As India stands its ground amidst a ferocious second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Indians, both in and out of India, have taken it upon themselves to help the country steer out of this health crisis through individual and community action. Apart from our courageous and dedicated frontline workers, we are witnessing numerous stories of hope and resilience of people from all walks of life, contributing and helping their communities, and the country at large, in these tough times.
This story is about one such heroic expat couple, currently based out of Singapore, who have raised funds to aid the Covid-19 relief efforts going on in India. Entrepreneur and investor Prantik Mazumdar and Dr Dipti Kamath together launched a dollar-to-dollar matching fundraiser to boost India’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The successful couple is not new to crowdfunding, however.
Last year, when India went into a stringent national lockdown due to which scores of migrants headed back to their villages, the couple experimented with the idea of crowdfunding a relief effort for these migrants. Inspired by its success last year and considering the large-scale impact of the second wave of the coronavirus in India, the couple decided to get into the crowdfunding mode again.
The fundraiser, which began in the last week of April 2021, raised over SGD 1,20,000 within two days of its launch- three times the initial target of $ 25,000! With this overwhelming response, the campaign now has nearly 1200 supporters and a target standing at a whopping INR 1.5 crore, 92 per cent of which, or over INR 1.36 crore, have already been raised, thanks to the continuous support from donors in countries like US, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, UAE and Singapore.
The campaign aims to procure oxygen concentrators from international markets through collaborations with NGOs which are then being deployed across hospitals and health facilities in India to augment capacities for an already-stretched healthcare system.
As the situation progresses and we hear more and more of such heroic stories, our faith in humanity deepens while our resolve to overcome this crisis, becomes stronger than ever before.
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