ALL hearts are bleeding for India, as the unrelenting tragic news of the toll the ferocious second wave of Coronavirus is having on the country. Millions are battling every day for oxygen and treatment at hospitals. Thousands of families are losing loved ones and friends. Poverty has spiralled and families are facing extreme hunger. And as we watch in horror, we all want to help with COVID relief.
To alleviate the pain of those who are suffering, NGOS, communities, ordinary citizens and stars have all found ways to deal with the feeling of hopelessness by trying to raise funds to meet the needs on the ground. Donating online to specific fundraisers to provide COVID relief is a simple, easy way to help too. Here are the 10 top fundraisers currently running on Give that you can make online donations to:
1. Donate to boost oxygen supply
The image of patient families crying and crowding outside hospitals desperate to get urgent medical help for their kith and kin is etched in our memories. There is a critical and immediate need for oxygen in hospitals and COVID care centres.
This will help set up oxygen generation plants in hospitals in Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Patna; provide oxygen concentrators and cylinders; provide refilling facilities for empty cylinders; and contribute to life-saving equipment such as Bipaps and ventilators.
2. #TogetherForIndia
This is a fundraiser for COVID-relief in India started by top Indian celebrity Priyanka Chopra and her musician husband Nick Jonas. Deeply upset by the all the suffering that people in India are going through, they have started a campaign called #TogetherForIndia to raise funds for physical healthcare infrastructure such as COVID care and isolation centres, medical equipment like oxygen cylinders and concentrators and to provide vaccination support, particularly in rural areas.
The celebrity couple are hoping to raise $1million as quickly as possible so it makes an impact quickly too.
3. Feeding the hungry during COVID
Since the pandemic began last year, poverty has doubled in India. Underprivileged families with little social security barely started earning again, when the country became engulfed in a deadly second wave of Coronavirus. This fundraiser will save the hungry from starvation. ₹1,750 will provide two meals a day for a week to one family, while ₹500 will help a poor family with one week’s rations.
To start with, meals will be served to municipal wards, orphanages, elderly in need, sick patients and daily wagers in need across Maharashtra. Each meal will be a nutritional platter comprising healthy staples like rice, daal, vegetables, chapati and more. Rations kits will contain daal, rice, salt, oil, atta, masala, tea, sugar etc. Widespread hunger leads to widespread malnutrition – by donating you can help prevent that.
4. KhaanaChahiye
Armed with experience from 2020’s hunger crisis triggered by the pandemic lockdown, KhaanaChahiye Foundation has swung into action again. Anticipating the acute food demand, they began by serving 2,000 meals across micro-clusters and along Mumbai’s arterial roads.
Then having tied up with Zomato Feeding India to expand food distribution beyond the city limits into Navi Mumbai and Thane, they have so far distributed 60,000 meals to the most vulnerable populations, including the homeless, in certain slum clusters and hospitals, orphanages and old age homes.
5. Protect rural communities from COVID
While urban areas were hit hard by the first wave of COVID in 2020, rural areas bore the brunt during the second wave this year. The only option to put an end to the pandemic is to vaccinate all eligible citizens. But the urban-rural divide continues and several factors like lack of access, digital illiteracy, vaccine hesitancy because of misinformation and rumours etc., are resulting in the slower and unequal rollout of vaccinations in rural India.
To speed up the vaccination process in rural India, Give has launched Mission Vaccination for All. It will not only help rural India get quicker and easier access to the vaccines, it will also help create awareness by busting myths and misinformation. Give will partner with state governments and local bodies to train nurses, paramedics, ASHA workers and community health workers to help bridge the digital divide and facilitate last-mile delivery in rural areas, especially in aspirational districts.
6. Give women access to pads
Only 36% of India’s 336 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins. With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, this number has only gone down. With growing poverty and major free supply chains of sanitary napkins broken – like for, for instance, adolescent girls would be given pads in school which have all mainly remained closed since the pandemic began – many have been pushed to resort to unhygienic alternatives. This mission on Give raised funds to provide free reusable, easily washable pads to thousands of women and help them have a safe period.
7. Cash support to families of COVID deceased
Over 3,000 families in India are losing their loved ones to Coronavirus every day. While the world looks on in disbelief at the statistics – cases having crossed a world record of 4 lakh in a single day – for many heartbroken families, these numbers represent important, able, working members whose departure will also leave them financially bereft. The untimely death of an earning family member in low-income households already struggling to make ends meet, puts those left behind at risk of slipping further into poverty.
Through this COVID relief mission, each bereaved family will receive a one-time humanitarian cash support of ₹30,000 to help with their living expenses. Give’s trusted NGO partners will work with government hospitals, local authorities and crematoriums to identify families of the deceased and create a database. Direct cash transfers will be made only after Give’s strict due diligence framework of verifying the authenticity of the claimants.
8. Students in the US supporting India hospitals
South Asian students in the United States have come together in the hope of saving the lives of those battling COVID-19 in India and protecting healthcare workers who are putting their own safety on the line. Through this COVID relief fundraiser, their aim is to channel vital resources to organisations working tirelessly towards this goal. Funds raised will go towards addressing shortages – in oxygen, protective equipment and other medical supplies – that continue to strain the healthcare system and distress the affected.
9. Save critical patients from fighting Corona at home
With most hospitals across India completely overwhelmed with patients, many severely ill with COVID have been forced to find ways to treat themselves at home. This Give mission will support them with the treatment they need.
In collaboration with trusted NGO partners working with Government hospitals and local authorities, Give raised funds to set up COVID Care and Isolation Centres in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chattisgarh – and expand to other cities based on the need. These centres will be fully equipped with quality care services to treat mild and moderate (non-ICU) COVID patients. Donate towards all facilities and equipment required including beds, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, doctors, nurses and trained admin staff.
10. For COVID medical infrastructure
This COVID relief fundraising campaign has been created by a group of like minded friends and organisations (from IIMB, IITs, Andhra University Engg College, Osmania University, Anna University, DMET, Telugu Cultural Association (TCA) of Greater Houston, USA and others) to help India fight the tsunami of COVID cases that is threatening to collapse the country’s healthcare/medical infrastructure.
The funds raised will be donated to Give’s India COVID Response Fund-2 to help India fight shortages in COVID medical equipment (oxygen concentrators, etc.), essential medical supplies, capacity, cost of healthcare and more. You can help this compassionate group of professionals create a larger impact.
This article was updated in May 2023.
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