VISHAWABHARTHI RELIEF CAMPAIGN

The world hasn’t been the same since March 2020. We have all been impacted in some way or the other. COVID-19 impacted not just the health and well-being of millions but caused huge loss of lives, livelihood and productive assets. The distress in the economy — wages, jobs, production, investments and consumption — was too noticeable to be dismissed.

COVID-19 exposed some of the serious institutional infirmities in our health system due to the low spending at 1.2% of the GDP on health. During the peak of the COVID-19 second wave, we were all riled by the inability (either directly or indirectly) to meet the needs of medical-grade oxygen supplies, life-saving medical and diagnostic equipment, hospital beds and personal protective gear. In May this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked NGOs to play a role in strengthening the healthcare sector amid a surge in cases during the second wave. And the NGOs across India stepped up, yet again.

During the lockdown period, VISHWABHARATHI TRUST efforts, along with its partner NGOs, have been concentrated on reaching all households as far as possible, with basic health and hygiene kits for the children and their families.

has been spreading awareness, distributing relief materials and advocating for the access and availability of services to the communities and children. Awareness-building programmes covered topics like social-distancing, best practices related to public health and hygiene and behaviour change, sanitisation, use of face masks, following government guidelines during the lockdown period and ways to protect people from community spreading of the epidemic.