Mumbai, 27 March, 2022: United Way Mumbai in partnership with various corporate partners including HSBC and Deloitte has completed 2,60,000 COVID vaccinations for lower income and vulnerable communities through its Vaccine- On-Wheels program across various states.
The organization currently has 31 mobile vaccination vans running in rural and urban areas of Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu with an overall target of administering at least 2,90,000 doses by 30th April 2022.
'Vaccine-On-Wheels' (VoW) provides Mobile Vaccination Clinics and back-end cold-chain facilities to safely store the vaccine.
The programme was part of its mobilization efforts to augment last-mile outreach among people from lower-income and vulnerable communities, including doorstep vaccinations and vaccinations within small communities. According to the NGO, it also partnered with BMC and Jivika Healthcare Private to run its Vaccine-On-Wheels program to offer mobile vaccination facilities, allowing the healthcare staff to reach far-flung and underserved communities in Mumbai.
The beneficiary communities were identified in mutual consultation with the respective State Governments and municipal corporations who assessed and identified pockets where such an intervention was most required. The beneficiary groups came from socio-economically disadvantaged populations and belonged to vulnerable groups like the elderly, infirm and bedridden, disabled with issues of access, and socially marginalized communities like commercial sex workers, and other special needs groups.
Speaking about the initiative, Mr. George Aikara, Chief Executive Officer, United Way Mumbai said, “United Way Mumbai has been actively responding to the pandemic at every step of its evolution in India, strengthening civic hospitals' infrastructure, training frontline workers, ration and food distribution, helping migrant population get home etc. The end of the pandemic can only be achieved by vaccines so the bulk of our work has been towards projects across the country on combating vaccine hesitancy and vaccine administration for the underserved and overlooked communities.”
BMC Additional Commissioner Mr Suresh Kakani thanked the support provided by various NGOs towards achieving the mammoth vaccination target set by the government. “The landmark program in the history of Immunization was launched on 16th Jan’2021 And BMC has till date administered more than 2 crore doses and 99% of the eligible population above 18 years of age is fully vaccinated. This mammoth task was achievable due to the support and coordinated efforts of the Public and Private sector as well as various Government and Non-Government Organizations like United Way Mumbai. BMC is grateful & appreciates the efforts of Vaccine-On-Wheels & United Way Mumbai for joining hands on this vaccination drive.”
HSBC India's Head of Corporate Sustainability Aloka Majumdar said that the partnership with United Way Mumbai for running the vaccination programme was part of its long-term mission of providing healthcare and rehabilitation for the vulnerable and marginalized communities impacted by the pandemic. “As part of our ongoing commitment towards community development initiatives, we at HSBC India have supported multiple community-level interventions to support relief operations against COVID-19.”
