Crypto Relief Donates $15 Mn To UNICEF India To Procure Syringes

Crypto Relief has announced its partnership with UNICEF India and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India to procure 160 Mn syringes for a faster deployment of vaccines in the country. Polygon founder Sandeep Nainwal announced that Crypto Relief has donated $15 Mn (over INR 110 Cr) to UNICEF India.

The syringes are expected to be delivered between September 2021 and January 2022, and is estimated to help India vaccinate over 16 Cr adults. 

In April this year, the global cryptocurrency community came together to fund the covid relief effort in India. Led by Nainwal, the community launched Crypto Relief fund, which attracted funds from the global crypto community. To date, the relief fund has collected nearly $440 Mn.

While India had a steady flow of vaccines into the country, states had started facing a shortage of syringes. 

“The team was informed that UNICEF has initiated processing of bids in the global tender. The volunteer team got in touch with UNICEF to understand the ground requirement and quantum of funds required,” said Nainwal. 

Covid has seen many fragments of the blockchain community come together to help with the relief funds. A group called Fable auctioned digital artwork as non fungible token (NFT) to raise funds via crypto to donate to covid reliefs.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donated the meme coin Shiba Inu worth $1 Bn to India’s covid relief fund. 

Besides, startups in India were also actively contributing to the country’s covid fight. In May this year, Paytm setup oxygen plants in 13 hospitals and contributed 21 K oxygen concentrators. Fintech startup Cred, too, pledged a contribution of 1Bn L of oxygen and let its users contribute via CRED Coins.