COVID-19 has wrecked much distress in India. While the lockdown has helped to curb the spread of the virus, it has also turned out to be a bane for some. The poor migrant workers with no means of livelihood in cities have returned back to their villages. This mass exodus has not only made them susceptible to the deadly viral infection but also risked community transmission in their villages.

 

As on April 15th, the active reported COVID-19 cases have increased to 9756 and taking the death toll to 377(accordingly to https://www.mohfw.gov.in). The numbers are growing exponentially every day. India is in crisis and needs collective efforts to PROTECT THE UNPROTECTED.

As part of the COVID-19 outbreak response, CAF India has launched a humanitarian appeal to support the Nation’s Fight Against COVID-19. The organisation has initiated several partnership campaigns with corporates to fight against the virus spread in India.

SOME OF THOSE INITIATIVES ARE LISTED BELOW:

1. Provide over 75,000 N-95 masks to Health Departments of Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala.
2. Distribute essential food item and preventive kits to the construction workers stuck at construction sites in Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.
3. Make available Hygiene kits to the police personnel to keep them safe while they deliver their duties on ground in Maharashtra and Gujarat.
4. Supporting poor migrant workers who have returned to their native villages and are in urgent need of food items, quarantine facilities and awareness generation activities in states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
5. Since, the slum population is suffering due to loss of livelihoods, CAF India is making sure no one sleeps hungry by distributing dry ration in JJ colonies of Delhi and support sanitation workers by providing preventive kits.
6. In tandem with the nation’s fight against the virus spread, CAF India has contributed INR One Crore each towards Chief Minister’s relief fund/COVID-19 Relief Fund for the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
7. Provide Personal Protective Gears to the sanitation workers susceptible to the deadly virus in Delhi/NCR.

In addition to this, CAF India was part of the video conferencing consultation at the behest of the Prime Minister. In a meeting chaired by Mr Amitabh Kant – CEO, NITI Aayog, more than 25 NGOs were invited. Meenakshi Batra – CEO, CAF India provided details of relief work carried out on ground and made the below recommendations:

• Individual donations for COVID-19 should be made 100% tax free.
• Create an enabling environment for NGOs to be able to respond to the COVID-19 crisis effectively.
• Government should relook at proposed new amendments in CSR Act that intends to exclude Trusts and Societies to receive CSR grants.
• Government should also review the new IT Act requirement wherein the NGOs will be asked to renew their 12A and 80g at regular intervals.

In order to create awareness about COVID-19, CAF India resolves to bust dangerous myths circulating around the social media and Whatsapp. We have created a film on ‘COVID MythBusters’ and disseminated on social media and Whatsapp. Apart from that we have developed various IEC material on symptoms, prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

 

GEOGRAPHICAL REACH

“The world is facing one of the biggest public health emergencies of the century. The COVID-19 pandemic will have serious socio-economic consequences. The post-pandemic world will not be the world we are used to of living. The marginalised communities will be the worst affected. It is time that all of us stand together, with each other and the authorities and support in every little way we can. CAF India has initiated a series of interventions to help the most vulnerable and at risk groups sail through the crisis.
Join us in our war against COVID-19 and we shall emerge victorious.”

Meenakshi Batra
CEO, CAF India

NGO CONSULTATION TO ACCELERATE INDIA’S FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

CAF India organised an NGO consultation to accelerate India’s fight against COVID-19 on 14th April 2020. The objective of the consultation was to discuss how NGOs are responding to the COVID-19 crisis in their communities. It gave the NGOs an opportunity to deliberate on the planning, outreach, value addition and challenges that they are facing while implementing activities under stringent lockdown/sealing norms.

Over 10 NGOs participated in the consultation. These were: Yuva Unstoppable, Samarthan, Environment Conservation Society, Rajasthan Bal Kalyan Samiti, Gram Vikas, Nidan, National Institute of Women, Child and Youth Development, Humanitarian Aid International, GOONJ and Vinobha Sewa Ashram.

CAF India took precautionary and preventive steps to safeguard its employees

In addition to the aforementioned immediate steps that CAF India is taking to mitigate the risk of the coronavirus spread in the country, it also made sure that its employees are safe too. The office under the direct supervision of the CEO took all required preventive and precautionary steps. Some of the initiatives that office took are below:

A COVID-19 policy was circulated to all employees with a do’s and don’ts document

• N-95 masks were distributed to all employees and were advised to wear them during the office hours.
• Hand sanitizers were made available on all workstations.
• CAF India office was deeply sanitised.
• Before the country-wide lockdown was declared, partial work from home was given to employees to make sure social distancing was maintained.
• During the 21 day lockdown, all employees are allowed to work from home, making sure there is no financial implications for them during these challenging times.
• All staff is covered against the deadly virus infection under the employee medical insurance.

CALL TO ACTION

We need your URGENT support to:

1. Put food on the plate of the poor migrant workers.
2. Provide the vulnerable with preventive kits.
3. To identify quarantine centers at village level in association with local authorities - Gram Panchayats & Primary Health Centers (PHC), for those who have returned to their native villages.
4. Deliver protective gear like masks, gloves, any other equipment’s to the health practitioners supporting the affected communities in rural areas.

The Centre and State Agencies, Civil Society Organisations, Health Practitioners and Police are all working very hard to fight against COVID-19. We need your support to reach-out to millions of vulnerable people.

Come Forward and Support CAF India’s Efforts.