Online donation platform GiveIndia has relaunched its highly India Covid Response Fund to help address the current Covid-19 situation.

The fund had raised over ₹220 crore last year.

ICRF-2 is meant to help mobilise funds “to alleviate the escalating health crisis in several ways and for humanitarian aid such as cash relief for low-income families of the deceased and food for the hungry,” GiveIndia said in an official release.

Launched last week, ICRF-2 is currently focusing on supporting five key interventions to address the current situation caused by the second wave of Covid-19. GiveIndia has started raising funds to “Boost oxygen supply, Donate food to families struggling with hunger in Covid’s second wave, Give cash support to families of Covid deceased, Save critical patients from fighting corona at home and Donate reusable pads to women who have access to none,” it said.

GiveIndia’s initiative aimed at boosting oxygen supply has so far raised the most funds in individual donations, early ₹35 crore.

“The funds will go towards setting up oxygen generation plants in hospitals and Covid care centres, providing oxygen concentrators and cylinders and facilitating the refilling of cylinders. All this will be done in partnership with municipal corporations, state governments, hospitals and doctors, and select NGO networks,” it said.

CEO and Founder 2.0 of GiveIndia Atul Satija said, “We have launched India Covid Response Fund-2 to bring our collective humanity together and raise funds for the most pressing needs caused by the current situation. This time it is the runaway disease that is causing the primary distress, rather than the measures to control it, like the humanitarian crisis caused by the national lockdown last year.”

Some of the early donors include Google who has donated cash aid for struggling families of the deceased from Covid. Other brands to have partnered with the nonprofit are PhonePe, Flipkart, Myntra, Xiaomi, Swiggy, Dream 11, Walmart, Salesforce and PayPal. GiveIndia has also received support from Vinod Khosla, Jay Shetty, Ray Dalio among others.

India Covid Response Fund-2 has been kickstarted with support from a Steering Committee and 16-member Advisory Board to provide transparency, it said.