The Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis (CAPPA) is delighted to announce it has raised over €1,900 for COVID – 19 relief for India and Cambodia. CAPPA recently ran a fundraiser to raise money for local communities in India and Cambodia many of whom were out of a job and unable to support their families as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to help some of the worst effected regions CAPPA chose the charities “CARE T” in India and “We Share” in Cambodia to work with. CAPPA offered a free consultation or analysis worth €400 to anyone who donated to the fundraiser. All money raised throughout the fundraiser was split evenly between these two charities.
CARE T has been engaged in distribution of COVID – 19 relief materials in Coimbatore district and neighbouring districts. To date 26,663 marginalized families of women textile workers have received care packages and COVID-19 prevention kits from Care T. The distribution of dry food materials has helped families to get three meals a day and survive for one month. It has prevented hunger and starvation related problems of the vulnerable families. CARE T has also produced more than 100, 000 masks by volunteers and distributed these to frontline workers. A €12 donation to the Care T organisation provided one-month worth of food for one family.
We Share in Cambodia works with households in the Battambang region. It is estimated that each garment sector worker in Cambodia supports five to six people. To cope with the income losses, household have reduced food and non-food consumption such as rent education and medicines, which have worsened their living conditions. A €50 donation to the We Share organisation provided an emergency package that would feed one household per month.
CAPPA students Madhumidha Murugan, from Tamil Nadu in India and Savda Sam, from Battambang in Cambodia work directly with these chosen charities and have provided updates from the fundraiser of how the donations were distributed within the local communities and the direct impact they made. The money raised for We Share in Cambodia was able to provide 20 emergency packages that would feed one household for a month. The package includes a mix of basic foods including rice, noodles, and canned foods and a variety of hygiene products. The money raised went to different households in the Battambang region in Cambodia. The money raised for CARE T in India was able to provide 132 care packages to parents of schoolchildren studying in Panchayat Union Primary School North, Annur, Coimbatore, which was reopened on 1 November 2021. They were provided with 500 Indian Rupees worth of food materials as hunger relief, with each care pack providing one months’ worth of food for one family. This package included one Food packet consisting of 5kg of rice, 180g of Ragi Semiya (Vermicelli), 1kg of salt, 500ml of cooking oil, 500gm of sugar, 500gm of green gram, 50gm of chilli powder, 50gm of turmeric powder, IEC materials and banners on COVID – 19 awareness and standard protocol on operational procedure in Tamil Nadu. The money raised went to different households to who had lost jobs and source of income due to COVID – 19, in the Tamil Nadu region in India. The relief work has been done by CARE T, Assistant Elementary Education Officer Annur, Panchayat President, Parent Teachers Association took part in the event.
Below are images from the CARE T and We Share charities of some of the care packages and recipients.
