“Building back community resilience with ICMIF Foundation partner the DHAN Foundation”

India, home to 1.3 billion people is in a crisis never seen before according to daily news reports and information provided by Indian ICMIF member and ICMIF Foundation project partner the DHAN Foundation. The ICMIF Foundation has launched an appeal to ICMIF members to ask them to support the DHAN Foundation in its work supporting communities during the pandemic.

The second wave of COVID – 19 has swept the country like never before, especially in the low-income communities in rural parts of India. The availability of hospital care in the rural areas is very low and the hospitals in the urban are overwhelmed. Medicines and oxygen are in short supply and even medical staff is getting scarce. As of the first week of May 2021, around 400,000 new cases were being reported daily with thousands of people dying each day.

At the same, the DHAN Foundation reports that, due to lockdowns in many Indian States, the livelihoods of labourers, street vendors, small-shop owners and farmers have been directly affected. This may lead to about one third of low-income families falling back into the poverty trap again in the rural areas. Also, the DHAN Foundation predicts a huge crisis ahead in ensuring children’s education, due to the non-opening of schools in the past year, which they believe will lead to an acute raise of child labour and school dropouts.

In this terrible situation, the DHAN Foundation has been working on the front line to support communities in their fight against COVID-19 in rural India over the last year. Please watch this video for more information on the work that DHAN has been doing.

To help the DHAN Foundation continue these efforts during this even more devastating second wave, the ICMIF Foundation has launched an appeal to ICMIF members to ask them to support DHAN Foundation in its work with low-income communities during the pandemic.

Thanks to the support of ICMIF members for the 5-5-5 Mutual Microinsurance Strategy, which started in 2017, over half a million households are already covered by mutual health and life insurance. Over the last year, the financial support provided by ICMIF members has also enabled DHAN to stay connected virtually with its widely dispersed membership base across India. In addition, our support has facilitated the provision of necessary, on the ground support services and prevention advice to communities impacted by the pandemic.

CAMIC, a Canadian ICMIF member, has launched this appeal to CAMIC members. CAMIC’s goal is to show that mutuality has no limits, no borders. CAMIC’s goal is a solidarity effort whereby CAMIC members are being asked to support this dire need.

Learn more about the ICMIF Foundation here.

ICMIF members wishing to donate to the ICMIF Foundation and thereby help the DHAN Foundation should contact Tina Blain, Resource Mobiliser, ICMIF Foundation.

The DHAN Foundation will talk about their work supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in our upcoming webinar “Microinsurance and the Sustainable Development Goals” which takes place on Thursday 27 May 2021 (3pm BST). Find more information on the webinar and how to register here. A recording of the webinar will also be available via this link after it has taken place.