Where: India

The challenge:

Fighting the spread of COVID-19 is a huge challenge for all countries. No-one was prepared for a pandemic of this scale. At the start of the outbreak in India, the country only had an estimated 5-8 ventilators per 100 hospital beds. Moreover, India had a massive shortage of isolation centres with only seven hospital beds per 10,000 Indians. State governments urgently needed support for PPE kits, N95 masks, ventilators, pumps, beds, and medicines in large volumes.  

We wanted to help wherever and however possible and focused our resources and connections on critical intervention areas. These included  supporting the frontline workers with materials and supplies, aiding vulnerable sections of society with no income, and highlighting donation opportunities that could have a real impact at ground-level in communities.  

'We focussed on working with delivery partners who could facilitate 'last mile' delivery and so aid was able to reach locations where it was desperately needed. 

The execution:

Since the announcement of the pandemic outbreak, we have  implemented more than 30 social impact projects in multiple regions across India. Via our agency InDeed, one of India’s largest and most trusted social impact platforms, we have managed to coordinate and connect organisations to support and aid many NGOs and hospitals.   

The strategy to meet the upheaval and threat caused by COVID-19 required swift collaboration and drew on all our skills and teamwork to make sure we tackled problems in an efficient way – time and resources were at a premium and not to be wasted. We made sure all projects were carefully curated, organised, and executed.  

The results so far:

We have worked with many international brands to deliver meaningful help. Several companies pursued projects to supply PPE kits and N-95 masks to frontline health workers and police, including British car-maker MG Motors, HSBC, Chinese technology company Vivo Communication Technology Co. and technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing, and financial services conglomerate L&T. 

Other forms of aid included a partnership with auto and truck parts maker Bridgestone to set up an online community awareness programme, featuring industry leaders from different sectors providing their insight and perspective on the pandemic. 

We also built strong relationships with Governments of Maharashtra, Gujrat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana and the police forces of Maharashtra and Karnataka that allowed us to coordinate aid delivery where it was needed. 

Check out more inspiring examples of our work on SDG3.