COVID-19 Workers Solidarity Campaign Fundraising
Donation protected
COVID-19 Workers Solidarity Campaign
Call for Social Solidarity
The number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Pakistan has increased at one of the fastest rates in the world. Many healthcare workers have reported suffering from anxiety, distress, and insomnia because of fears of contracting the illness due to failures by hospitals and government to enact measures and provide equipment meant to protect them. Many healthcare workers - nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers - have tested positive for COVID-19 and others have refused to work due to the lack of protective equipment to ensure their safety.
At the same time, due to a nationwide lockdown, many daily wage labourers, who make up a large percentage of the city's workforce, have been forced to go with little or no work and income. Families are struggling to afford groceries, medicine, utility bills, and rent. Due to this dire situation, some have been forced to search for work/income, putting themselves and their families at risk of infection to stave off other threats such as eviction and starvation.
The Karachi Bachao Tehreek (Anti-Eviction Movement), a collective of activists from the Awami Workers Party-Karachi, Women Democratic Front-Karachi, Aurat Haq, Aurat March-Karachi, and other organisations, has begun its COVID19 Workers Solidarity Campaign to raise funds for severely impacted labourers and healthcare professionals in Karachi, its peripheries, and the province of Sindh at large.
We hope you will support this work through donations, by extending solidarity towards those workers who run our cities and our lives. We will provide personal protective equipment to healthcare workers who are working on the frontlines of this crisis and emergency relief for labourers who have been impacted by the pandemic and lockdown so they can afford food, rent, medicine, and other necessary items.
We are currently in coordination with the medical and paramedical staff at Karachi Civil Hospital, DOW Ojha Campus, Jinnah Hospital Karachi, Hyderabad Kosher Hospital, Hyderabad Civil Hospital, and Hyderabad Trauma Center for PPE provision. We are also in touch with labourers (daily wagers, textile workers, domestic workers, contract employees, factory workers) from MPR Colony, Gadap, Malir, Baldia Town, Orangi, North Karachi, affectees of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) among others.
We urge you to extend social solidarity towards labourers and healthcare professionals by donating to this initiative. Your donations are key to the survival of many households during this pandemic. This is not a charity initiative, it is an extension of solidarity to the workers during these unprecedented times by fellow workers and progressive sections of society.
We are accepting donations from individuals only. If you have any questions, you can contact [email redacted] and [email redacted].
In solidarity,
Members of Karachi Bachao Tehreek
COVID-19 Workers Solidarity Campaign
Updates will be posted regularly here, and you can follow KBT's Twitter page StopEvictionKHI for more regular updates and information.
***UPDATE -- 16 April 2020: We have withdrawn and transferred $985 of the funds raised so far. From the funds collected to date, Karachi Bachao Tehreek has provided essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE kits) including 100 PPE suits, 400 masks, 400 gloves, 25 headgears, 50 n-95 masks to medical and paramedical staff at Hyderabad trauma center, Kohisar Medical Hospital, Hyderabad and Gadap Hospital. In Gadap n-95 masks and gloves have been donated to local dispensary doctors and staff. We have also provided rent relief to 8 families in Karachi’s working class neighborhood PIDC Gharibabad, 55 families from another workers colony Shershah, and emergency relief in the form of cash donations has gone to 10 working class families in MPR Colony and 10 families from Hijrat Colony. The funds withdrawn from this fundraiser will go to expanding the emergency relief campaign to cover more families in more neighborhoods, and providing additional PPE for healthcare workers.
Call for Social Solidarity
The number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Pakistan has increased at one of the fastest rates in the world. Many healthcare workers have reported suffering from anxiety, distress, and insomnia because of fears of contracting the illness due to failures by hospitals and government to enact measures and provide equipment meant to protect them. Many healthcare workers - nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers - have tested positive for COVID-19 and others have refused to work due to the lack of protective equipment to ensure their safety.
At the same time, due to a nationwide lockdown, many daily wage labourers, who make up a large percentage of the city's workforce, have been forced to go with little or no work and income. Families are struggling to afford groceries, medicine, utility bills, and rent. Due to this dire situation, some have been forced to search for work/income, putting themselves and their families at risk of infection to stave off other threats such as eviction and starvation.
The Karachi Bachao Tehreek (Anti-Eviction Movement), a collective of activists from the Awami Workers Party-Karachi, Women Democratic Front-Karachi, Aurat Haq, Aurat March-Karachi, and other organisations, has begun its COVID19 Workers Solidarity Campaign to raise funds for severely impacted labourers and healthcare professionals in Karachi, its peripheries, and the province of Sindh at large.
We hope you will support this work through donations, by extending solidarity towards those workers who run our cities and our lives. We will provide personal protective equipment to healthcare workers who are working on the frontlines of this crisis and emergency relief for labourers who have been impacted by the pandemic and lockdown so they can afford food, rent, medicine, and other necessary items.
We are currently in coordination with the medical and paramedical staff at Karachi Civil Hospital, DOW Ojha Campus, Jinnah Hospital Karachi, Hyderabad Kosher Hospital, Hyderabad Civil Hospital, and Hyderabad Trauma Center for PPE provision. We are also in touch with labourers (daily wagers, textile workers, domestic workers, contract employees, factory workers) from MPR Colony, Gadap, Malir, Baldia Town, Orangi, North Karachi, affectees of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) among others.
We urge you to extend social solidarity towards labourers and healthcare professionals by donating to this initiative. Your donations are key to the survival of many households during this pandemic. This is not a charity initiative, it is an extension of solidarity to the workers during these unprecedented times by fellow workers and progressive sections of society.
We are accepting donations from individuals only. If you have any questions, you can contact [email redacted] and [email redacted].
In solidarity,
Members of Karachi Bachao Tehreek
COVID-19 Workers Solidarity Campaign
Updates will be posted regularly here, and you can follow KBT's Twitter page StopEvictionKHI for more regular updates and information.
***UPDATE -- 16 April 2020: We have withdrawn and transferred $985 of the funds raised so far. From the funds collected to date, Karachi Bachao Tehreek has provided essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE kits) including 100 PPE suits, 400 masks, 400 gloves, 25 headgears, 50 n-95 masks to medical and paramedical staff at Hyderabad trauma center, Kohisar Medical Hospital, Hyderabad and Gadap Hospital. In Gadap n-95 masks and gloves have been donated to local dispensary doctors and staff. We have also provided rent relief to 8 families in Karachi’s working class neighborhood PIDC Gharibabad, 55 families from another workers colony Shershah, and emergency relief in the form of cash donations has gone to 10 working class families in MPR Colony and 10 families from Hijrat Colony. The funds withdrawn from this fundraiser will go to expanding the emergency relief campaign to cover more families in more neighborhoods, and providing additional PPE for healthcare workers.
Organizer
Kevin Shi
Organizer
Chicago, IL
