9 Ways You Can Contribute Towards Fighting Against Coronavirus

Within the comforts of our homes, most of us are blessed to feel safe during the times of COVID-19. This 21-day lockdown has put many people out of their jobs & while we're at home, either working from home or not, there are NGO's & crowd-funding platforms that are risking their lives to save the not-so-privileged ones. But, you can help too, sitting right in front of your laptops/computers. Wondering how? Here are ways you can contribute towards fighting against coronavirus & do your bit. Support those who're already out there, helping others.

1. Zomato Feeding India Initiative

Through the 'Feed the Daily Wager' initiative by Zomato, you can provide food support to families in dire need for meals; it is for those people who've lost employment due to this pandemic. Furthermore, partnering with Grofers & multiple NGOs across 26 different cities, Zomato. aims to distribute kits to almost 2,50,000 families in need. Each kit will contain a combination of food grains and pulses – wheat flour, rice, and pulses that is enough to feed a family of 5. It has already collected a fund of Rs. 17.42 crores & wishes to cross its goal of Rs. 50 crores.

How to contribute: Go to the app, click on 'Feed the Daily Wager'. You can donate from Rs.500, that supports 1 family to any amount you wish to donate.

2. YUVA

Yuva (Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action) is a non-profit organization in Mumbai that is seeking funds online to fulfill the basic necessities for over 2000 families. It also means that they'll be providing them with safety gears for necessary precautions and are looking for volunteers too.

Through the campaign ‘Together We Can’ on Milaap.org, YUVA has managed to offer food kits to these construction workers & street vendors in areas like Vasai, Panvel, Virar & Mumbai. The kit consists of rice, wheat, pulses, and oil, to last a week and costs Rs 600 per package.

How to contribute: Through Paytm or UPI, you can make your donations, here.

3. PharmEasy & RazorPay

Through their respective apps, you can donate N95 masks to doctors & nurses & hospital staff who're protecting others day in day out.

How to contribute: Select the number of masks you wish to donate on the PharmEasy app or the Razorpay homepage. And, for every mask you donate, PharmEasy shall pledge one more, thus doubling the collections.

4. Paytm

What is the most important thing during these tough times? Maintaining hygiene & sanitation. They've taken it on themselves to provide sanitizers, handwash, and soap bars for the underprivileged sections of society with the amount people donate.

How to contribute: There is a dedicated icon for individual contributions on their homepage where you can start donations from Rs. 50 to as much as you want to.

Having partnered with Lifebouy & YouWeCan, cricketer Yuvraj Singh's foundation, they seek to launch India Fights Corona Campaign.

5. Help the Trans community in their fight against Corona

India's largest crowdfunding platform Milaap.org is running a fundraiser for the transgender community in Chennai. This is a citizen-led initiative by Kanaga, whose goal is to raise Rs 10.5 lakh to provide food and hygiene supplies for "trans women, trans men and all other non-binary and socio-cultural identities." These funds will be used to provide essentials such as oil, salt, drinking water, masks, basic medical supplies and soaps.

How to contribute: You can donate through Paytm or UPI app or make direct bank transfers here.

6. Google Pay

Although Google Pay hasn't initiated the contribution from their end, but it has opened the gateway to contribute to the Chief Minister’s Relief Funds (CMRF) of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, and Meghalaya for coronavirus donations.

How to contribute: Under the businesses section you'll find options to donate to different state governments. Choose the one you want to help and make your donations.

7. Prime Minister's Relief Fund

Various celebrities like Virat Kohli & Anushka Sharma have made statements that they'll be making contributions to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, and are urging people to do the same. Even legendary cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar has made a contribution of 25 lakhs through this fund. The PMRF is the central government’s distress relief fund. However, even individual citizens, businesses, and organisations can contribute to make a difference.

How to contribute: You can make your donations through the BHIM/UPI app or log in to the PMRF website.

8. Help Daily Wage Earners hit by Coronavirus

This 30-year-old Mumbai NGO led by Luis Miranda, President of the Board of Trustees at CORO has already raised funds of Rs. 5 lakhs through the biggest crowd sourcing platform, Milaap.org. It mainly aims to provide food kits, masks, santitation products to people who've temporarily lost their daily wages from small businesses who're financially affected. These include daily wage earners like rickshaw and taxi drivers, mall workers, maids, street vendors and others in the unorganized sector

How to contribute: Through Paytm or UPI, you can make your donations here.

9. Support The Daily Wage Earner

For the people living in the slums of Banganga, Lower Parel, Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, Colaba, Cuffe Parade, Colaba Macchimar Nagar & Dhobi Ghat & Napean Sea Road, this is a citizen-led initiative by Riddhi Shah is seeking to raise money to provide masks, sanitizers, handwashing liquid and soaps as well as necessary items like milk.

How to contribute: Through Paytm or UPI, you can make your donations here.