Samarpana, a not-for-profit guided by the goals of “uplifting marginalised and disadvantaged communities” and “promoting India’s classical arts”, is working towards augmenting oxygen supply in five government hospitals in Chennai.
In a communication, Gayathri Suryanarayanan of Samarpana points out that the NGO is “in continuous contact with” the authorities at “Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital, Stanley Medical College, Thiruvallur Medical College, Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, Omandurar hospital” .
Gayathri elaborates that in order to #helpchennaibreathe, Samarpana has started a fundraiser to “procure a minimum of 420 oxygen cylinders with regulators and trolleys; procure 240 oxygen concentrators; 500 oxygen masks, NRBM masks and nasal prongs. We have identified vendors and estimated a cost of ₹3 crore to procure these materials. We have been able to collect ₹25 lakhs in a matter of 2.5 days. Time is of essence here and we are working round-the-clock to help Namma Chennai. Every compassionate contribution will go a long way in saving precious lives.”
Last year, Samarpana organised online programmes to benefit daily-wage earners and folk artistes.
“When there was complete lockdown last year, at the start of the pandemic in India, we started inviting artistes to perform online. On the very first day, 200 people were watching it online; and we thought we should have a fund-raiser clubbed with it, because we saw that many daily-wage workers were hard hit. Besides daily-wage workers, we were also focussing on folk artistes who were suffering terribly on account of the lockdowns in 2020. Their main months are from April to June and these were shut down completely. Over a period of two months, we managed to raise ₹25 lakh and give it to 3,000 artistes as groceries and cash to them. We also tied up with the Ministry of Culture and did programmes with folk artistes.”
For more details about the initiative, go to: tinyurl.com/help-chennai-breathe