MUMBAI: In light of the continuing pressures on healthcare, frontline workers, individuals and families, MetLife Foundation has donated USD1.2 million, to support relief efforts and alleviate the strains on India’s healthcare system. The donation will be channelled through not-for-profit organizations that are working in close collaboration with central and local governments: Habitat for Humanity, American India Foundation, Healing Fields Foundation and Trickle up.
Through Habitat for Humanity, the funds will support deployment of around 600 beds, medical equipment and other supplies such as oxygen concentrators and personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, across four key states of Delhi, Maharashtra (Mumbai and Wasim), Karnataka (Bangalore) and Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow and Varanasi). These states are bearing the brunt of the pandemic and their healthcare infrastructure has now the greatest need.
Through its partnership with American India Foundation and in collaboration with other donors, a large shipment of 30,000 portable ventilators is being provided, free of cost, to multiple states including Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Delhi.
Through Healing Fields Foundation, tele-consultation assistance, food supplies, medicines and other home-isolation and management support will be provided to 500 villages covering a population of 625,000 people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
And in rural Odisha, Trickle Up will provide much needed essential food supplies and healthcare awareness to more than 1,000 of the most vulnerable families.
The country of 1.3 billion people is now the global epicentre of the pandemic and its healthcare infrastructure has been stretched beyond its limits with hospitals facing an acute shortage of oxygen, beds and ventilators, severely crippling efforts to save patients.
MetLife Foundation is committed to empowering the most vulnerable people worldwide to become more financially resilient and prepared for the future, and its financial aid comes at a critical time for India’s efforts to overcome this current wave in the pandemic.
Kishore Ponnavolu, President, MetLife Asia and Chairman of the Board, PNB MetLife, said, “Our heart goes out to the people of India as we watch the calamitous events wrought by the pandemic unfold across the country. We cannot express enough our respect for and encouragement to all the frontline medical and care professionals, whose efforts are at the heart of India’s fight against this pandemic. We pray that the funds donated by MetLife Foundation can help save lives and bring hope to families.”
On the grants, Ashish Kumar Srivastava, MD & CEO, PNB MetLife, stated, “Our country is in a state of crisis dealing with an unparalleled surge of the pandemic. There is an immediate requirement to support medical infrastructure for those adversely affected. We would do all in our capacity to mobilize the resources to aid the relief efforts. We at PNB MetLife are thankful to the MetLife Foundation for addressing the requirements of our community and for standing by us during these trying times with aid across key impacted regions. This donation will help to enhance efforts in building long-term medical infrastructure in India and helping our communities during these unprecedented times.”
