SANAPURNA FOR INDIA

India needs your help! Covid-19 is spreading within cities and villages and following two lockdowns many shops and services are still shut, which has resulted in mass unemployment.

In a country where the majority of people are poor and vulnerable both socially and economically, the pandemic has brought unprecedented distress and despair. Most working-class people have no savings and there is very little access to social security especially as any available unemployment compensation is often caught up in bureaucratic delays or corruption. This means many people are simply left to die from hunger or lack of medical attention.

Here at Sanapurna, we cannot stand by and watch this happen without trying to help and we know many people within our community feel the same way. We have therefore decided to launch a sustained fundraising drive to help save the lives, livelihoods and dignity of the most vulnerable in India. Since we have a wonderful network of trusted friends and family members living in India, as well as solid connections to NGOs, we will ensure every rupee you donate will go directly to those most in need.

Along with your donations, we will be organising a series of events throughout the year including community classes and workshops where all fees will go towards the fundraising drive. So when you join the Sanapurana community, you will not only gain benefits for your own health and wellbeing, but you will also help another human being recover their dignity by meeting their basic needs.

We will focus on two programmes:

1. Oxygen concentrators
Indian hospitals are desperately in need of oxygen concentrators. Sanapurna wishes to raise CHF 4,500 (US$5,005) to purchase six oxygen concentrators directly from a trusted medical supplier and deliver them to Government Hospital in Bikaner Rajsthan where Sanapurna founder, Poonam’s childhood friend is the Chief Medical Officer. The oxygen concentrators will be loaned free to local villages to use at home or in clinics in order to reduce the pressure on hospitals.

2. Ongoing relief for the most vulnerable
Sanapurna is launching a continuous fundraising drive to support the Astitva Programme, which is run by Kriti Team, a Public Charitable Trust based in Dehradun. The programme aims to restore the dignity of the most vulnerable by providing ration packages and financial support for education, medicine and basic needs such as mobile phone credit so children can access online schooling. The families you support will be of domestic worker women, petty shop workers, roadside vendors, cycle rickshaw pullers, daily wage earners and informal sector labourers.

Details of how your contributions will be used to meet the following needs (as per available donations and field priorities each month):

• 1. Monthly Dry Ration and Household essentials (20 families)

• 2. Mobile recharge for children to access online schooling (20 children)

• 3. Annual Educational scholarship for school fees (5 children)