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COVID-19 in India: How can I help MSF?

04 May 21 | 20 Oct 22
This article is more than one year old

COVID-19 in India: How can I help MSF?

MSF doctor Ilham checking the temperature of Pramod, a patient being treated for COVID-19 at Shatabdi Hospital in Mumbai Caption
MSF doctor Ilham checking the temperature of Pramod, a patient being treated for COVID-19 at Shatabdi Hospital in Mumbai
© Abhinav Chatterjee/MSF

Please read this page if you are interested in supporting MSF's life-saving work in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is MSF doing in India?

In Mumbai, Maharashtra:

  • Until early July we had doctors and nurses working in Mumbai’s Jumbo Hospital that had capacity for 2,000 patients (we have ended our support to the hospital due to a lack of need).
  • We have ensured continuity of care for migrants affected by the pandemic, many of whom have been forced to return home due to a lack of work. We are sending tuberculosis medication to the local health centres of people who have informed us of their new whereabouts.
  • We have distributed hygiene kits to more than 4,500 households.
  • We have supported the Palghar district health authorities by building capacity of Ministry of Health staff.
  • We have set up mental health support for patients and staff.

“Despite the difficulties we’re facing, everyone is extremely committed… We all feel a strong sense of solidarity with our patients and with the staff. I feel that we’re in the right place and we’re all working together.” 

Mabel Morales
|
MSF medical coordinator

In the far east of the country in Imphal, Manipur:

  • We have set up a 30-bed COVID-19 high dependency unit.
  • We are supporting home isolation with mobile medical teams providing examinations, hygiene kits and counselling for COVID-positive people.

In Dibrugarh and Sivasagar in Assam:

  • We are donating oxygen concentrators and personal protective equipment.
  • We have launched health promotion activities.

How can I help MSF in India?

Unfortunately, we can't restrict your donation to only go towards our work in India.

Due to the unique way that MSF is funded, most of our donations are "unrestricted" and can be used wherever the need is greatest. The actions our teams are currently taking in India are funded by donations just like these.

Your unrestricted donation gives us a valuable flexibility. It means our medical teams are not held back while we wait for funds to be approved or a public campaign to launch.

Instead, we can act fast and save lives, now.

How we spend your money

By making a donation today, you will help ensure that our teams are prepared for whatever happens next.

We will be able to move with the pandemic and respond wherever we are needed most – both within India and around the world.

At MSF's out-patient department in Batil refugee camp Gandhi Pant, a nurse, escorts a patient with a possible appendicitis to a waiting ambulance. Batil is one of three camps in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State sheltering at least 113,000 refugees who have crossed the border from Blue Nile state to escape fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the SPLM-North armed group. Refugees arrive at the camp with harrowing stories of being bombed out of their homes, or having their villages burned. The camps into which they have poured are on a vast floodplain, leaving many tents flooded and refugees vulnerable to disease. Mortality rates in Batil camp are at emergency levels, malnutrition rates are more than five times above emergency thresholds, and diarrhea and malarial cases are rising.

Help us prepare for the next emergency

Donate today >

COVID-19 in India: News and stories