​As the pandemic swept India exponentially, it became evident that marginalized communities were affected disproportionately by COVID.

In India, over 230 million people fell below the poverty line; with schools being shut for close to 2 years, education was disrupted for 286 million children - only 8% of rural children were able to access online education. NGOs were on the frontlines of India's response to COVID, but 92% of them reported being underfunded during the pandemic.

This grim reality motivated us to launch #BackTheFrontline in late April 2021, a COVID relief campaign aimed at supporting 150+ grassroots NGOs so that they could continue the work they were doing for vulnerable communities, and help communities survive the pandemic. Within less than a year, the campaign has raised over $10 million and disbursed it to 152 NGOs from across 30 states & union territories of India, impacting over 2.9 million lives.

Read online here

The NGOs

• A-F
• G-M
• N-S
• T-Z

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​Aajeevika Bureau
​Since 2004, Aajeevika Bureau (AB) has focused its work on the seasonal, circular migrant workforce of Rajasthan and Gujarat. AB aims to provide lasting solutions to economic and socio-legal problems of migrant workers through policy, research, advocacy and enabling strong workers’ organizations. Their COVID-19 relief efforts include:

• ​Running dedicated helplines for migrant workers to help address grievances and providing constant information on COVID-19 related stipulations
• Providing accurate information on vaccinations, facilitating support for home treatment and institutional linkages to the rural poor
• Addressing food, healthcare and nutritional needs of migrant workers and their families, especially for high-risk populations​

Aangan Trust
Established in 2001, Aangan Trust has been dedicatedly working in 9 hotspots across different states to ensure strong child protection systems. They have also been actively involved in COVID-19 relief work which includes:

• Working virtually with frontline staff in childcare institutions (CCI) and district authorities to ensure that homes are prepared to prevent and manage COVID-19 outbreaks
• An individual plan of action for each CCI – based on the self-assessment
• Help desk service for CCIs geared to answer specific queries related to children’s psychosocial needs during this crisis – fear, anxiety, loneliness
• Providing pulse oximeter and non-contact IR temperature measure for 1,000 institutions where there is a higher risk of infection

Adhyayan Foundation
Established in 2015, Adhyayan Foundation is a capacity building organization dedicated to improving the quality of leadership and learning in schools and colleges. They have worked with various schools across 27 states.
​​They propose to form a ‘COVID-19 Youth Volunteer Crew - Goa’ amongst the children of government, aided/unaided high schools to reach urban and rural parts of Goa. This initiative will enable students to -

• Build their knowledge of what the virus is, its impact and how to stay safe 
  
• Design and lead an awareness campaign in the vernacular language to ensure that their communities adopt COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and can reopen safely
  
• Develop the skills of independent learning, collaboration and communication.

Anubhuti Trust
Since 2016, Anubhuti Trust has been working with the most marginalized tribes and focuses on mental health for building resilience in the community via youth leaders in Maharashtra. ​Their COVID-19 response focuses on NT-DNT (nomadic and denotified tribes) communities and includes: 

• Ration distribution, in-community mental health counseling and medical support for critically ill patients (COVID-19 +ve and others)
• Reaching the most vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, women with mental and physical disabilities, survivors of violence, transgenders, etc. 
• Regular community counseling on mental health, vaccination, precautions to be taken especially by at-risk individuals.

​Apnalaya
Set up in 1972, Apnalya works with the urban poor enabling access to basic services, healthcare, education and livelihoods, empowering them to help themselves and ensuring provision of civic entitlements through advocacy with the government in Maharashtra.​ It's offering relief support to families living in Shivaji Nagar, Mumbai via:

• Ration kit distribution to 2,000+ families
• Spreading awareness about COVID-19 appropriate behavior and encouraging vaccination
• Conducting a census of all households and facilitating applications for Aadhaar, ration cards, voter IDs and PAN cards to ensure households have access to government’s welfare and relief measures​

Apnishala
Founded in 2013, Apnishala has been working towards building social and emotional competencies among individuals to constructively engage with society. They are currently operating in different cities in Maharashtra. They have worked on the following initiatives to offer support to children and their families:

• 1,700+ families reached through relief support in Khoj and MCGM school communities since April 2020
• Call-based emotional wellbeing support to students and families in Khoj and other partner schools
• Moved social-emotional learning curriculum online for grades 5, 6 and 9 in their partner BMC schools and created online resources for teachers and parents to do wellbeing activities with children at home​​

​ARMMAN
Founded in 2008, ARMMAN works in 17 states in India with programs that have reached more than 24 million women and their children. ARMMAN seeks to empower women to seek care in time while training health workers to provide timely management of high-risk conditions. ARMMAN leveraged its existing networks and infrastructure to implement COVID-19 interventions that include:

• Free Virtual Outpatient Department that over 16,800 women and children have called for free consultations with volunteer doctors
  
• Sending COVID-19 information to 300,000 pregnant women and mothers of children up to the age of 1 in Mumbai slums directly to their mobile phones
  
• Sending critical information on a quick-time basis to 0.8 million health workers via their mobile phones
  
• Linking over 60,000 pregnant women and mothers of children up to the age of 1 in Mumbai slums with essential health services and facilities
  
• ​Upskilling 180,000 ASHAs and 40,000 ANMs (frontline health workers) in COVID-19 management skills including recognition, treatment and prevention of the disease in 15 states of India.

Arpan
Started in 2008, Arpan is operational in Maharashtra and present pan-India through online training programs, working on protecting children from sexual abuse and heal from its ill effects, providing prevention and intervention services to children and adults. 

