A Facebook Group called Humankind Global is helping connect those affected by COVID-19 with people who are willing to offer help.
Facebook’s World Maratha Organisation group is offering support related to plasma and hospital support
Facebook and WhatsApp are home to some very helpful groups that are offering different kinds of COVID-19 crisis support across the country. Groups based in Gurugram, Mumbai, and other cities are offering support for help related to plasma donation, finding hospitals with free beds, and just getting volunteers for varied relief measures. Social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram, are increasingly becoming a popular medium to look for help during the massive second wave in India, which is believed to be more fatal than last year.
Several community groups on Facebook and WhatsApp are extending support to people in need during this time of crisis. Here are some of the prominent ones below:
The Humankind Global group on Facebook helps connect people who need something with people who are willing to offer help. This group's networking circle is pan-India, which means users from any part of the country can post a question with the hope to get a response.
The World Maratha Organisation group on Facebook offers any support related to medical help like blood, plasma, and hospital support. The people in this group network across Maharashtra and users can even email for help at worldmaratha@gmail.com. This is a private group on Facebook and users will need to get approved before they can access its benefits.
Network Capital group on WhatsApp is an effort led by 24x7 dedicated volunteers offering mental health resources, COVID-19 resource collaboration, and job support with free mentoring hours. This is a private group and its network spreads across metro cities with members in over 100 countries.
The Gurgaon Helpline and Gurgaon Food Freak platforms on Facebook is a group that looks to help each other in finding hospital beds, medicine, plasma, doctors and other information on an ongoing basis. In Gurgaon Food Freak group, home chefs and members have come together to provide home cooked food for quarantined families. Both these groups are private and look to help the people of Gurugram. Users can post a query on the group and help each other out.
This group is led by women who are mostly residents of Mumbai , but they have provided support to members' families in other cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow and also Singapore, Bangkok, etc. The group offers support of varied nature – it could be medical help (suggestions for doctors), business support, pregnancy/maternity related, kids' welfare, women issues, financial as well. In the current scenario, the group has helped a lot of people find what they were looking for (oxygen, food, donor, injections, etc.).
Apart from Facebook, Twitter has also been a good resource for citizens to look for hospital beds, plasma, and medical supplies. As the medical infrastructure in India is collapsing, we have also curated a list of social media handles that could prove helpful to those in need and make it easier for people to find help.
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