In response to the devastation caused by India’s Covid-19 pandemic second wave, The Randal Charitable Foundation has donated £151,000 to the British Asian Trust’s Oxygen for India Appeal.
The grant funding will directly provide an oxygen generator (PSA plant) at the 550 bed St Martha’s Hospital in Bangalore to deliver sustainable and life-saving oxygen to patients suffering from Covid-19.
Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Founder and Chair of Trustees of the Randal Charitable Foundation, said, “The images of Covid patients in India struggling to breathe and desperate to receive oxygen, but unable to gain access to this most simple of life’s requirements, is heartbreaking, and has spurred the world into action to support.
“We’re delighted to once again be working with the British Asian Trust, which has been working tirelessly with expert partners on the ground to save hundreds of thousands of lives throughout the pandemic.”
This collaboration between the Randal Charitable Foundation and the British Asian Trust comes off the back of the Foundation’s £500,000 donation to the British Asian Trust’s 2020 Covid-19 Emergency Appeal, which enabled emergency life-saving relief for over 137,000 vulnerable people across 15 states in India during the first wave of the pandemic.
Hitan Mehta, Executive Director of the British Asian Trust, said, “We are incredibly grateful once again to the Randal Charitable Foundation for their huge generosity. The situation in India has been devastating but due to such fantastic support, we are making a tangible difference; working with our partners on the ground to deliver oxygen to the areas worst hit by Covid-19. None of this would be possible without the commitment of dedicated supporters like the Randal Foundation.”
In late April, HRH The Prince of Wales launched the British Asian Trust’s emergency appeal 'Oxygen For India' to raise vital funds for India’s ongoing Covid-19 crisis. To date, the appeal has raised over £4 million that will provide more than 4,800 life-saving oxygen concentrators, medical supplies and tele linkages to rural areas, as well as two life-saving hospital-based PSA plants (oxygen generators) – one of which is being funded by The Randal Charitable Foundation.
