The US India Chamber of Commerce (USICOC) Foundation and its partner organizations are shipping 50 ventilators to India, besides other medical supplies, to help the country fight the deadly second wave of COVID-19.
The foundation made arrangements to ship 20 ventilators on Tuesday. It will send 30 more in the next few days.
These ventilators will be released to the Indian Red Cross Society in New Delhi for distribution to hospitals and field teams in hard-hit areas, the USICOC said.
It added that the ventilators are battle-tested and are in use in several countries throughout the world.
The Chambers of Commerce, which normally facilitates trade between the two countries, joined forces with the Texas Indian-American population to help the humanitarian crisis back home.
Neel Gonuguntla, president of the USICOC DFW, Jagdip Ahluwalia, founding secretary and executive director of Indo-American Chamber of Greater Houston (IACCGH), and Padma Sri Ashok Mago, founding chairman of the USICOC, teamed up to lead the efforts through the USICOC Foundation.
They raised funds from the Indian-American community to provide critical medical equipment like oxygen cylinders, concentrators, generators, and ventilators to India.
“We are happy to help India in every way that we can during this time of extreme need,” said Mago, who helped to coordinate many of the necessary funds for the effort.
Aluwalia said they were coordinating with hospitals, NGOs, medical schools and government bodies in India to make sure the equipment was reaching trained professionals, who can put it to immediate use.
Consul General of India in Houston, Aseem Mahajan, has been guiding and facilitating with the logistics part, Ahluwalia said.
Spearheading the project on behalf of the USICOC Foundation and the broader community, Gonuguntla said, “This collective community effort on behalf of dozens of individual donors, community organizations, businesses like DFW International Airport, PGL Logistics, American Airlines, and others, came together like a beautiful symphony of genuine compassion to rise up and meet the need of the hour which is to help save lives and get the pandemic under control in India.”
The USICOC Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by members of the US India Chamber of Commerce in 2008 to support community initiatives throughout North Texas and to support projects in India that are aligned with the foundation’s initiatives.
