India has barely survived the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it impacted almost all the sectors in some or another way once again. After the second wave, scientists and doctors have predicted that there are high chances of a third COVID wave in the country.
During both the waves of COVID, many corporates and non-profit organizations came forward to help, including Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, Ola, and Google Inc.
While Amazon supplied medical equipment worth $12 million during the second wave of the COVID itself from its COVID relief funds, Google too did not leave itself behind in the philanthropic work to help the country fight against the Corona Virus.
Just as recent as last month in April, Google had announced help worth $18 million, which rounds up to around ₹135 Crores. This donation was deployed to help expand the reach of the public health information campaigns and support emergency relief work alongside. These funds were given to the “organizations supporting high-risk communities to help disseminate critical information.”
Google once again announced on June 17, Thursday that it will be donating yet another $15.5 Million for India. The amount will be divided into two parts, one of $15 million and the other of $500,000.
Google will be using these $15 million, which rounds up to around ₹109 Crore, to “support procurement and installation of approximately 80 oxygen generation plants in healthcare facilities in high-need and rural locations with new grants,” that will be given to GiveIndia and PATH. Google is also joining hands with Apollo Medskills and ARMMAN to set up oxygen generating plants and expand the health staff by building up the COVID-19 management skills among frontline workers.
Both of the organizations- GiveIndia and PATH will be working together to oversee the oxygen program and provide the management support required for the project. The work of PATH in the project is to identify the target locations and provide technical assistance at the location. It will also work with the state government and other local authorities and help in the completion of the installation of the oxygen plants.
A part of the fundings is also going to be invested in the efforts made by Apollo Medskills which upskilled more than 20,000 frontline health workers through specialized training in COVID-19 management.
Google is also be going to provide another $500,000, which is around ₹3.6 crores worth of grant to non-profit ARMMAN, which is going to organize skilling programmes for almost 180,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and almost 40,000 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) in 15 different Indian states.
CEO of Google- Sunder Pichai, made the announcement public via Twitter by Tweeting- “Our hearts go out to those in India impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and we continue to look for ways to help. Today @Googleorg will provide an additional $15.5 million to build oxygen generation plants and train healthcare workers in rural India.”
