New York and Hyderabad, April 09, 2020: The American India Foundation (AIF) today announced a partnership with Micron Tech to help those disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including hospitals, healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and families that have been severely hit with loss of income and livelihood. As relief and response measures under this partnership, AIF with the support of Micron Foundation will be addressing the immediate and future needs of those critically impacted by this health crisis in Telangana State.
“India has taken exemplary steps to control the impact of the health crisis that the whole world is facing right now. Micron’s support will alleviate the challenges faced by frontline health workers, hospitals and families disproportionately affected by the most vulnerable in India. By partnering with us, Micron has led the way in response efforts where they are most needed. We are grateful to the State Government of Telangana for their speedy response in ensuring quick and effective deployment of resources.”, said AIF CEO, Nishant Pandey.
“Micron is committed to the health, safety and well-being of our team members, front-line health care workers and the communities in which we operate,” said Anand Ramamoorthy, Managing Director of Micron India.
In the first phase of this partnership between AIF and Micron to support the Government of Telangana, efforts will be directed towards saving the lives of patients infected with the COVID -19 virus by providing life support systems such as 100 ventilators to the government hospitals with critical needs. Medical and personal protective equipment (PPE) that is currently in short supply, are being provided for doctors, nurses, medical assistants and cleaners. Frontline workers (ASHAs and Anganwadi workers) responsible for spreading awareness and tracking cases, especially in rural areas will be given preventive hygiene kits and thermal scanners to improve community tracking and reporting and to keep the virus from spreading. Additionally, low-income families, especially those with elderly members and daily-wage and migrant workers, will have access to healthy food, groceries and necessary household items.
“We greatly appreciate how Micron has stepped forward to support India’s citizens in the face of this pandemic,” said Telangana IT and Industries Minister, KT Rama Rao. “While COVID-19 affects all of us, Micron’s financial assistance will reach and help those on the front lines, as well as those families who are most vulnerable in our community.”
Added Eatala Rajender, Minister for Health, Medical and Family Welfare, “We welcome the support from American India Foundation at this time, the pandemic calls for a concerted effort from all sectors. We are taking all steps to increase the scale of interventions in alignment with the evolving situation in Telangana.” In a letter addressed to AIF, the Minster said there is a projected increase in the requirement of ventilators in the state and he thanked AIF for their commitment.
“As an organization that has its origins in a humanitarian response and the experience of responding to several humanitarian emergencies since, AIF is uniquely placed to leverage its existing multi-sectoral programmatic infrastructure to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.”, said AIF Country Director, Mathew Joseph.
AIF is at the forefront of COVID-19 response and relief efforts in India, with extensive humanitarian efforts experience in the last 20 years, including the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, 2004 Tsunami, 2008 Bihar Flood, 2013 Uttarakhand Flood, 2014 Kashmir Flood, 2015 Chennai Flood, 2018 Kerala Flood and 2019 Pulwama Attack. As a premier top-rated non-profit in India and the US, AIF’s focus for the next four weeks is to fulfil immediate and urgent needs of the medical community and provide assistance to vulnerable communities, including migrant workers who have lost their livelihoods during the lockdown. Most of the interventions will be delivered through existing ‘service delivery platforms’ and therefore, these will not only contribute to COVID-19 preparedness and response, but also to longer term system strengthening for the country.
About the American India Foundation:
The American India Foundation is committed to catalyzing social and economic change in India and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through high-impact interventions in education, livelihoods, public health, and leadership development, with a particular emphasis on empowering girls and women to achieve gender equity. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with NGOs and government to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a request from Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 5.6 million of India’s poor in 24 states.
About Micron and Micron Foundation:
Micron is an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions. Through global brands — Micron® and Crucial® — the broad portfolio of high-performance memory and storage technologies, including DRAM, NAND, 3D XPoint™ memory and NOR, is transforming how the world uses information to enrich life. Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq under the MU symbol.
Since its founding in 1999, the Micron Foundation has contributed over $100 million through philanthropy and people to communities where our team members live and work. The Foundation and Micron’s corporate giving are driven by the Micron Gives organization with grants, programs and volunteer efforts focused on promoting science and engineering education and addressing basic human needs.