• Providing tele-counselling to children who have experienced sexual abuse, to adult survivors of sexual abuse, and to others who need support
• Providing grocery kits to low-income families and medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators to government and low-income private hospitals​

ASHWINI
ASHWINI is a registered charitable society established in 1990.Its primary objective is to establish an accessible, effective and sustainable health system that is owned by the community.  ​

• As part of their response to COVID-19 second wave, they have restarted their calls to health volunteers on a daily basis.
• They are also providing health volunteers with basic vitamins and antipyretics at the village level, along with training to these volunteers as well as the youth to use pulse oximeters with all precautions.

Barefoot College
Founded in 1972, The Barefoot College connects rural communities to solar, water, education, professions and advocacy to help communities and individuals take control of their lives and the well-being of their communities. Their task force has been actively providing COVID-19 relief to communities.

• BCI content team equips the COVID champions with a repository of videos and audios which the person can disseminate via WhatsApp shares or voice message dissemination system.
• BCI Ground Task Force ensures through clear trackers and monitoring, that the CC liaises with the local medical care providing facility.
• The CC also maintains a local database of the community in partnership with the local governance on the COVID infection status and vaccination status.  
• For encouraging regular testing and removing vaccine hesitancy, the CC needs to closely counsel individuals to shift their mind-sets. This requires door-to-door visits, and networking through village level influencers, to convince one household at a time. ​

Basic Health Services
Established in 2012, Basic Health Services focuses on high-quality, low-cost primary healthcare services for vulnerable communities in Rajasthan. Their COVID-19 relief  activities include: 

• Focussing on community oriented activities like generating awareness on prevention, vaccination and provisioning for home-based care through a network of volunteers as well as effective communication
• Building COVID-19 care facilities at 3 block headquarters’ (Dungarpur and Udaipur districts) in partnership with the local government
• Providing tele-counseling services and helping seek medical referral to ensure support is available for affected families and communities

CFAR
Founded in January 1998, CFAR is committed to advancing the rights of a cross-section of marginal communities such as the urban poor, the girl child, unorganized workers, transgender persons and sexual minorities, single women etc. They have been actively working towards providing COVID-19 relief by: ​

• Providing nutrition  COVID-19 kits to people in need  
• Listing households with COVID-19 infected persons and linking them with information on nearest testing and care center, vaccination camps, community kitchens for cooked food for patients, counselling services and COVID-19 response schemes of the government

Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID)
CMID is an independent non-profit devoted to migration and inclusive development, advocating for and promoting the social inclusion of migrants and other socially disadvantaged populations in Karnataka.

• They aim to set up and operate one COVID-19 isolation centre of 40-bed capacity to facilitate isolation of the interstate migrant workers in Ernakulam district, particularly the footloose migrant workers​

Centre for Wildlife Studies
Established in 1984, The Centre for Wildlife Studies is an internationally recognized centre of excellence in the arenas of wildlife research, conservation, policy and education. They practice science-based conservation to promote the protection of wildlife and wildlands. Since PHCs in rural areas of the Western Ghats have very little access to medical supplies to treat and manage the pandemic CWS has decided to intervene by:

• Focusing on bolstering support to 172 primary health centres (PHCs) and providing them with the required materials​

Chetna Vikas
Chetna Vikas, founded in 1985, is for the empowerment and overall development of the disadvantaged sections of society in Jharkhand. To combat COVID-19, Chetna Vikas aims to do the following in 3 districts of the Santhal Pargana regions of Jharkhand:

• Community education and awareness about COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and vaccines to vulnerable group. This includes involving traditional tribal and religious leaders to combat misinformation and myths
• Conduct a needs assessment of the community to understand health risks and economic impact on livelihoods
• Start a dry food bank and provide medical measures such as masks, PPEs, etc. while following COVID-19 safety behaviour                          

CORO India
Over the last 25 years, CORO has mobilized and inspired local people and concerned authorities to ​stand for equality and justice in gender-related issues in Maharashtra and Gujarat. In their relief efforts with vulnerable communities, CORO is looking to provide:

• Dry food and basic hygiene kit 
• Urgent medical treatment costs, covid medicines & immunity boosting supplements
• Compensation for livelihood loss of upto Rs. 5,000 
• Basic medical equipment at Rs. 10,000 per kit, at a village or community level
• Support to women and families under their domestic violence program during this period

Dharma Life
Active since 2009, Dharma Life is dedicated to increasing quality of life of low-income households in rural India through a unique, community-driven women-focused entrepreneurship model. ​Their COVID-19 relief efforts involve:

• Building awareness through campaigns on vaccinations, medical assistance and other key messages in local languages, in coordination with NITI Aayog
• Provisioning and supplying of essentials including medical supplies like pulse oximeters, oxygen cylinders, ration packages, etc. on a need basis
• Enabling access to doctors’ consultations (for physical and mental health issues) through telephone or other tools
• Setting up vaccination drives and camps across the country,  jointly with the government
• Linking rural women into skilling and livelihood opportunities

Diya Ghar
​Since 2016, Diya Ghar has been working towards their mission of setting up pre-schools and daycare centres for children of migrant workers in the city of Bangalore and gradually expanding to other cities in India. Their COVID-19 relief efforts include:

• Running preschool and nutrition programs for children and focusing on healthcare needs within the community
• Switching to a community-based model from a pre-school/daycare facility with agility to serve the needs of vulnerable children in slum colonies
• Distributed dry ration kits to 1,000 families in slum communities

Darbar Sahitya Sansada (DSS)
For the last 20 years, DSS has been working with agrarian, tribal and forest dwelling communities in Odisha to deal with food and livelihood security. Their COVID-19 relief activities are:

