VisionSpring raises $1.5M for India's COVID-19 response; to deliver more than 1,000 oxygen concentrators
VisionSpring provided over 2.8 million units of PPE and other COVID-19 supplies to 161 partners in India, Bangladesh, and five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.
Social enterprise VisionSpring secured $1.5 million in emergency response commitments for India’s COVID-19 crisis. It will deliver necessary supplies including 1,000 oxygen concentrators and other care and safety supplies to frontline health workers.
The enterprise provides free eyeglasses to people living on less than $4 per day, and took to aiding people during the pandemic. As a part of its pandemic response, they have provided over 2.8 million units of PPE and other COVID-19 supplies to 161 partners in India, Bangladesh, and five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.
“Our emergency deployment builds on a year of COVID-19 mitigation activities in low-income communities. The flexible support of our funders and fantastic collaboration with partners has enabled us to quickly adapt,” said Ella Gudwin, VisionSpring, CEO.
“We are meeting the urgent need for COVID-19 treatment capacity now, and are also focused on the long-term public health objectives of prevention and expanding vaccination coverage,” she added.
The enterprise’s COVID-19 response is working to meet the critical and urgent needs in low-income communities and within its network of 200 health and eye care partners across India.
Dai Devi, a weaver in rural Barmer, Rajasthan, receives guidance from a VisionSpring team member on how to properly wash her hands at a handwashing station provided by VisionSpring.
It dispatched 1,000 sponsored oxygen concentrators, and distributed 1.4 million units of PPE distributed within India since the start of the pandemic. The second pillar is the commissioning of about 50,000 cotton masks from SEWA Bharat, now more than 500,000 since the onset of the pandemic.
In addition, it has set up 40 specially-designed handwashing stations that were delivered in recent weeks, while 200 more are being fabricated in Delhi.
The fourth pillar is focused on vaccination, where it will integrate vaccine registration and hesitancy counselling into its thousands of COVID-19 safe vision outreach programmes when they restart in the future.
“India’s fierce second wave of COVID-19 has exposed huge shortages in the healthcare system, not least the gap between demand and supply of medical equipment. To help bridge this, we are grateful to partner with VisionSpring to supply 500+ oxygen concentrators to various healthcare facilities as part of our emergency response to Covid relief requirements on the ground,” said Atul Satija, CEO and Founder 2.0 of crowdfunding platform GiveIndia.
VisionSpring’s response is also supported by partners including Warby Parker, National Vision Inc, The Canary Charitable Foundation, McNulty Foundation, ClearVision, Safeway Concessions (Siddhantham Tollway Private Limited), Touch of Color Foundation, SEWA Bharat, World Zoroastrian Organization US Region, Zarin Neville Foundation, International Medical Corps, and Anheuser Busch InBev.
Edited by Kanishk Singh