.

Some of the numbers mentioned below may change rapidly due to the nature of the contributions being offered.

Give India

Give India is an Indian NGO headquartered in Bengaluru. They're the biggest charity in Asia and behind many successful charity fundraisers to date. They were in the news for their India fights Corona initiative, after Google India and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent donations of ?5 Cr to them. They're currently raising funds for providing hygiene kits and food parcels to the underprivileged.

Donate here

ISKCON/Annamrita

ISKCON in collaboration with Annamrita Foundation, has taken up the cause of providing free meals pan-India to the less privileged sections of the society. This includes migrant labourers, daily-wage earners, slum-dwellers and others whose lives completely changed in the lockdown and are left with no resources. They have received help and assistance in various ways for their initiative from the Reliance Foundation, Lion's Club, The Art Of Living among many others. "We have our presence in seven states, so if we take the all India figure, we are feeding 3,50,000 people everyday. We started it on March 25. In Mumbai, we have provided 21,15,120 meals, in Maharashtra 40,20,137 meals, and in India we have provided 86,12,536 meals,“ said Das, who is the head of the ISKCON Food Relief Foundation

SEEDS

SEEDS is a not-for-profit working in over 7 states of India for the vulnerable communities like the elderly and the children. In these regions, the organisation is helping health workers by aiding the public health system. They have supplied hygiene kits and helped in establishing centres for temporary quarantining people infected with the deadly virus. It is also trying to support daily wage earners and labourers by providing financial and essential services.

Contact: Siddharth Sharma at 9267943261

Goonj

Goonj is working towards long-term rehabilitation of daily wage earners and labourers who have been affected by the pandemic. They are likely to be unemployed for an unforeseen period of time, thus severely impacting their already deteriorated conditions. Under the programme Rahat, the volunteers aim to prepare kits with essentials such as dry rations and personal care products, and transport them to over a million people in areas with huge pockets of migrant labour. They will also utilise donations to address the impact on family income, healthcare, debt and education.

Zomato Feeding India

Zomato's initiative named Feeding India has launched 'Feed the Daily Wager' program to provide food support to families who don't have a reliable supply of meals since they lost their jobs in the pandemic. Donors can opt for meal kits for families under this scheme. Each meal kit for a family of five of ?500, contains a combination of wheat flour, rice and two types of pulses that can be used to cook meals for a week

Contact: Aman at 9871178810

Akshay Patra Foundation

The foundation is famous for behind the world's largest non-profit run Mid-Day Meal program providing food to 1.8 million children from 19,039 schools across 12 states and 2 Union territories of India. Even during the COVID-19 crisis, it has stepped in and coordinated with State Governments and district administration to provide relief to thousands across the country. The NGO has served 1,11,34,557 freshly cooked meals and distributed 4,19,429 grocery kits adhering to all safety and hygiene practices. A grocery kit serves 2 people for 21 days according to their website.

Honorable mention: Serum Institute of India

SII has fast emerged as the forerunner in this race against defeating the deadly virus. The institute will be collaborating with Oxford University to manufacture their vaccine in India. They will be commencing trials in two to three weeks in anticipation that the human trails by Oxford are successful in September/October. "We are expecting to initiate production of the vaccine in 2-3 weeks and produce 5 million doses per month for the first 6 months, following which, we hope to scale up production to 10 million doses per month," Serum Institute India CEO Adar Poonawalla said.

Contact details for all NGOs can be obtained by forwarding your application through the Invest India initiative. They will promptly respond to any request for help during this crisis period.

Besides this, there are many organisations we can not cover due to limitations. Everyone is doing a great job at contributing whatever they can to help in the fight against Coronavirus. Government organisations like the Railways have converted over 20,000 old train carriages into isolation wards for COVID-19 patients. This is also the first time in 167 years that Asia's oldest network has been suspended.

Although we have not included big corporations on our list, we should take a moment to thank Infosys, TCS, Wipro and other big IT companies have announced that they will be honouring all job offers they have made to students before Coronavirus. This is a welcome move from them as students really are at splits on their future admist such a precarious situation

The author is a content writer for Defeat Covid