• Covered 350 Dalit families in Khordha and Puri district under "Food for Work" programme, where ration kits were provided and members were engaged in community work
• Proposed to expand the programme to 1,000 Dalit families in Puri and Bhubaneshwar

Dream a Dream
Started in 1999, Dream a Dream works with 10,000 young people a year through a few key initiatives - an after schools program and a career placements program with direct partnerships with schools in Bangalore & collaboratives with other state governments in Jharkhand, Telangana, Delhi, Karnataka and Uttarakhand. To combat COVID-19 they undertook the following relief efforts:

• Created a task force to deal with emerging requirements: testing, care kits, home isolation support, care centres, teleconsultation with doctors, etc. 
• Set up a happiness helpline in Delhi
• Created learning youtube channels in Jharkhand
• Provided ration, food support and direct benefit transfers to teachers
• Provided tech devices to youth aged 14-23 to support home based jobs/learnings                 

EKTA Resource Centre for Women
Ekta was started in the year 1990 and aims at gender justice by empowering women through knowledge sharing, training and alliance building. ​

• As part of their COVID-19 relief acitivites, they are providing community service to vulnerable women.             

Gramalaya
Gramalaya was established in 1987 with a group of committed youths in the field of rural development. They have been working in the field of water, sanitation, and hygiene with various demographic conditions covering rural, urban, coastal and tribal areas. Gramalaya's COVID-19 relief activities are:

• Enhancing the medical services to people who are taking treatment as inpatient in Government Hospitals, Tiruchirappalli Region
  
• Increasing personal protection of frontline workers including hospital para medical team of Government hospitals
  
• Ensuring consistent and concurrent hand washing behaviour with soap and sanitizers among the unserved communities; distribution of reusable cloth pads among women and adolescents

Goonj
Since 1999, Goonj has been undertaking disaster relief, humanitarian aid and community development in parts of 23 states across India. As part of their COVID-19 relief work, they have been:

• Supplying ration, hygiene essentials, medical equipment, beds, etc. on a need basis to institutions and individuals from vulnerable communities
• Facilitating direct monetary transfers for essentials to daily wagers
• Creating alternate income generation opportunities by augmenting the usage of natural resources or local skills 
• Working deeper in areas where there is dire need to focus on village sanitation, community and personal hygiene and nutrition for community development

Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS)
Founded in 1983, GRAVIS is a leading NGO working in Thar Desert, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Bundelkhand regions of India. They have been dedicatedly working among impoverished rural communities. As part of their Covid relief work, they:

• Provided food aid to ~40,000 households since the pandemic began
• Provided hygiene kits to ~25,000 households
• Treating non-COVID and mild to moderate COVID patients at GRAVIS hospital
• Conducting educational activities

Gram Vikas
GVT's aim since 2001 in Gujarat (Bharuch & Narmada) has been to secure integrated development through people’s participation. The key areas identified for interventions include child rights, education, health and hygiene, sustainable livelihood, and women empowerment. GVT's COVID-19 relief efforts were centred around providing food to the most vulnerable and included:

• Distributing ration kits to 80+ malnourished children, 450 vulnerable elderly people across villages and to slum areas of Bharuch and rural villages to beneficiaries who have lost earning members of the family or lost their jobs
• Distributing N95 Masks to all frontline workers in Bharuch city

Guardian of Dreams
Guardians of Dreams is a start-up non-profit organisation that works with children in need of care and protection who grow up in Child Care Institutions (CCIs) like orphanages, open shelters, observation homes, adoption centres, etc. As part of their COVID-19 relief work, they have set up 3 core activities:

• Home care kit - first aid items for children across these homes (oximeter, medicines, masks, PPE kits)
• Covid care kit - Covering costs of COVID-19 & its treatment
• Financial aid - Emergency financial aid to sustain the quality of care in homes facing financial distress (Groceries, support staff salaries etc.)

Hasuri Dala
Founded in 2011, Hasiru Dala is a social impact organisation in Karnataka that works with waste pickers and other waste workers to ensure them a life with dignity. As part of their COVID-19 interventions, they have been providing: 

• Hygiene kits, protein kits and other special kits to young children, lactating mothers, and pregnant women

Industree
Established in 2000, Industree Foundation works in Karnataka, Odisha & Tamil Nadu to holistically tackle the root causes of poverty by creating an ownership based, organized creative manufacturing ecosystem for micro-entrepreneurs. Their COVID-19 relief interventions include: 

• Creating awareness in rural communities focused on prevention, precautions and  management of COVID-19, immunisation programs and insurance coverage, while also dispelling the myths around vaccination and stigmas surrounding the disease
• Building community based common infrastructure support covering oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters, thermometers and sanitary kits
• Providing relief support of counselling services and calling circles

Jan Chetna Manch Bokaro
Established in 1994, Jan Chetna Manch is working in various focus areas to uplift backward villages in the district of Bokaro, Jharkhand. As par of their COVID-19 relief activities, they :

• Provided relief packages and nutritional supplements to vulnerable families, malnourished children and pregnant women
• Organised awareness meetings in the villages regarding the need to continue masking, identified early COVID-19 symptoms and advocated the need for vaccination 
• Subsidised antenatal and child birth care for the vulnerable communities
• Strengthened the health center nursing team by training more health workers

Jan Vikas Samiti
Since its inception in 1998, JVS has been working for the integral development of the marginalized and underprivileged sections of the society, particularly of women, children, scheduled caste and persons with disabilities. As part of their COVID-19 relief activities, they are:

• Providing medical relief to 100+ villages and essential workers and children from Musahar communities
  
• Focusing on children to distribute marks and PPE kits to frontline workers

Jan Sahas
For 20 years, Jan Sahas has been working with the most excluded social groups on safe migration and workers’ protection; and prevention of sexual violence against women and children. Its initiatives are spread across 11 states in India. Through the Migrants Resilience Collaborative anchored by Jan Sahas - the organization will focus on 100K of the most vulnerable among the migrant communities to provide the following relief:

• Food / ration provisions
• Safe transportation facilities
• Direct cash transfers to meet basic needs
• ​Healthcare support

Jan Sahyog Kendra
Jan Sahyog Kendra is a grass root level organization, working in the field of development and mobilization of deprived community in the area of Hazaribag since 2004.

