Solidarity fund to address health needs and provide livelihood support in India and Nepal

11 May 2021

Source: International Co-operative Alliance (ICA)

India and Nepal are experiencing an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths. Cooperatives and their members have not been immune to the impact of the pandemic. The health, lives and livelihoods of members and their families have been affected; and businesses of cooperatives have been disrupted.

Cooperatives in India are already demonstrating how to make a real difference to members and communities:

• the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) is building oxygen plants for free,
• the Uralungal Labor Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS) is shifting entire oxygen plants to hospital sites,
• the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is providing support to cooperatives to plan and set up new hospitals or upgrade existing infrastructure, and
• the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) is planning to use its own resources and raise money to carry out relief activities through their field offices spread across the country.
• The National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCF) is working to address the needs of its members.

These are the few we know, but there are many more doing their part and they need global support.

In order to coordinate the international solidarity efforts, the International Cooperative Alliance has set up the ‘Cooperatives Combat COVID-19’ fund where you can donate. See the details below:

Important! Reference “Donation India & Nepal” when sending the bank transfer

The ICA Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) Regional Office, NCUI and NCFN will work together to channel your contributions to cooperatives and those working to support cooperatives and their members.

There is also a need for in-kind contributions. In case you would like to send oxygen concentrators, oximeters, PPE kits, medicines, and other supplies, please reach out to the ICA-AP (Kulbhushan.kukreja@icaap.coop), the NCUI (savitri.ncui@india.coop) and the NCFN (Chitra Subba ncfcoop@gmail.com).

Your messages of well wishes are also important! Please send these to info@icaap.coop.

Find further updates and the messages of solidarity.

Caption: Photo by Firos nv on Unsplash