Walmart, Flipkart, Walmart Foundation jointly contribute Rs 46 Cr to fight coronavirus

In a combined effort, Walmart, Flipkart and Walmart Foundation will provide Rs 46 crore in both equipment and financial support to aid in the country’s fight against coronanvirus, or COVID-19.

In a statement, the three organisations said they will provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and financial support for organisations that are providing relief materials.

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Walmart and Flipkart will spend Rs 38.3 crore and will focus on providing PPE, such as N95 masks and medical gowns, to be distributed by non-government organizations (NGOs) to public healthcare workers.

Walmart and Flipkart have already secured 300,000 N95 masks and one million medical gowns, and they said both of them will continue to leverage their global supply chains to source these critical equipment for medical workers.

Walmart Foundation will donate a total of Rs 7.7 crore to Goonj and Srijan — NGOs supporting vulnerable communities through the crisis. The funds will be used to support the procurement of essential relief materials, such as food, medicine, and hygiene items, to be distributed to farmers, rural communities, and the micro-businesses.  

Kathleen McLaughlin, Executive Vice-president and Chief Sustainability Officer for Walmart, and President of the Walmart Foundation said, “In times like these, we all need to come together to support our communities and the efforts of healthcare workers, NGOs and government organizations.”

Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, said, “The emergency relief efforts we are announcing today underscore our commitment to continuing to work with the private and public sector in India to respond to this unprecedented challenge.”

Along with this, Walmart and Flipkart are also taking steps to help protect public health which include enhanced hygiene practices across the supply chain and delivery network, insurance and health benefits for workers, contactless deliveries where possible, and supporting cashless payments.

Flipkart is set to restart its operations from April 20 as the government has allowed ecommerce companies to function during this extended lockdown period.