COVID-19 came as a shock to the Indian economy. A phase that the country was not prepared for in the beginning and with the unexpected second wave, things blew out of proportion. Shortages were all over the news. Previously, COVID-19 was considered an urban phenomenon, and most rural hospitals were caught off-guard, because of the sudden spike for oxygen needs and other COVID-19 specific equipment, but this was not for long.
Today, INDIAdonates is ahead of its game with the association and support of its partner NGOs. Founders of INDIAdonates, Dr Sanjay Patra and Mr. Sandeep Sharma felt the need to expedite processes and ensure that the country was being supported in every way within its capacity.
INDIAdonates started its intervention with 26 rural hospitals, in the last week of April 2021. They did a thorough research on the needs of hospitals, the caseloads, social profiling of the districts to understand the socio-economic condition of the people in and around. So far INDIAdonates has raised 1 Crore and has fully supported 4 hospitals and partially supported 3 rural hospitals. Simultaneously, they also were able to provide 10 Oxygen Concentrators to many other hospitals. Besides they are also running a food Relief campaign, in 45 towns and villages, across 16 states. Through this campaign, they would be helping 5000 individuals in getting immediate dry ration kits and some hygiene products.
They urge everyone to help them raise more funds so that they can stretch their arms even wider. Speaking about the overall initiative Founders of INDIAdonates, Dr. Sanjay Patra and Mr. Sandeep Sharma share “It is overwhelming to see so many donors coming forward to support rural hospitals not just from India, but also from overseas. When we started our COVID-19 response work in mid-April, we were determined to anchor all our energies in augmenting the rural healthcare infrastructure, because rural India lacks the machinery to both deal & recuperate from a national health crisis, and it could prove lethal in more than one way. Even if cases plateau, we strongly intend to work with rural hospitals to build resilient health infrastructure which can withstand any number of COVID-19 waves.”
