Logistics and supply chain - bottlenecks to help India in this hour

There is a tightening of the available supply of relief supplies needed and the challenges of getting them to those in need, this update from #MahaPECOnet partner Ratna Nidhi is one of the several bright lights that makes me hopeful.

MahaPECOnet - fundraiser update - week1

After running the "MAHA PECOnet Oxygen and Hospital Supplies In India" donation drive across multiple tech companies and private donors, we have collected approx. $200K+ in donations.

These funds are being sent to Maha PECONet partner, Ratnanidhi.org via the Ratna Global Foundation Inc.

So far, Maha PECONet partner has ordered 1376 Oxygen concentrators, of which 500 have been delivered to Government Hospitals in Maharashtra. 350 Units are en-route to be delivered to Government Hospitals in Maharashtra, and another 526 units are on order to be delivered by the 3rd to 4th week of May.

These concentrators have reached many hospitals in Maharashtra such as Ahmednagar, Jalna, Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Nagpur, Bhandara, Akola, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Dhule, Nasik, Nandurbar, Bheed, Nanded, Palghar, Hingoli, Amravati, Chandrapur, Wardha & Pune.

Together we will get through this - my faith is reinforced.

Please help us in continuing to raise donations to fight this humanitarian crisis in India.

We plan to keep this donation drive until the end of May 31th, with peer matching from

many of our employees.

Please help by donating to this fundraiser, https://ratnaglobal.org/project/covid-19-mahapeco-fundraiser

Ratna Nidhi - feet on the ground making a difference

 Ratna Nidhi (ratnanidhi.org) is the Maha PECOnet partner in Mumbai dealing with procuring and distributing supplies. On Saturday, i got a chance to meet with the trustees, Rajiv Mehta and Arvind Shah. I was struck by the thoughtfulness and adaptability in the face of this situation. Help is neeeded now and by the numbers,

1376 Concentrators procured, delivered

and saving lives

For a PECOnet 2.0 impact dashboard, checkout https://mahac19peconet.org/.

Ratna Nidhi,  process for accountability

Providing the supplies free of cost to hospitals in the rural parts of India; this is where the infrastructure is rather frail. The vulnerable populations away from the urban centers. i learned of their verification process which admittedly has a very India-centric characteristic, the hospital must get a local gazetted officer to certify the hospital's catering to the needy.

And lastly, these are provided with a commitment for return shipping - once the needs have been fulfilled RNCT hopes to create an Oxygen Bank to lend these fro 5-10 rupees to the urban poor.

Hats off to their thoughtfulness and shows the years of experience in serving the community.

Together we will get through this - my faith is reinforced.

Please help by donating to this fundraiser, https://ratnaglobal.org/project/covid-19-mahapeco-fundraiser

Fundraiser - help India, now!

Please help India, now! https://ratnaglobal.org/project/COVID-19-fundraiser 

In company benevity campaigns are good way to 2-3X impact. at google there are multiple campaigns - here's https://google.benevity.org/campaigns/5157

Together we can get through this!🙏🏽

India - Covid, 2nd wave

About 10 days ago, April 25, on the TSEC philanthropy call - @Karon, a good friend and inspiring leader broke down during the call. At the time she said, she was distracted by the rate of incoming messages for help.

Couple of things to note: Karon is high-bandwidth-individual as they come and with very high EQ. The high-bandwidth meant that this was not a rate of incoming that normally flustered her, but today was different. One her employees was reaching at the 11th hour for medicine money - and she didn't have it. She was in line for covid prophylactic (remdesivir) and lost the battle a day later 😔. 

Being far from home and until now mostly reassuring myself from family+friends being 'safe' - this incident brought covid-19 home to me. 

After that the mind was racing - how to help? can i help? what is even needed? who to turn to? how did this happen in India?

Result: helplessness - not from the news; a few calls to friends, some media reads and the cloud of doom seemed to thicken. 

That evening when I sat down for my daily prayer session with my parents, with the mind quietened - small steps forward emerged. Started off with a few emails, re-read social media and decided on a path forward. @Rohiniprasana agreed that we'd fund work on the ground, finding them was the next task - fast-forward with some diligence and action found charities to donate to; and resources to help people on the ground.

What started out as a linkedin post, then turned into bit.ly/help2india - a resource directory; provided an outlet for me.