• As part of their COVID-19 relief activities, they are reaching out to communities to distribute medical kits
  
• They are also focusing on vaccination awareness programs

Jan Swasthya Sahyog
​Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS) was founded in 1996 with the mission of changing the health situation in rural India. The organization runs high impact health focussed programs in remote tribal areas in Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Some of the ways in which they are serving rural and tribal communities are:

• Supporting treatment of COVID-19 patients from low socio-economic backgrounds
• Supporting frontline workers and providing them with training and capacity building
• Supporting with medicines and consumables and diagnostics of patients admitted to the COVID-19 wards and ER

Jan Vikas (Centre for Social Justice)
Founded in 1987, Janvikas uses the judicial system to fight for the rights of the most marginalized migrant communities and informal workers, as well as urban poor and youth. They are running their operations in 11 districts of Gujarat. Their COVID-19 relief program activities include: ​

• Training community leaders and equipping them with a prevention kit along with a healthcare guide for helping with early detection and disease control for 1,100 villages in Gujarat
• Enabling access to equipments like oxygen concentrators, CPAP Machines for underserved vulnerable communities
• Upscaling current healthcare skilling for paramedics to help with pandemic preparedness and designing isolation facilities for patients

Kajla Jan Kalyan Samiti 
Kajla Jan Kalyan Samiti works in the village of Kajla in West Bengal to empower relatively deprived people to fight against all sorts of exploitation, deprivation, discrimination and injustice. ​

• During COVID-19, they provided ration and livelihood support to families
  
• They also established isolation centres and provided medical kits to health workers

Kandhamal Zilla Sabuja Vaidya Sangathan (KZSVS)                 Established in 2004, KZSVS aims to improve the quality of life of the most disadvantaged members of the society in Kandhamal district of Odisha through community empowerment. ​

• As part of their COVID-19 relief work, they have established an isolation centre
• They are also distributing ration and conducting awareness programs on vaccination

Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT)
In 2003, KHPT was founded with a mission to enhance the health and wellbeing of vulnerable communities and they started by focussing on reducing the prevalence of HIV in Karnataka, specifically among most at-risk populations. Over the years they have successfully scaled their programmes beyond Karnataka. KHPT’s interventions during the pandemic have been focused on:​

• Serving the priority needs of adolescent girls and boys across villages by providing sanitary pads, educational support, counselling and distribution of COVID care kits
• Working on awareness building interventions in rural communities
   

Keystone Foundation
Started in 1994, the work of Keystone Foundation is focused on the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, where it currently works in 135 indigenous villages with an estimated number of 15000 individuals. ​

• They have been actively enaging in community service to health workers and tribals in the Nilgiri as well as relief to peri-urban frontline workers, as a response to COVID-19.
  

Kotda Adivasi Sangathna (KAS)
KAS was formed in 1998 to provide development services and support to tribal communities in the remote parts of Udaipur and Sirohi districts which border North Gujarat. As part of COVID-19 relief work, they are:

• Focussing on the immediate needs of tribal communities in the Udaipur district
• Creating healthcare kits for households, especially for families with patients that have existing comorbidities
• Provisioning for ambulances to service emergencies and arranging PPE kits and equipment for frontline workers in rural areas
• Building awareness on vaccination and healthcare for families and providing ration to the most vulnerable families

Lok Swasthya SEWA Trust (SEWA Bharat)
What began as the SEWA movement in Ahmedabad in 1972, is now a national union of over 18 lakh women workers of the informal economy in 14 states of India. Lok Swasthya has been bringing the issues of women workers directly to the attention of policy-makers and legislators across different levels and in their voices. ​

• They are undertaking relief efforts across 11 states for informal workers
• Their work focuses on 4 major areas: relief resources for health needs, livelihood support, ration and raising awareness around COVID-19
• They are planning to reach out to 30,000 families in accessing food, medication, and healthcare

Magic Bus
Founded in 1999, Magic Bus equips children and young people in the age group of 12 to 18, with the skills and knowledge they need, to grow up and move out of poverty. ​ Through its COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Programme, Magic Bus has reached out to lakhs of children and young people across 22 geographies:  

• They will ensure that the 3 lakh children who are at risk of dropping out, are back in school with the intent of completing formal education
• By securing livelihoods of 2 lakh families, they will enable families to be able to invest in children’s education and keep them in school, provide them nutritious food and treat girls and boys equally
• Strengthening community-based institutions like the School Management Committees (SMCS) and local governance bodies  by training community volunteers to conduct door-to-door survey in order to map drop-outs
• Within schools, they will carry out life skills and learning engagement sessions,  and jointly plan activities with school authorities to ensure quality of learning

MAHAN Trust 
Started in 1997, MAHAN is the only NGO in the Melghat region (Maharashtra) providing medical care and Health Services to the tribal communities.

• They are developing preventive and curative community-based model for tribal areas of India. Most of the cases from tribal villages will be diagnosed in villages and mild to moderate cases will be managed in the community
  
• The model will have strong behaviour change communication (BCC) interventions, which will focus on risk factors for COVID-19 in Melghat. Masks and pulse oximeters will be supplied free of cost to villagers
  
• Their team of trained workers will conduct various BCC programs to motivate tribes for vaccination and help the government for its smooth implementation in villages.
  
