Priyanka and GiveIndia’s Atul Satija spoke about how the funds are being used to tackle India’s ground reality against its fight with Covid-19 pandemic. She also appealed to people to donate more and said she aims to collect Rs 22 crore and has increased the ambit of how the funds will be used.
“It’s been a tumultuous couple of months with so much happening on ground across India in the battle against Covid 19. The #TogetherForIndia Fundraiser that @nickjonas and I started with our partners @give_india has raised over $1 million (around Rs 7.5 crores) has been put to good use towards procurement of medical equipment like oxygen cylinders and concentrators and vaccination support,” the actor wrote.
Atul, who joined Priyanka in the chat, informed that GiveIndia, via Priyanka and Nick’s Together For India initiative, has been able to procure around 500 oxygen concentrators and 422 oxygen cylinders and the money is also being used to support 10 vaccination centres for two months so that 6000 people can get vaccinated.
Priyanka added that now via Together For India, the actor wants to raise around Rs 22 crore to tackle several other issues the country is battling due the the pandemic and Covid-19 led lockdown.
“We know there is a lot left to be done and so we’ve increased our target to $3 million (around Rs. 22 crores),” she wrote adding, “We will now also look towards supporting humanitarian aid programmes such as cooked meals and weekly dry rations. Unfortunately, the effects over the past one year of the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed over 230 million Indians into poverty and this has had a direct impact on hunger and malnutrition. People are struggling to survive. We can help. I urge you to please donate whatever you can now, because we’re all in this together and unless everyone is safe no one is safe.”
The actor said she and Nick want to “extend our support to other long-term needs like humanitarian aid.”
“Covid is hitting and moving towards rural areas and poorer communities. To prevent people from starving with not having jobs, no food, we wanted to raise funds to provide cooked meals or dry raashan to families, especially outside the city,” she said, calling the current situation of India as “unbelievable and scary.” Lastly, she urged her fans to donate and “feel responsible” for the country.