Next phase : https://ratnaglobal.org/project/COVID-19-mahapeco-fundraiser Started to learn at a followup call with the TSEC philanthropy group on April 29. 

Ratna Global Foundation becomes a path to route funds for this work; Maha PECOnet, which Karon's RiseInfinity foundation belongs to mobilzed PECO net 2.0 - services needed such as Oxygen of course; in addition other needed  vaccine awareness, high rise spreaders, volunteer support to address fatigue. Learning about this, feels like actual solutions. 

So we decided to jump in both our feet, committing to support it financially and mobilize additional support. What stood out were,

• MahaPECOnet - NGOs with volunteers on the ground doing the work
• MahaPECOnet UNICEF led initiative has delivered relief for over 1MM people since Apr 2020
• Unified Emergency Response platform
• Help to Government hospitals - means service to the common man without charge
• Multi-faceted approach - awareness, education, hospital capacity, O2 [plants+concentrators], food/rations, women’s hygiene kits
• RGF: Google.org grant winner for innovative tech applications to solve for resolving handicaps

Source:

• shaivakaron@gmail.com's presentation.
• Pallavi, the hero we lost.

Black Lives Matter

I have been reflecting a lot on my privilege - Indian-American, Engineer, Male
I yet don't have anything cogent to add to the dialog except for the visceral feeling that what happened is wrong, how did we enshrine this as a society - there are many answers, protest to change this system.
Some reflections,

• I am a privileged man– blessed in life with access to good education, access to business opportunities. I have had steady work– I have been fortunate to have been employed at Google for the past ten years. But many of these things were only made possible.

Thank you, Civil rights movement. ⚑

• Without that I would have never even been able to come to America, to have those business opportunities, to receive the education that I did.
• In a broad sense, the movement led to where I am today.
• The issues arising now, with the death of George Floyd, the protests arising from this tragedy – I have only seen this be aggravated through the actions, or rather, inaction of the president. His words show almost complete disregard of black lives, though they are the ones faced with the most adversity
• Through the words of Trevor Noah, in a recent commentary, I was able to gain greater insight into the feelings behind peoples' actions

Words fail me now - will continue to reflect.
Love all, find that which unites us.

George Floyd's death and the following protest movement feels like a groundswell that i certainly hope will bring about much needed change. Change will be painful, but it is high time.

Why are you smiling?

Why are you smiling?

Rashid, the driver of the uber asked me this question.
I am content because i got to see my GodUncle smile.
A week ago i got a text message from my Uncle's son, Dr. Sunil -

Dad has inoperable liver cancer, he's got days left!

Yesterday, I got to spend the day with him at home - he's in a lot of pain, managed with some palliative medications.
Not only was he not complaining, he seemed content. This is the Jose Uncle that received me and Sachin 28 years ago into this same home - this was my permanent address for several years in this adopted country, America. He was the one we turned to for counsel and help.
My Appa, sent me off to America with a lot of angst, assured by Jose Uncle
all will be well.
Jose Uncle has been a constant in my life. He's the one to turn to.

Ask Jose Uncle about mortgage - Appa would say
Jose Uncle called me on the eve of my wedding, "Balaji, Do you need money?" 

Matter of fact, practical

And on occasion he's show his super-sensitive side for his friend when he called me to say,

Appa is feeling hurt.

Not a man to waste words - but wlways assured of a laugh from him, a matter of fact pragmatic view of life and simple sensibilities. There are many a times, our conversation would start with Uncle telling me that he'd received a large paycheck for $1748 (number made up) - people's incomes are secret, not for Uncle.
He lived larger than life, by his rules with a caring word for all around him.

Yesterday when i was with him, his neighbors visited with him, and reminisced about all the times they came here to get their dose of laughter from him.
Though in his last days, still coming with that expectation.

His parting words, "Balaji, you know Ananthan and I are best-friends."

I know that and have felt it all my adult life; those words took me to a warm place; i put my head on his chest to let that sink in.

Uncle, you lit up all of our lives and the glow will always warm us.

Uncle's surrounded by family - 2 lovely angels thanks to  Dr. Sunil and his wonderful wife, Huma

Mariamma Aunty is the rock - the matriarch, the steadying hand. Them, operating as a single unit was a thing to marvel and learn from.

Uncle, thank you for everything you taught me by living it - not by lecturing about it. You did well for us.
Be assured, we'll do our part to pay-it-foward