• They will supply free food to severely malnourished children, pregnant and lactating mothers and ensure real time tracking along with verbal autopsy to know the exact cause of death

Mahila Abhivrudhi Mattu Samrakshana Samsthe (MASS) 
Mahila Abhivruddi Mattu Samrakshana Samsthe (MASS) is based in the Belgaum district of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. MASS mainly works with Dalit women with a focus on ex-Devadasi women and their children. As part of their COVID-19 relief interventions, MASS are:

• Providing ration support and conducting vaccination awareness programs
• Focusing on livelihood activities and income generation program for the Devdasi community​

Mahila Housing Trust
Initiated in 1994, Mahila Housing Sewa Trust (MHT)’s mission is to organize and empower women in poor communities across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to improve their habitat. Through its grassroots programs, MHT empowers women to exercise their rights and uplift living conditions for their families and neighbours. 

• Their primary target for COVID-19 relief efforts are slum dwellers and the most vulnerable from them are assisted with ration and safety kits      
• They are also conducting vaccination drives in the slum areas honorarium to women leaders

Make A Difference (MAD)
Since 2006, MAD has been working towards foundational skill development, education support, individual care and attention and customised programmes for children in 23 different cities across the country. Through their COVID-19 support, they have been able to help children and youth in a variety of ways:

• Ration, rent support and travel expenses to come back to shelter homes for the youth, their families and CCIs
• Covering hospital expenses for children and their families. Additionally, providing COVID-19 medical insurance for youth working in high-risk jobs. and quarantining facilities for those with symptoms
• Providing school/college and tech support fees for children/youth as well as laptops and internet so that they can continue their education
• Unemployment support including a stipend for living expenses​

Mann Deshi
Founded in 1996, Mann Deshi has been providing access to financial education, skills and a support network for rural women in Maharashtra. They have been working on ensuring supplies of medical facilities in rural Maharashtra in collaboration with the district authorities to provide relief to the overburdened infrastructure in the state. Their specific activities include:

• Provisioning for additional isolation facilities, oxygen concentrators, ambulances, equipment for CT scans and monitoring
• Providing direct beneficiary transfer to vulnerable families who are not able to afford paying the hospital fees and other charges
• Supporting the vaccination drive while ensuring wide coverage through reaching households at their doorstep

Martha Farrell Foundation (PRIA)
​Established in 1982, The Martha Farrell Foundation supports practical interventions which are committed to achieving a gender-just society and promoting life-long learning. They have been working closely to alleviate immediate distress of women domestic workers in and around Delhi, by providing the following relief efforts: 

• Dry ration and extra essential nutrition for pregnant, lactating women and infants
• Basic sanitary needs of menstruating women and other family members 
• Dispelling misinformation by providing critical information related to testing, vaccinations, hospitalization and important helpline numbers

Milaan Foundation
​Milaan Foundation is a social impact organization founded in 2007, which envisions a world where every girl has the knowledge, skills, and social environment to pursue her dreams. They operate in the states of Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. As part of COVID-19 relief work, they aim to:                                                                                                                   

• Help the most vulnerable villages in rural areas with COVID-19 medicine kits and food kits 
• Support frontline health workers with medicine kits to treat COVID-19 patients in home isolation​​​
• They also collaborated with the health delivery infrastructure of the government at block level in Sidhuli, Sitapur led by the CHCs and supported by the PHC and ASHA workers

Mission Oxygen 

Generous contributions so far have enabled the procurement of over 450 oxygen concentrators. These concentrators will be distributed in partnership with Mission Oxygen to public healthcare facilities, army hospitals and other institutions in greatest need. 

Navchetana Sarvangin Vikas Kendra
Navchetana Sarvangin Vikas Kendra (NSVK) strives for transforming unjust structures of the society from grass roots. They aim at building harmonious and self-sufficient communities for people from various religions, languages and cultures.   ​

• As part of their COVID-19 relief activities, they partnered with stakeholders at different levels to distribute relief packets to families
  
• They are also focusing on livelihood support

Network for Enterprise Enhancement and Development Support (NEEDS)
Established in late 1998, NEEDS [Network for Enterprise Enhancement and Development Support] started interventions in selected poverty-stricken pockets of Bihar and Jharkhand. As part of their COVID-19 relief programmes, they have done the following:  ​

• Successfully set up centers with helplines to provide community support and prevent emergencies and mobilized people for vaccination
• Provided medical home isolation kits, oxygen supplements and medical advisory on a one-to-one basis
• Ensured supply of cooked food for vulnerable families and provided nutrition support to children and pregnant women of daily wage workers
• Tracked girl child marriages, prevented such acts by promoting 1098 and VLCPC-girl champions networks and provided psycho-social support to COVID-19 patients, pregnant women, adolescent girls etc.
• Helped families avail benefits of Governments Mango Plantation drive under MGNREGA

Parivaar
Parivaar was started in late 2003 for children from impoverished and destitute backgrounds. Their vision is to reach as many children and youth as possible throughout India and help transform their lives. They have been actively involved in COVID-19 relief work as well through: ​

• Teleconsultation and medicine kit distribution and coordinating transport and admissions into hospitals for COVID-19 patients  
• Ration kit distribution to poor households  
• Vaccine advocacy
• Enhancing government healthcare system's capacity by providing them with equipment like OCs, medicines, diagnostic kits etc

Pravah
Pravah was seeded in 1993, with the intent to create safe spaces for adolescents and youth to form their own opinions and bring about a change within themselves and the society around them.

