Dear Friends!
Hope you and yours are safe and healthy in Corona times as we all struggle in the fight back against the virus. While many are experiencing painful situations and losing their near and dear ones, we need to rally our forces and put our heads, hearts and hands together to overcome the situation.
One of the key challenges that we face today is shortage of oxygen. Honestly, its very difficult to digest that the lack of something as elementary as oxygen is being attributed to a lot of casualties. This is the criticality that must be dealt with first.
At AIC-Aartech, we have deliberated on this within our community and come up with the O2@Aartech campaign – GIVE OXYGEN, GIVE LIFE! The focus is on our city, BHOPAL and surrounding Tier-III towns and rural areas – where the rising number of cases overwhelm the medical infrastructure that is already struggling with gaps in resources. Under advice from medical professionals, we are trying to work on several initiatives, including:
1. Trying to manufacture Oxygen Concentrators at our Fablab in collaboration with the M19 Collective initiative of Makers Asylum based on the Oxykit Model.
2. Arranging Oxygen Concentrators and making them available to the most needy patients under the supervision of medical practitioners.
…. and several other explorations with fellow startups…
Mandar and No More Foundation (MANM) – one of our startups has stepped forward to lead the organized volunteer efforts for this initiative. MANM has always been doing pioneering work on life saving interventions and have rich capabilities and experience in making this happen.
We have designed this as a #PAYITFORWARD campaign. We want to sustain and grow this so that we can continue to attract and deploy resources that are needed to run this battle – considering that there are bound to be new challenges with more waves of pandemic and more virus variants.
WHAT DOES PAY IT FORWARD MEAN?
Pay It Forward is an expression of gratitude when a recipient of an act of kindness does something kind for someone else rather than simply accepting or repaying the original good deed.
The idea is that we all have probably benefited from some one else’s efforts which can never truly be valued. So rather than trying to settle balances, you do something for the next person in need.
A video that explains this nicely: https://youtu.be/3WAPt6xlwiU
WHAT CAN YOU DO ?
VOLUNTEER – Call / Whatsapp our Team Lead Pinaki at 8889183352 and connect to our group of volunteers. We would love to hear from you and partner with you and your team. If you are a startup and have an innovation in mind that can be helpful for this campaign – share your idea ! If you are an innovator, maker or just love to try and build things – come join our fablab team and build stuff for this campaign !
COMMUNITY SERVICES –
To serve more and more people in real need, we are trying to work with various organizations. If you are a NGO / Social Worker / Organization working on COVID relief and would like to facilitate the availability of oxygen concentrators, we would be happy to make these available to you on a returnable basis. Please get in touch to discuss more. Supplies are limited.
#PAYITFORWARD –
First, a disclaimer: We are a FOR-PROFIT Incubator so not the typical not-for-profit NGO / Foundation. We believe in unlocking value for all stakeholders, and then deploying them rightly. This is important to sustain any activity in the long run. We do not offer any tax or other benefits whatsoever.
If you would like to #PAYITFORWARD, please send in your contribution to:
AIC-AARTECH SOLONICS PVT. LTD.
E-2/57, Arera Colony, Bhopal, MP 462016
Account Holding Bank : Axis Bank Ltd.
Branch : Bittan Market,Bhopal
E-5,”Star Plaza”, 1st Floor,Plot No.6, Bittan Market, Arera Colony,Bhopal 462016
Current Account No. : 9170 2005 725 2217
IFSC Code: UTIB0000531
MICR Code: 462211003
We also have a partner fund raising initiative that facilitates global participation and targeting wider reach across several Tier-II / Tier-III cities and towns of India.
GoFundMe page (https://gofund.me/4790490e) to collect U.S. donations
A fundraising page on Milaap (https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-covid19-6) in INR
Before you consider a #PAYITFORWARD contribution, we strongly urge you to connect with us, interact and validate the work we are putting together. We want to build a relationship of long term trust and confidence. Resource sharing will follow.
You will receive a receipt and updates on the use of the funds for this campaign.
Thanks for your time, interest and participation in this !