Mumbai: An online fundraiser started by two young law professionals is making protective gear available to doctors and healthcare workers at government hospitals in Mumbai, Delhi, Kashmir and Haryana.
The initiative that started eight days ago has managed to gather over Rs. 12.5 lakhs from around 850 contributors through online fundraising platform Ketto so far. 300 kits have reached healthcare workers already and another 400 will soon be on their way.
Nishant Gambhir and his co-founder Eklavya Dahiya, both 26 now had started Lex Do It Trust in 2014. The not-for-profit social enterprise provides free legal aid and holds legal awareness programs.
“I have a digital marketing and technology background and we also provide online legal aid. Many of our doctor friends we come in touch being lawyers, requested us to do this,” says Gambhir. “While researching we found the large number of healthcare workers in Italy and China got infected while they were on their duty. The doctors are helpless as they don’t have enough protective gear. However, due to politics around they don't raise a hue and cry about it,” he added.
Hospitals get in touch with their trust through email and after verification that the request is genuine, they transfer money into the institution’s account so it can purchase the gear from its regular vendors.
For greater reach, their NGO also partnered with a social media influencing and marketing firm which has helped them reach out on social media through celebrity endorsements of the campaign.
The firm MonkE itself has been the biggest donor, donating 1.5 lakhs to the campaign with its entire team of 30 donating a percentage of their salaries to the cause. “The lowest donation we received is one rupee. However, every donation counts for us,” concludes Gambhir.
