Online Donation Platform GiveIndia Relaunches 'India COVID Response Fund' to Ease Pandemic Crisis

Online donation platform GiveIndia has relaunched its India COVID Response Fund (ICRF) that raised Rs 220+ crore last year. The new fund, ICRF-2 aims to “galvanise funds” to alleviate the escalating health crisis and other problems faced by low-income families caused by COVID-19. In a statement, the Bengaluru-based organisation says the ICRF-2 is currently focusing on supporting five key interventions to ease the suffering caused by the second wave of the pandemic. GiveIndia has also started raising funds to Boost oxygen supply, donate food to families struggling with hunger, give cash support to families of COVID deceased, save critical patients from fighting coronavirus at home, and donate reusable pads to women who have access to none.

GiveIndia‘s mission aimed at boosting oxygen supply has so far raised the most funds in individual donations, now almost Rs 35 crore. The funds will go towards setting up oxygen generation plants in hospitals and COVID care centres, providing oxygen concentrators, and cylinders and facilitating the refilling of cylinders, the statement said. All this will be done in partnership with municipal corporations, state governments, hospitals and doctors, and select NGO networks. Funds will be disbursed only after GiveIndia’s verification of all demand and supply channels are completed.

GiveIndia CEO and founder Atul Satija says the relaunch of the India COVID Response Fund aims to raise funds for the “most pressing needs” caused by the current wave of the pandemic. “This time it is the runaway disease that is causing the primary distress, rather than the measures to control it, like the humanitarian crisis caused by the national lockdown last year. We are fairly confident that people from all walks of life will be driven by compassion to come forward and contribute to this collective,” he said in the statement.

Some of the early donors include Google, which donated cash aid for struggling families of the deceased from COVID. Other brands to have partnered with GiveIndia include PhonePe, Flipkart, Myntra, Xiaomi, Swiggy, Dream 11, Walmart, Salesforce and PayPal. The organisation has also received support from Vinod Khosla, Jay Shetty, Ray Dalio among others.

Users can donate to GiveIndia’s initiative via their website. The company highlights the amount raised so far and the total number of donors as well.

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