As India grapples with a brutal second COVID surge, many organizations in Oregon are stepping up to help. Here are some of the initiatives organized by local companies and ways that you can get involved.
Lumen Digital Ventures is partnering with ACT Grants to raise funds for the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis in India. Lumen’s goal is to raise $500,000 to go towards ACT’s COVID-related support activities. You can donate securely here.
Shamir Karkal, Co-founder and CEO at Sila, recently highlighted an initiative led by his sister, Shama Karkal, to build a 90-bed hospital to combat COVID in Bangalore. The facility will be created at a 3.5-acre plot within the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, NIMHANS Campus, and will function as part of the existing institute. Once erected, the facility will be equipped with 90 fully oxygenated beds and 37 ICU beds. You can donate here to help it get built.
RFPIO is stepping up to support colleagues, friends, and family in India in a number of ways. In addition to providing RFPIO employees with pulse oximeters for proactively monitoring their oxygen levels, they have extended health insurance benefits so that employees can cover and care for their parents, have partnered with healthcare providers to provide remote medical care, and have provided additional days of sick time and flexible work hours for employees to take care of themselves or others. RFPIO is supporting employees with emergency loans to deal with COVID-related medical expenses and is donating to local and government organizations towards COVID relief efforts.
In addition to helping India-based employees with vaccine drives and other assistance, Exterro launched a 2x matching campaign for global employees to support an emergency food relief program for people with disabilities. They’ve now opened up the campaign to a wider network and will match 1x any contributions to the cause. You can donate here.
