Our Integrated Response to COVID-19
1
In Gratitude Over the past year, frontline workers demonstrated immense courage, grit, and resilience while fighting the COVID-19 crisis. In India, we managed to deliver aid to more than 13 million people as part of our COVID-19 response because of their support. We salute and celebrate their indomitable spirit!
2
Contents Overview Our Guiding Principles First Wave Response Second Wave Response Humanitarian Aid Wipro Kitchen: A Million Meals Wipro Education Fellows Join COVID-19 Response in the North East Supporting Migrant Workers in Distress in Chennai Healthcare Aid Repurposing Pune IT campus to Care for COVID-19 Patients Accelerating COVID Care with Our Healthcare Response Serving COVID-affected Communities in Mumbai Global Coalition for COVID-19 Medical Care (GCCMC) Delivering Primary Health Care to the Disadvantaged in Aurangabad COVID-19 Relief through Wipro Enterprises Limited Project Partners Livelihood Regeneration* A New Lease of Life to Jharkhand's Tribal Women Employee Initiatives Supporting Work from Home Health and Well-being of Employees Employee Contributions Wipro Cares-Project StepOne Initiative Resilience in the Face of Crisis - A Wipro Employee’s Experience Our Response So Far Timeline of Our COVID-19 Response Partner Aknowledgements Recognition *Initiative led by Azim Premji Foundation
4 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 16 17 18 19 19 19 20 20 22 24 25 29 31
Overview
At Wipro, we took immediate steps as the COVID-19 situation unfolded in India and mobilized our teams to respond. To give a wide-scale response to COVID-19, we have leveraged the expertise of our network organizations Azim Premji Foundation and Wipro Enterprises Limited. Together, we committed Rs 1,125 crore (~USD 156 million) towards tackling COVID-19 in India, in which Wipro Limited’s commitment was Rs 100 crore, Wipro Enterprises Limited was Rs 25 crore, and that of the Azim Premji Foundation was Rs 1,000 crore. These sums were in addition to the annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of Wipro and the usual philanthropic spending of Azim Premji Foundation. Since April 2020, we have operationalized our COVID-19 response in collaboration with a 1600-member team from Azim Premji Foundation, 55,000+ members from 500+ Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), local administration in 27 states and 3 UTs, thousands of public-school teachers, and the alumni network of Azim Premji University. This collective ground intelligence has helped us in reaching out to over 13 million people in need. In May 2021, we increased our joint contribution to Rs 2,125 crores (~USD 286 million) to substantially expand our work on vaccination.
In Partnership with
500+
Civil Society Organizations Reaching
27 States and 3 UTs 4
Our Guiding Principles In the face of the crisis and its scale, we have ensured that our responses were both internally and externally focused. Internally, we have endeavored to ensure minimal or zero loss of jobs and livelihoods of our suppliers and vendors who provide a range of contract services like housekeeping, security, etc. We have also enabled Work from Home, provided desktops and reimbursements for computer accessories, provided additional leave to our COVID-positive staff, facilitated isolation centres and organized vaccination camps for employees.
Externally, we have collaborated with CSOs and the government to aid frontline workers and support underserved communities. Our comprehensive, on-the-ground response includes immediate humanitarian aid such as providing food and basic hygiene products, augmenting healthcare capacity and supporting livelihood regeneration initiatives in in 27 states and 3 UTs. In response to the evolving nature of the crisis, we have learned by doing and re-calibrated our responses as the situation has changed.
First Wave Response To operationalize our response, we modified Wipro's internal grant approval process. The contract to payment cycle was reduced from 30 days to 48-72 hours to enable partners to respond on the ground. For local community outreach, we collaborated with many new partners and continued working with the existing ones.
Parishad. It took five weeks for the Wipro team to repurpose Wipro’s Pune campus into a 504bed COVID hospital.
Our immediate response on the healthcare front was to protect frontline workers catering to underserved communities and deliver over 200,000 PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) kits. We started working on developing a supply chain to improve access to testing equipment.
To strengthen the pressured health infrastructure of primary healthcare and COVID response, we partnered with state governments in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, Kerala, and Odisha. In Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Telangana and Uttarakhand, we collaborated with CSO partners for enhancing oxygen bed capacity in primary and secondary healthcare institutions like Community Health Centres (CHCs).
By the end of March 2020, since most of our employees had moved to a Work From Home setting, we decided to use our resources for the benefit of Wipro proximate communities. One of our first decisions in this direction was to open Wipro Kitchens to prepare and distribute nutritionally composite meals for underserved communities at over 30 locations in Bangalore, Pune, and Kolkata. By November 2020, we had facilitated over 3 million cooked meals. In April 2020, we also started repurposing our Pune campus into a COVID-19 hospital in partnership with the Pune Zilla
As an immediate measure, we assisted around 1.6 million people, including about 600,000 migrant workers in Bengaluru, 100,000 slum dwellers in Mumbai, and 200,000 people in Hyderabad. In May 2020, stranded migrants needed immediate support. With our CSO partners, we provided assistance that included food packets and water to the returning migrants. Through our employee volunteering initiatives managed by Wipro Cares, we saw an overwhelming response to our COVID-19 relief efforts. The monetary contributions 5
by employees were matched 2:1 by Wipro. COVID-19 treatment was still evolving, and access to information on best practices was limited. Wipro employees leveraged their technical expertise and designed a digital platform GCCMC (Global Coalition for COVID-19 Medical care) for doctors and healthcare experts to facilitate easy exchange and collaboration on emerging good practices in COVID care. Anticipating the impact of the loss of livelihood of migrants returning to their villages, we have also initiated livelihood projects in rural areas of 12 states. We are facilitating the issuance of new job cards, activating dormant job cards, supporting rural
households with starting kitchen gardens for nutrition security and vaccination support for livestock. COVID-19 cases in India saw a decline from October 2020 to March 2021, but we continued to augment testing capacities in remote and difficult-to-access hill regions of Uttarakhand such as Ranikhet, Dhauladevi, Chaukhutiya, Agustyamuni, Jakholi, and Ukhimath. By the end of the first wave, our humanitarian assistance reached around 8.4 million people in 26 states and 3 UTs.