• ​They have been conducting wellbeing sessions with 1,000 young people from 5 states and building 40 youth champions who will in turn impact 2,000 households from vulnerable and marginalized communities through immediate relief, recovery and psycho-social interventions (COVID-19 community projects)

Prerana
Prerana is a civil society organization that started working in the red light areas of Mumbai in 1986 and takes a 360 degree approach to its efforts in ending commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. As part of their COVID-19 relief efforts, they are:

• ​Providing ration and grocery kits to women and children in red light areas, from the Pardhi communities in slum areas and to families of urban poor that may comprise children who have been subjected to child sexual abuse
• Supporting the youth who have transitioned out of childcare institutions, including those who have lost their jobs
• Ensuring that women daily wage earners are compensated for loss of wages owing to the non-working hours spent on the vaccine process

Protsahan India Foundation
Founded in 2010, Protsahan India Foundation is a centre of excellence in innovation to eradicate child abuse so that all girls living in vulnerability grow up empowered with access to education and healthcare in safe spaces and freedom from abuse of any kind. The organization is working with children affected by COVID-19 by:

• ​Proactively reaching out to vulnerable children
• Directly training staff, counselors and volunteers at orphanages, shelter homes, remote NGOs, child welfare committee members and child care institutions
• Supporting conversations and safe spaces on grief, death, loss of parents in a trauma informed manner at an ecosystem level approach

Project Potential
Started in 2012, Project Potential envisions a movement of change-makers towards sustainable rural development in backward districts of Bihar. Their COVID-19 relief efforts are focused mainly on healthcare. They have helped by:

• Preventing premature deaths from COVID-19 through awareness and vaccination drives
• Supporting government monitoring and triaging of home isolated COVID-19 patients
• Providing PPE kits, sanitary materials and technical support to PHCs and ANMs
• Strengthening dedicated COVID-19 health centres by providing oxygen and technical support and increasing bed capacities 

Rural Education And Development (READ) India
Since 2008, READ India has helped bring 25 READ Centres (Community Library and Resource Centres) to life in 10 States across India. They also aim to provide COVID-19 relief in the communities they're working with by:

• Providing basic dry ration kits and COVID-19 care kits 
• Training to a cadre of women as community health workers to undertake preventive and curative measures at the village level
• Ensuring availability of basic medicines at the READ Centers 
• Conducting awareness workshops by certified doctors and medical practitioners

Saajha
Founded in 2014, Saajha believes in the dignity and potential of parents and enables them to impact the lives of children. Saajha currently works with 1,300 schools in Delhi, Karnataka, and Jharkhand.   
​The 2 big issues that the parents they work with have been facing are - lack of essential commodities and engaging with children. To address these two, they have designed a two-pronged approach for ameliorating the situation in the communities.​

• Setting up a helpline for providing necessary information and support on challenges being faced by families
• Supporting communities in meeting critical expenses for selected individuals by providing livelihood opportunities for mothers

Salaam Baalak Trust Mumbai
Salaam Baalak Trust started their work in 1989 with 1 shelter but over the years have scaled their work to an extent where today they are providing care to over 500 children across Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan & Solapur. As part of their COVID-19 relief work, they are: ​

• Providing street associated children with nutritional, educational and medical support
• Running shelters that offer immediate help to 'at risk' children in transit and those living in difficult circumstances
• Providing food security through cooked meals and mental health support to vulnerable families
• Delivering quality health care services through frontline workers as well as digital platforms and technology tools

Sampark
Based out of Karnataka for the last 30 years, Sampark has been helping vulnerable and poor people, especially women, to gain direct control over and improve their lives by educational interventions primarily aimed at increasing people’s income earning ability. They are working with both migrant workers and their children to enable the following:​

• Distribution of dry ration kits  
• Reactivating workers' WhatsApp groups formed last lockdown to educate them about CVOID-19 safety measures and the importance of vaccination
• Coordinating and organizing vaccination drives in labour colonies in collaboration with the builders, workers, BBMP and local PHCs                   
• Supporting testing and treatment of workers

Sangath
Working in Goa for the last 24 years, Sangath is committed to improving mental health services across the age spectrum and also making them accessible and affordable. They have launched a virtual COVID-19 wellbeing center offering free phone-based and online mental health services by its trained team to anyone across the country, with a special focus on frontline and essential workers. ​

• Their response is open to anyone and especially intended for adolescents in distress, frontline workers, marginalised groups such as individuals who identify as LGBTQIA, Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi youth, those in need of grief etc.
• Their service is comprehensive and will provide three types of mental health support - tailored individual mental health support, community building and resources for self-management and care.

Sathee
Registered in 1996, Sathee is working towards the socio-economic empowerment of tribes, OBCs and other oppressed communities. Through their COVID-19 relief efforts, they aim to:​

• Implement sensitization of community for proper information on COVID-19 appropriate behaviours, address vaccine hesitancy and reduce the loss of life in the area
  
• Supply dry ration packets to vulnerable and women headed families and hygiene kits to adolescents
  
• Utilize the maximum benefits from Poshan Bank on immediate basis to ensure community based sustainability and nutrition management in the village.
  
