How Startups Procured 1,365 Oxygen Concentrators & Raised Rs 13 Cr To Help India Fight COVID
Amid international aid pouring in, a group of startups have launched 'Mission Oxygen', a donation programme via Ketto to initially raise about Rs. 2.5 Cr to source 500 Oxygen Concentrators (OCs) from China and elsewhere that could be donated quickly to needy hospitals and nursing centres and help save many lives.
India's second wave of infections has overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums and prompted an increasingly urgent response from allies overseas sending equipment.
Amid international aid pouring in, a group of startups have launched a donation programme Mission Oxygen' under their NGO Democracy People Foundation, via Ketto to initially raise about Rs. 2.5 cr to source 500 Oxygen Concentrators (OCs) from China and elsewhere that could be donated quickly to needy hospitals and nursing centres and help save many lives.
Mission Oxygen
Soon, donations scaled up and Mission Oxygen has so far raised Rs 13 crore.
"We raised this money with the support of 10,000 individual donors who really want to do something to help India come out of this crisis. As the fund raise progressed, our group sprung into action to secure the supply and carry out quality due diligence of vendors," it said in a statement.
For anyone that wants to help, Mission oxygen is a campaign that is raising money to provide oxygen cylinders and concentrators to hospitals around the country. Donate, share, retweet. EVERY contribution is IMPORTANT.
¡ª Kunal Kapoor (@kapoorkkunal) April 24, 2021
https://t.co/aFEJyxpRRQ
1,365 oxygen concentrators procured
The programme has managed to procure a supply of 1,365 OCs, and have also worked round the clock to successfully arrange logistics working together with partners like Spicejet, DHL, Flexiport and Delhivery.
Mission Oxygen
The first shipment of 500 will start arriving by this week and the remaining 800 will arrive by next week.
The foundation has secured 1365 concentrators from 7 factories, with each having confirmed bookings on flights coming into India in the following manner:
- 100 pcs getting loaded from Hong Kong for India
- 50 pcs under custom clearance at Shanghai
- 50 pcs under custom clearance at Hong Kong
- 300 pcs reaching Shanghai warehouse today
- 500 pcs getting dispatched from Factory in Shenyang for Beijing
- 300 pcs getting dispatched from Factory today in Quindao for Beijing
An oxygen generation plant has also been set up at Deen Dayal Upadhaya Hospital. This will be the first Oxygen Generation plant which will be setup by the Delhi Govt during this time.
They have created a team of 250 entrepreneurs out of Gurgaon working across procurement, QA/QC, certifications, due diligence, freight forwarding, air freight management, customs (China and India), logistics, legal, research, PR, communications, demand/requirement collection and distribution.
Additionally, 40-50 people are working on ground in China across Hong Kong, Shenzen, Shanghai, Guanghzao, Beijing.
¡°While we are doing our fund raised through Ketto, since Friday night where we have raised just over 10 crore, we have already fronted more than 14.5 crore which has been remitted to our vendors and agents,¡± DPF said in a statement.
The NGO says it is confident of bringing in anything between 3000-6000 OCs into India by 14-15th May.
