Aid for India
The factory we work with in India cares deeply about the safety of its workers. They provide PPE, carry out regular temperature checks, and are regularly audited by Sedex, an organization that provides worker safety oversight. In addition, they have purchased COVID insurance for their workers should anyone get sick.
Pre-Covid, we traveled to our India factories frequently and have developed personal relationships with the teams that create our garments. Since the rise of their current crisis, we have been in constant contact with them in order to stay updated on the situation and provide assistance in a way that is most meaningful to their community in India.
We recently secured a number of oxygen concentrators that shipped to India last week, totaling $8,000 so far. We’ve also made a $1,000 donation to GiveIndia to help provide additional aid and supplies.
In addition to medical supply shortages, our factories are also facing business challenges as a result of capacity restrictions and workflow. In order to help ensure that our partners have a steady, manageable stream of work (they need work from design companies in order to keep their businesses running) we are committed to making changes to our process. This means shifting our design deadlines, moving ordering timelines and making changes to how we ship our upcoming deliveries.
We don’t know how long it will take for the situation in India to improve, but we are committed to doing everything we can, for as long as we can, to support our partners and their community. We will update this page as our efforts continue.
Additional Ways to Help
If you are looking for more information or additional ways to help, the following organizations are working to provide aid:
Care India - Supplying hospitals and frontline workers with more than 39,000 PPE kits along with masks and other supplies.
PATH - A global health nonprofit working to procure oxygen supplies and accelerate COVID-19 testing and surveillance.
UNICEF - Delivering PPE kits, oxygen concentrators, diagnostic testing systems, and other supplies to India’s frontline healthcare workers.
For additional information and organizations to support, the New York Times recently provided an update on ways you can help India from anywhere in the world. One of their recommendations is to check any organizations you’re considering supporting through a research site like Charity Navigator before making a monetary donation. This helps ensure the organization is legitimate and that your donation will make the biggest impact possible.
