The Disasters Emergency Committee has extended its Coronavirus Appeal to include India as an additional country that will receive urgent life-saving humanitarian assistance to help the most vulnerable communities as they face an overwhelming coronavirus surge.
DEC member charities, together with their local teams and partners, are playing a critical role in supporting the country’s health services, assisting efforts to slow the spread of the virus, and providing further help to the most vulnerable households.
DEC Chief Executive Saleh Saeed said: “We have all seen the devastating images from India showing hospitals overrun and oxygen supplies falling short of demand, with thousands of people unable to receive potentially life-saving treatment. Several cities have imposed lockdowns and curfews, which will have a knock-on effect for people’s livelihoods, with the poorest and most marginalised communities hit hardest.
“DEC member charities have a long history of working with these communities and are supporting overwhelmed health services by providing medical supplies, treatment facilities and logistics assistance. With the generous support of the UK public, we can do even more to help the most vulnerable communities as they face a life-or-death situation.”
The countries in which DEC charities are responding to Covid-19 through donations to the DEC Coronavirus Appeal will be expanded to include India. The appeal, which was launched in July 2020, has been helping the poorest communities in a number of countries including Yemen, Syria and South Sudan tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
DEC charities will be supporting India’s health system by:
- providing PPE, disinfection kits, medical supplies and ambulances
- setting up isolation facilities, including provision of beds and latrines
- setting up temporary Covid hospitals and Covid care centres
- providing logistical support to quarantine or isolation centres
- providing ventilators and oxygen concentrators to the Indian government
- running helplines to tackle misinformation by providing up-to-date information on the availability of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and Covid vaccines.
They will also scale up preventive measures to slow the spread of Covid-19 amongst the most vulnerable communities including:
- setting up handwashing stations and distributing soap, sanitiser and masks
- distributing hygiene kits (consisting of washable masks, sanitiser, gloves, face shields, soap)
- supporting vaccination drives and public health messaging on the importance of good hygiene
- disinfecting public places
- training community health volunteers in how to, for example, promote quarantine centres and screen people for Covid symptoms.
DEC charities will also provide additional support to the poorest and most vulnerable households by:
- ensuring families get enough food to prevent malnutrition, particularly amongst children, by distributing food and care packs to people in isolation; providing cash, vouchers and dry rations; providing livelihoods training and cash for work
- providing mental health support as well as community counselling services
- delivering community outreach to older people e.g. transportation for Covid testing or treatment, and assistance with vaccination costs
- supporting Ministries of Education to ensure safe school operations as well as support to children, families and teachers to continue education if schools are closed
- strengthening water and sanitation systems.
To make a donation to the DEC Coronavirus Appeal visit www.dec.org.uk, call the 24-hour hotline on 0370 60 60 900, or send a cheque to DEC Coronavirus Appeal, PO Box 999, London EC3A 3AA.
To donate £10 text SUPPORT to 70150. Texts cost £10 and the whole £10 goes to the DEC CORONAVIRUS APPEAL. You must be 16 or over and please ask the bill payer’s permission. For full terms and conditions and more information go to www.dec.org.uk.
Donations will help provide the following: £30 could provide six families with enough soap for a month; £50 could provide essential hygiene kits to two families; £100 could provide PPE for one frontline health worker for four months.
Stay up to date with developments on Twitter: www.twitter.com/decappeal or on Facebook via www.facebook.com/DisastersEmergencyCommittee
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