Avery Dennison and Smile Foundation Join Hands to Provide Oxygen Concentrators to Support the Country's Response to COVID-19

Gurugram, Haryana, India: The second wave of the COVID-19 has put considerable strain on the country’s healthcare infrastructure and has stretched India’s oxygen production capacity and reserves. India has become the second-worst affected country, with more than 25 million cases, and more than 278,000 deaths.^{^[1]}

In a bid to pool resources to help remedy the situation, Smile Foundation, under its ‘Health Cannot Wait’ campaign, has joined hands with a multinational organization, Avery Dennison, to provide oxygen concentrators to district authorities in Gurugram, Haryana. This will help boost seamless distribution of oxygen concentrators to beneficiaries in the city.

Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder, and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation said, “As India continues to witness a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, crippling its health services, especially the supply of oxygen, we have partnered with Avery Dennison to provide oxygen concentrators, which will be made available with the help of district authorities in Gurugram.”

Speaking about the partnership, Ms Manvi Sushil, HR Director, Avery Dennison India said, “As India rallies to manage one of the biggest crises in our times, we, at Avery Dennison, continue to be committed towards the welfare of our employees, their families and the countries by supporting the covid 19 relief efforts. Financial support towards Hospital Extensions, oxygen concentrators, life saving ventilators and set-up of PSA Oxygen Plant are a few ways in which we as Avery Dennison have stepped up and stand united with the communities that we operate in. With this partnership with Smile Foundation we are confident that these oxygen concentrators will be made available to the people in dire need of oxygen resources in Gurugram and neighboring areas.”

Smile Foundation’s Health Cannot Wait campaign solicits long-term investment through donations to strengthen COVID care centers with critical supplies like oxygen cylinders, oximeters & oxygen concentrators. It entails the setting up of oxygen banks for critical patient support among vulnerable communities, mobilization of PPE Kits & N-95 Masks for frontline health workers, distribution of COVID-19 Protection Kits (including masks, soaps, sanitisers, oximeters), tele-counselling to dispel vaccine hesitancy, spread awareness on COVID-19 appropriate behavior and the provision of primary healthcare services to reduce the load on existing health infrastructure.

Smile Foundation is mustering support to provide 100 Covid-Care Centers and government health institutions necessary support through oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, BiPAP machines, PPE Kits, sanitizers, oximeters, thermal scanners & masks. It aims to create 100 Oxygen Banks across the country.

The Health Cannot Wait campaign has so far provided over 80,000 protective gear to frontline health workers and aims to provide 1 million protective gear to frontline health workers. As part of this campaign, so far, over 2,00,000 hygiene kits have been provided to vulnerable communities, and the target is to provide 500,000 hygiene kits to underprivileged families.

^{^[1]} https://www.who.int/countries/ind/

About Smile Foundation

Smile Foundation, is an NGO in India directly benefiting over 15,00,000 children and their families every year, through more than 400 live welfare projects on education for poor children, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment, in over 2000 remote villages and slums across 25 states of India. Adopting a life cycle approach of development, Smile Foundation focuses its interventions on children, their families, and the community.

Website: http://www.smilefoundationindia.org/

Smile Foundation

Avery Dennison and Smile Foundation Join Hands to Provide Oxygen Concentrators to Support the Country's Response to COVID-19

Smile Foundation and Avery Dennison are providing Oxygen Concentrators to support the District Authorities in Gurugram to help during Covid-19 pandemic

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