DCU emergency COVID-19 appeal for India

Dear Colleagues/Students,

Many of you will have been watching the horrific scenes in India which has been devastated by COVID-19 in recent weeks. The cities are over-run, and rural areas are simply not getting the medical supplies, food or clean water that they need to fight their way through this virus. Although we cannot help everybody in this vast country, we would like to provide some badly needed relief for a rural area in India with which we have had direct contact for many years now.

The Multipurpose Social Service Society (MPSSS) of Cuddapah diocese, Andhra Pradesh, India, is a registered charity which works with local people irrespective of their caste, creed and religion. This is the Society we are seeking your assistance for. They have 14 members of staff employed and 70 volunteers, each providing food, medicine and education to the community. The Diocese contains two districts of approximately 7.5 million people and is almost 32,000 sq km. The MPSSS helps hundreds of thousands of people each year.  Donations will be lodged into the Inter Faith Centre DCU account and then onwards directly to MPSSS in India. Detailed reports and photos about how donations are being used by the charity MPSSS, will be sent back to DCU.

Any funding received will be used to provide:
- Purchase and distribute Food parcels for families who are unemployed because of COVID-19. Parcels will contain dry rations of rice, oil, sugar, flour, meat (protein) powder, dal, salt. Less than €9 would feed and provide for the needs of a family for a week.
- Purchase and distribute Antibiotics for those who have underlying conditions
- Purchase and supply Vitamin tablets to boost the immune system and help fight off infections
- Purchase and supply of Masks and PPE to families
-  Purchase and supply Sanitizers to families
- Setting up of an information centre by MPSSS This centre will provide information on H&S in relation to COVID-19 and how assistance can be obtained from MPSSSS
- Print and supply signage, brochures, pamphlets, flexi-boards with photos to people, giving information about how to avaid catching COVID-19

We would really appreciate if you could donate as much or as little as you can over the coming days and weeks. Any donation will go directly to the people and will help them in their daily struggle. Our goal is €20,000, let’s see if we can reach this over the coming month.