MUMBAI: The Acres Foundation has launched its social outreach arm ‘Acres Cares’ in their contribution to help the country in its fight against the rapidly spreading second wave of Covid-19. The organization came up with this social arm as they identified a current and urgent need for 22 ICU beds, at the existing MAA government hospital in Chembur.
Under Acres Cares, the foundation has personally committed INR 50 lakhs out of the INR 1.5 cr which is the amount required by the hospital to set up the ICU ward. However, the procurement of the equipment is being directly managed by The Acres Foundation as requested by the government doctors and hospital management. These funds will help both provide urgent ICU beds for Covid patients in need, as well as long term ICU support for the community. They will continue this effort now for other such hospitals too.
This outreach program is a continuation of their efforts to provide meals to the needy in the Chembur and Mulund area during the 1st lockdown in 2020. There were families whose livelihoods had been taken away and had been cut off from families and villages and were left with no support system. The aim was to ensure these people received 2 meals per day so that they could make it through that difficult period. With support in terms of financing and old newspapers for packaging, we distributed close to 30,000 food packets between April and May 2020.
“We have spent the last few days trying to understand the needs on the ground by speaking with local NGOs, political leaders and doctors. The pandemic has exposed a long-term problem in India, the insufficient infrastructure surrounding critical care. Keeping the same in mind, we came up with this social arm”, said Rohan Parikh, Director, The Acres Foundation.
“Mumbai’s resilience lies in its people. At a time like this, we all do what we can to help each other. That is the beauty of our city and what makes it great”, he further added.
Donations to this cause will support the tremendous efforts being made by the Government of India and State governments to fight against the rapidly spreading second wave of Covid-19 and to continue their efforts for the betterment of the people.