Scottish charities of Indian origin join hands with Indian Medical Association to offer helping hand to fight Covid

Kerala Health Minister Veena George launching IMA I Safe phase 2 by handing over Pulse Oximeter to Dr Karthika in presence of Dr A Marthanda Pillai, Dr Sreejith N Kumar and Dr Sulphi N

By A Staff Reporter

GLASGOW June 2: The latest Covid pandemic spread in India has awakened those Non-Resident Indians worldwide and their response to the motherland’s need was brisk. Here we have a story from Scotland where three organisations came together to join hands with the Indian Medical Association to fight the raging pandemic in all parts of India.

The three likeminded Scottish charities of Indian origin who joined hands were the Hindu Mandir of Glasgow, Association of Indian Organisations (AIO) and United Scotland Malayalee Association (USMA).

The three named charities had already worked hand in hand during the early days of local lockdown through supporting and assisting stranded international Indian students in sustenance, accommodation and repatriation through Vande Bharath mission.

The combined Scottish community initiative came together and collectively decided to support Covid care activities of the medical fraternity in India – the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

IMA has been rendering services to combat Covid in all states in the country. In Kerala, IMA has formed a network of small and medium institutions (I Safe network) for prevention and control of Covid. The network spread over thousand institutions from all the districts of the state, provides logistics and training to the staff of member institutions.

Minister for Education V Sivankutty inaugurating I Safe Trivandrum by handing over Oxygen concentrator to Dr Siby Kurian, Secretary IMA Trivandrum, in presence of Dr A Marthanda Pillai, Dr Sreejith N Kumar and Dr T Suresh Kumar

Maintaining close communication with appropriate IMA officials in Kerala and at the national level, the three organisations decided that the best way to support ongoing Covid care is to provide a mixture of Pulse oximeters, sourced from India and Oxygen concentrators, sourced from China.

Launch of IMA I Safe Kottayam by Co-operation and Registration Minister VN Vasavan, in presence of Jose K Mani, Roy Abraham and Dr Cyriac

In Kerala the pulse oximeters were distributed across urban and rural areas from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod  as part of IMA’s I-Safe programme. The pulse oximeters will be distributed to needy patients in isolation centres or at homes.

United Scotland Malayalee Association was also able to raise about Rs500,000 in a matter of days and became part of Indian Medical Association’s I-Safe’s Phase II volunteer work. Leaders and ministers of the ruling and opposition parties inaugurated the IMA Kerala I-Safe 2 project at various locations in Kerala.

Guruvayoor IMA in association with Jana Seva Forum launched ‘Pulse Oxymeter Challenge’ for helping poor patients who are at quarantine in Guruvayoor area. Dr Jiju, Dr Vineeth, Dr Kulkarni and leaders of Jana Seva Forum attended the launch ceremony.

The three organisations were able to send 20 oxygen concentrators (10 to Bihar and 10 to Kerala) and a total of 1,100 pulse oximeters to various states in India which include Bihar, New Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala.

The major contributor in this initiative was the Glasgow Hindu Mandir (20 oxygen concentrators and 500 pulse oximeters). Association of Indian Organisations contributed 100 pulse oximeters and United Scotland Malayalee Association Contributed 500 pulse oximeters.

The three organisations entrusted these in the capable and caring hands of the medical fraternity in India so as to benefit ongoing community and hospital care of Covid affected patients and were able to complete this initiative within a couple of weeks’ time.

Inauguration of I-Safe2 by Mujeeb Kaderi Municipal Chairman in presence of Dr Pareed in Malappuram

Speaking to this website one of the coordinators, Dr Rajmohan Padmanabhan, said: “We are indebted to the Indian Medical Association for maintaining close contact with us and guiding us so as to make a meaningful contribution towards Covid care, at this hour of national health crisis. We appreciate this might be a drop in the ocean. But as they say in Scotland “Many a Mickle makes a Muckle”. Our best wishes and prayers are always with our Indian brethren and of course – the Covid warriors looking after the nation’s health”.