COVID 19 RELIEF WORK
By the beginning of Year 2020, the world was closely observing the developments of novel coronavirus reported first in China. While all of us had seen signs of an unprecedented challenge arising, we could not have imagined the scale of disruption and loss that the Covid 19 pandemic was going to cause to the world and more importantly to the vulnerable and poor communities everywhere.
Every sector was hit severely as the economic impacts of the pandemic doubled the blow of health impacts and losing near and dear ones. Hunger and safety became two major issues which we felt needed to be addressed immediately. We could do the work listed below because of the resources provided to us by generous supporters from within India and outside as well as the guidance and support from the Government officials we had approached.
The cumulative work stretching from creating awareness and food ration support for stranded workers during the first lockdown in April 2020 to the full scale COVID response work including financial assistance in the months of April to July 2021 is being reported below.
Collating and passing on information about the food requirements to stranded migrant workers in the initial lockdown included working closely with the state government helplines as well as the Delhi and Central Government Covid relief helplines. We were also able to reach emergency food support to areas within Delhi where possible. In 2021, assessing the developing situation, we actively contributed to helping treating many patients in homecare with the guidance of doctors and helping provide food ration and medical kits. In addition to these, we also helped distribute critical medical equipment to hospitals and to the communities in need. In order to do this, we approached government officials at the district, state and national level such as COVID Logistic Task force NITI Aayog, Nodal officer for Adhoc Exemption from IGST on Imports of specified COVID relief material of Delhi Government and Chief Medical Officers of Government hospitals in different states.
Through this work, we have been able to reach out and help in Delhi, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Sikkim, Haryana and Nagaland.
The global Pandemic continues to reign for more than 22 months now. The COVID-19 infection has already claimed more than five million (50 lakh) lives globally and counting. Much has changed from 2020 to this year in country reactions and adaptation to the pandemic. Multiple variants of the virus have made it more difficult to predict and prevent, engaging the medical fraternity in a constant process of understanding the variants of the virus.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many in the health sector - doctors, nurses, para medics, Asha workers, sanitation workers and other support staff have been tirelessly working to save lives. Even during the strictest of lockdowns, many public servants risked their lives to keep the services and the economy running. In the process many lost their lives. We have also lost many fearless warriors of social issues in this fight. We salute all the brave souls and pledge to continue to play our parts in this fight against the Covid 19 pandemic.