• Improve sources of income for poor families by promoting agriculture of nutritious crops
  
• Help local children continue their education and ensure adequate nutrition

SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF)
Founded in 2008, SaveLIFE Foundation is an independent NGO committed to improving road safety and emergency medical care across India, especially focussing on the urban poor in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Therefore, their response to COVID-19 was also centred around medical needs and included: ​

• Providing oxygen concentrators and generation plants, cylinders, etc. directly to field hospitals in collaboration with the Government of Delhi
• Developing data driven tools to estimate and address on-ground needs like number of ICU beds, ventilators, ambulances, etc.
• Addressing direct needs of the frontline health workers and vulnerable communities through provisioning and supplying of relief materials like safety gear, meals, etc.
• Undertaking training and capacity building to promote COVID-19 appropriate behaviour among health workers and communities

SEEDS India
For the last 26 years, SEEDS has been building the resilience of people exposed to disasters through practical solutions for disaster readiness, response and rehabilitation in Uttarakhand and West Bengal. They aim to do the following for COVID-19: ​​

• Set up COVID-19 care centres (20-bed capacities) across geographies with the help of local communities
• Equipping these centres with beds, oxygen concentrators, medical equipment, drinking water facility and ambulances for emergency assistance

Seva Mandir
Established in 1968, Seva Mandir has established itself as one of the world's most innovative organizations in addressing the problems of resource management, livelihoods improvement, and village-level governance. They have also been actively doing their bit towards COVID-19 relief by: ​

• Supporting COVID-19 patients and their families with home isolation kits  
• Providing food and sanitation kits to vulnerable families in rural and tribal areas
• Providing access to safety kits like a face shield, mask, etc. to frontline workers  
• Spreading community awareness by training the on ground workers on COVID-19 appropriate behaviour
• Supporting government health facilities and clinics by equipping them with oxygen concentrators etc. and creating COVID-19 care centres for villages

Seven Sisters Development Assistance (SeSTA)
Registered in 2011, Seven Sisters Development Assistance (SeSTA) collectivizes women to form Self Help Groups (SHGs), builds their capabilities and strengthens livelihood systems across NE India. Their COVID-19 relief efforts aim to reach the most vulnerable and include:

• Creating access to life-saving medical aid for isolation centres designated for tea garden workers
• Providing ration support to tea garden workers, daily wagers, marginalized farmers, transgender communities and those affected by floods
• Restoring livelihoods of vulnerable families by providing financial and technical support through the creation of Backyard Poultry
• Training tribal women weavers from the Missing and Bodo tribal groups communities and providing them yarn to help restore their livelihood 

SEWA Rural
SEWA Rural has been working incessantly for the past 40 years towards the improvement of people's health and other fields in the rural and tribal areas of Jhagadia in South Gujarat. Their COVID-19 interventions include important medical support such as: ​

• Providing frontline workers with COVID-19 hygiene kits and working with them to ensure that basic health care continues to reach the vulnerable population
• Providing ration kits to migrants and masks to adolescents
• Working towards installation of hand wash stations

Shaishav
Shaishav is a grassroots organization working alongside children from marginalised communities in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India. Shaishav intends to initiate an innovative yet sustainable model of education for tribal and other children throughtheir project “Aaranyak.” Objectives of their six month project are as follows: ​

• Improving COVID-19 appropriate behaviour
• Providing psycho-social support to children to ensure their wellbeing as well as mobilising support for those who lost one or both parents due to COVID-19
• Ensuring that the children continue their education and prevent them to join labour or child marriage or child trafficking
• Initiating long-term processes for the holistic development and wellbeing of children and young people

Shelter Associates
Shelter Associates is a Civil Society Organization established in 1993 to improve the living conditions of the urban poor in India. They have been providing all possible support in fighting the pandemic in the slums of Maharashtra. Their programmes include: ​

• Running volunteer-based helplines to support communities with information on nutrition, hygiene, sanitation, COVID-19 appropriate behaviours and prevention
• Distributing hygiene kits, food grains and other essential items to the communities 

SNEHA
Since 1999, SNEHA has been working with women, adolescents and children in the most vulnerable slum communities  of Mumbai. Their COVID-19 relied efforts include:

• Generating awareness on prevention and vaccination through tele-counselling and creating Behaviour Change Communication material freely available to other NGOs​
• Building capabilities of the large base of community volunteers while partnering with the public systems to help vaccinations and sustain their work on health and nutrition-related aspects​
• Provisioning of materials and PPE for district authorities as well as frontline workers 
• Continuing to focus on physical and mental health and gender based violence

Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH)
Established in 1986, SEARCH has been providing healthcare to the rural and tribal people in Gadchiroli district and empowering the communities to take care of their own health. They've also been conducting high-quality research to shape the local, national and global health policies.  Their COVID-19 relief activities in the different villages of the district include:                   

• Early and rapid detection of COVID-19 patients
• Provision of scientific, cost effective and culturally appropriate hospital care for patients
• Quick and on-demand accessibility of ambulance services for suspected and diagnosed patients

Spandan Samaj Seva Samiti
Spandan Samaj Seva Samiti's mission is to empower the marginalized communities in a manner that they are able to secure their Human & Constitutional Rights and lead a life of dignity. They work in the state of Madhya Pradesh. ​            

• As part of their COVID-19 interventions, they are running a helpline, working with migrants, providing ration support to vulnerable groups and spreading awareness about COVID-19

 Swasth Foundation
Founded in 2009, Swasth Foundation is a non-profit social enterprise committed to health and joy for all. They focus on improving the well-being of the poor by providing a range of affordable and high-quality primary-preventive health services in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka. Their COVOID-19 interventions include: 

• Partnering with local NGOs working in rural areas to provide relief
• Conducting community education about COVID-19 and motivating people to get tested early and also quarantine themselves at the earliest
• Setting up and operating community-based quarantine centres equipped with oxygen concentrators to manage COVID-19 patients with moderate to mild symptoms
• Supporting on-ground workers by supplementing with provisions like medicines, PPE kits, consumables etc.

