New Delhi, May 11, 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic has become an emerging global health crisis affecting everyone especially the marginalised sections of the communities. This sudden outbreak and the lockdown has already created an enormous medical and financial burden on dozens of migrant labourers, daily wage earners, farmers, and informal sector workers and has left them struggling for managing even a square meal a day. Hospitals and medical fraternity are also facing a shortage of protective gear, facilities and equipment.
Every day, the number of reported cases and deaths are rising at an alarming rate. The Hans Foundation (THF), one of India’s largest public charitable trust along with its partners – Govt. of Uttarakhand, VARDAN, American India Foundation, GRAVIS, Masoom Charitable Trust, Aasraa Trust, BAIF Development Research Foundation, Goonj, Akshaya Patra Foundation and many other partners are conducting relief support drives for those affected and also helping the hospitals and the front line workers.
Presently, the work has started for the vulnerable communities in the interior regions of Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kolkata, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim to combat the multitude problems caused at the national level by COVID-19 pandemic. The Foundation with its partners is providing nutritional kits/ration kits to the families of migrants, daily wage earners, informal sector workers and healthcare kits to the frontline health workers, partial salary and mediclaims, ventilators and even helping in setting up isolation centres. Additionally, to help multiply the efforts to help the needy, the Hans Foundation pledges to match the equal amount to every rupee contributed to the foundation’s COVID relief programs. To know more about the process, kindly visit http://thehansfoundation.org/donate
Commenting on the initiatives, Shweta Rawat, The Chairperson, The Hans Foundation said, “The Hans Foundation is proactive and propelled towards the fight against COVID-19. The Foundation through close cooperation and collaboration with governments, partners and public health providers are providing food security, livelihood development in these tough times across the country to accelerate the return of everyday life. We are more convinced than ever that we have the resilience, the grit and the resourcefulness to get through this together.”
By adhering to all safety and hygiene measures, The Hans Foundation has been working on providing relief services in the form of food kits, hygiene kits (includes N-95 face masks, sanitisers, gloves, etc.) PPE, ventilators, etc. Isolation centres for quarantines have also been set up in Sikkim. A special focus has been on the most vulnerable sections of the communities like migrants, slum dwellers, persons with disabilities, elders, single mothers and also the frontline service providers. In a time like this the government, civil society and private sector have to come together to fight against these crises. The Foundation has been working with the govt. of Uttarakhand to provide the necessary support to remote areas. THF has pledged a sum of INR One Crore and 51 lakhs to the government for ration kits, medical support and PPE kits. In collaboration with Americares, ventilators have been provided in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kerala for emergency response for COVID-19 patients. Several initiatives like these are being carried by THF through their partners working in interior locations. Close to two lakh people have benefitted presently with the distribution of food and hygiene kits in ten states across the country and the support is being extended to other states as well.