In April 2021, the delta variant wave of COVID-19 swooped the country and there was panic across India while there was news of multiple vaccinations being available in the country leading to a state of confusion and disarray amongst the public. Additionally, Delhi NCR was facing an oxygen crisis and there was a huge shortage of critical medicines.

Fight COVID Together was an initiative to mobilize a community led response towards fighting the threats and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi NCR. To address this issue, the relief was provided in three different ways,

1. Medicine donation: The Gurugram Hub collaborated with the project MedsForMore and has been leading it in five centers across four cities in Delhi NCR (Gurugram, Delhi, Faridabad, Noida). #MedsForMore is a citizen-led, Robinhood-style initiative to collect unexpired and unused/leftover COVID-19 medicines and distribute them amongst those with neither access nor affordability. The purpose is twofold – Increasing Impact while Reducing Waste.

As part of the effort, the Shapers from the hub mobilized unused, leftover medicines from recovered COVID-19 patients in their apartment buildings, offices, neighborhoods, student clubs and elsewhere in Delhi NCR. The hub centrally managed the five centers set up to collect these donations. The hub also worked with all the MFM partners to coordinate delivery of the donated medicines. Pharmeasy was the logistics partner responsible for delivery of the medicines, and Goonj was the NGO partner responsible for end mile delivery of medicines. Through our partners, MyGate, Internshala and AIESEC the hub reached out to around 18,000 residential communities, engaged 55 Ambassadors and close to 150 student networks.

2. Awareness Campaign: The Gurugram Hub organized two webinars targeting young adults and college students with the help of partner doctors - Dr Parul Sharma from Gurugram and Dr Sana Kazi Khan from Pune. The two webinars conducted contained all important information regarding the Delta variant, the lifestyle changes necessary to fight COVID-19, precautions, cure and all about the new vaccines available in the form of Covishield and Covaxin. The webinar with Dr Sana Kazi Khan included the promotion of COVID-19 relief organizations as well as the MedsforMore Campaign. The webinars were followed by a Q&A session with the doctors. Read more here.

3. Fundraising: In order to bridge the oxygen shortage in hospitals, the Gurugram Hub formed partnerships with CSR wings of companies to channel their CSR funds and initiated a crowdfunding campaign on Ketto to fundraise for oxygen cylinders. Read more here 

Project impact:

• Over 4 shipments, the hub donated around 63 KG medicines and received over 40+ individual and collective donations to NGO Partner Goonj. The medicines were further distributed to COVID-19 patients in rural Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi by Goonj.


• 
  Our shapers worked with Meds for More team and 70+ ambassadors to organize medicine collection drives across 12 cities in India including Delhi NCR (Gurugram, Delhi, Faridabad, Noida)


• Through 2 webinars, the total turnout reached 200+ participants.


• The hub fundraised around INR 1.5 Cr to procure oxygen cylinders and distribute them across hospitals in the Delhi NCR region.