Swasti
Founded in 2002, Swasti provides quality healthcare and medical facilities to some of the poorest communities in Karnataka. Through their COVID-19 relief work, they are:

• Enabling diagnosis and treatment for non-communicable diseases linked with comorbidities and timely vaccination against COVID-19
• Providing additional HR including nurses, lab technicians, data entry personnel etc. for stakeholders in the forefront of response
• Automating and upgrading government labs to help increase lab capacity, reduce dependency on HR and improve result quality
• Supporting home-based care for COVID-19 in vulnerable communities by providing equipment such such as blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring
• Providing tele-care for primary health care and mental health support through a clinical team

Swayam Shiksha Prayog (SSP)
Since 1998, SSP has focused on revitalizing rural economies by putting women in charge in Maharashtra, Kerala, Bihar and Odisha. They have taken the lead in working with the local government for Covid-19 relief work by:

• Setting up community-level COVID-19 isolation and care centres in villages of Maharashtra - supported by the local governments and run by SSP’s Frontline Women Leaders
• Ensured refresher training and honorarium for Frontline Women Leaders
• Provided seed grants to women farmers to revive agriculture and enterprise
• Strengthened livelihoods by providing sowing kits for women farmers belonging to marginal farmer households

Funds deployed to SaveLife Foundation, Swasti, Jan Vikas, Goonj and Mahila Housing Trust have been directed towards:

• Providing home-based care kits for vulnerable populations
• Enabling community surveillance
• Setting up COVID-19 Care Centres in collaboration with village panchayats
• Providing early detection & prevention kits to community leaders
• Procuring and deploying oxygen concentrators

The Banyan
Established in 1993, the team at Banyan Tree offers comprehensive mental health services in a range of institutional and community settings for people with mental health issues living in homelessness and poverty. They work in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra. ​

• They have ensured that all their clients have had no break in supply of essentials like food, clothing, medicines etc
• In collaboration with other stakeholders, they have mobilised oxygen concentrators and set up oxygen plants
• In partnership with the Govt. of Tamil Nadu, they have established care centres to promote access to mental health care and prevent chronic homelessness and sustained deprivation, particularly through the pandemic
• They facilitated unconditional cash transfers and dry ration kids for vulnerable families in Tamil Nadu

Urban Management Centre (UMC)
Urban Management Centre is a non-profit organisation with a history dating back to 1997. We work with Local, State and National Governments to help cities make the lives of everyone better. Through capacity building, consulting, technical advisories, and ground work in vulnerable communities we demonstrate that India's cities are able to make great strides towards equity, sustainability and development.

• Urban Management Centre is working with the State Government of Odisha to holistically improve the lives of sanitation workers in the state. As the implementation partner of the Garima scheme one of the ways in which we are supporting this, is by supporting skill development for alternative livelihoods
• UMC is ensuring continued learning for children between the age 12-15 years under its MISAAL Fellows program piloted in 4 cities
  
• ​UMC is now expanding its MISAAL Fellows program to cover children of sanitation workers in Odisha by Facilitating the counselling and alternate livelihood skilling for children between the age 15-18
  
• UMC has also been instrumental in the implementation of PM Svanidhi. Via the EMBRACE program UMC is enabling access to entitlements for 9+ lakh migrant workers in the Ganjam- Surat corridor
  

Vidhayak Bharti
​Vidhayak Bharti is a rights-based non-profit for the promotion and preservation of child rights and child protection in society. Through their programs, they work with and strengthen existing governmental systems, with children and adults alike to build a cohesive, protective environment for children in Maharashtra. As part of their COVID-19 relief efforts, they did the following:

• Provided ration to vulnerable families in Mumbai 
• Provided sanitary products and medicines to adolescent girls in the tribal belt of Nandurbar
• Provided support to public health care centres and the only civil hospital in Nandurbar
• Created awareness and prevention about COVID-19 in rural areas

Vikas Samwad
VSS is a research, documentation and capacity building organisation for building a team of socially sensitive cadre, communicators and organised groups with a child centric perspective.

• They have actively engaged in COVID-19 relief work by setting up isolation centres, providing oxygen concentrators, ration and medical support and organizing awareness drives

WASH Institute
​WASH Institute was established in 2008 to address issues such as ground water depletion, water quality deterioration, poor sanitation coverage and other emerging issues due to climate change.  As part of their COVID-19 relief activities, they are providing:

• Nutrition support to labourers and PPE training to vulnerable sanitation workers
• They are also undertaking Installation of hand washing stations and rigorous IEC campaigns
• Alumni of Washi have been placed in corporations and are supporting COVID-19 testing facilities

YUVA India
Founded in 1984, YUVA is a non-profit development organisation committed to enabling vulnerable groups to access their rights. YUVA operates in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and New Delhi. As part of Covid relief work, they have been:

• Distributing ration kits to those most in need
• Running vaccine help desks in communities, spreading awareness about the vaccination process, addressing misinformation, and encouraging more people to register for the vaccine
• Providing basic health kits to community members to help in the early detection of COVID-19 and supplies and infrastructure support to public and aid healthcare centres

17,000 ft Foundation
Started in 2012, 17,000 ft Foundation works to improve the lives of the people of remote, high altitude mountainous villages of Ladakh, in areas that lie isolated and ignored for centuries due to problems of harsh terrain. In their COVID-19 relief plans, they hope to: 

• Empower each of the 1,200 Anganwadi workers by giving them the dignity that is due to them.
• Provide them with protection in terms of PPE, health & hygiene essentials and the training required to discharge their duties

The relief efforts of our 150+ grassroots NGO portfolio focused on India's most vulnerable groups across 31 States & Union Territories