As India continues to battle with Covid-19, Israeli aid organization SmartAID is distributing some 3,800 oxygen concentrators to medical facilities across the subcontinent that are overwhelmed by the high rates of infection and disease.
India, which has seen the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the world, is still facing thousands of deaths from the pandemic each day and more than a million active cases of the disease.
SmartAID’s Israeli and international staff, together with the Ted Arison Family Foundation, DHL, the Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust and Indian logistics company Blue Dart, are providing the oxygen concentrators to dozens of rural medical clinics, hospitals and community-based health centers.
In addition, SmartAID is working with local grassroots organizations to register online tens of thousands of families livening in remote villages and towns for vaccination.
“Marginalized communities face the greatest risk since they are already struggling to meet their daily needs,” says SmartAID founding director Shachar Zahavi. “With and through our local partners we are able to reach out to some of the most poor and rural communities, as well as women, girls, and children who are at highest risk.”
When the Covid crisis in India deepened in April, SmartAID sent a first dispatch of 200 large oxygen concentrators to major hospitals in New Delhi.
Israeli international aid group IsraAID also dispatched medical equipment and supplies at that time, and now is partnering with Gabriel Project Mumbai, a local NGO in Palghar, to distribute crucial medical supplies, provide mental health support for frontline healthcare workers, and bring additional healthcare workers to overwhelmed hospitals.
The Israeli government transported cargo planes full of medical equipment to the beleaguered country.
Earlier this year, SmartAID donated one million children’s masks and 600,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to help protect children in disadvantaged areas in Los Angeles County.
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