Second Wave Response To address the demands of the second wave, we processed 2217 COVID-relief grant proposals between April-June 2021 and directed support on saving lives and mitigating humanitarian distress among disadvantaged communities. Organizations like Khana Chahiye, Sajha Manch, Voluntary Action for Rehabilitation and Development (VARHAD) and Red Brigade joined hands with us to deliver humanitarian aid and meals at multiple locations during the second wave. We have focused on delivering oxygen treatment, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, healthcare staff augmentation, community awareness, help desks for better bed management, frontline coordination, technology support, and providing humanitarian aid. We have scaled up the entire spectrum of oxygen support, including oxygen concentrators, cylinders, and even oxygen plants, to meet the demands in over 20 states. We have also worked on building the capacity of public hospitals, providing them with over 10,000 oxygenated beds, 1000 ICU beds, 100 testing centers with approximately 80,000 per day testing capacity. At the Pune COVID hospital, we commissioned a 250 liters per minute oxygen plant in just five weeks.
In Bengaluru, we have supported staffing for COVID Care Centres at Shadab Mahal and DJ Halli – one of the most densely populated slum areas in Bengaluru. In Delhi, our partners have mobilized healthcare professionals to operate a 120-oxygen bedded COVID Health Centre close to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital for three months. In Hyderabad, we have joined hands with the state government to augment 1000-bedded COVID care hospitals by equipping them with critical medical equipment. We have also supported ambulances in Jaipur, Bangalore, Bhopal, and Yadgir to help people access these facilities. Our efforts during the second wave have focused on disadvantaged regions of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Telangana, and Uttarakhand. Through our second wave response, we have supported 45 public-spirited hospitals with over 5,000 beds and 500 ICU beds, potentially reaching over 20 million people, and our humanitarian assistance has reached around 13 million people in 27 states and 3 UTs.
6
Humanitarian Aid
Humanitarian aid, especially for the most vulnerable individuals and communities, who do not have access to social security or government schemes/systems, is a key pivot of our COVID-19 response. In most cases, the need is for immediate food relief and basic hygiene/sanitary products (soaps, sanitizers, masks, sanitary pads, etc.). As a part of the strategy of humanitarian support, we activated our kitchens in our Kodathi (Bangalore) and Kolkata campuses in early April. In Bangalore, we tied up with the municipal corporation to expedite the distribution of cooked meals to the neediest – including frontline health staff, relatives of patients admitted to large government hospitals, and on-duty police personel. We have funded about 250 NGOs, working in 349 districts across 22 states to provide food and/or sanitation kits to the most disadvantaged. A kit typically contains dry ration and/or sanitary products for a family of 5-6 for 2-4 weeks. We also worked with our contractors to ensure food availability for workers at our construction sites throughout the lockdown period.
We Served
13 Million+ People 7
Wipro Kitchen: A Million Meals In April 2020, after the COVID-19 lockdown, Wipro activated our kitchen facilities to prepare cooked meals in Wipro Bengaluru, Pune, and Kolkata to respond to the needs of people from vulnerable communities. These meals were nutritionally composite, balancing carbohydrates and proteins, and were distributed in over 30 locations in Bangalore, Pune, and Kolkata in partnership with the administration. Cumulatively, we have provided over 3 million meals for 255,000 people in these three cities. Along with our partner Mercy Mission
in Bangalore, we have also supplied 350,000 packed food kits to 200,000+ migrants returning home. More than 20 employees from Wipro Bangalore, Pune, and Kolkata have been involved in managing the production of these meals, and many others have supported us by way of making contributions. The Wipro Kitchen Meals intervention has been successful because of the unflinching collaboration between our four cafeteria partners, the Wipro operations team, the Karnataka Government and NGO partners who have ensured that the meals have served people in need. 8
Wipro Education Fellows Join COVID-19 Response in the North East Wipro Education Fellow Kharingyo Shimrah, from Korou Education Foundation, runs a library program in public schools in Ukhrul, Manipur. After the lockdown on March 23, 2020, he immediately started working on sourcing and delivering aid. For Shimrah, delivering aid in Ukhrul was very challenging for several reasons. First, they had to get special permissions from the district administration as Section 144 was imposed in the town. Second, they had minimum volunteer support. In less than four weeks, Shimrah and his team delivered rice, potatoes, dal, and soaps to 600 families in
Ukhrul, including families of cancer patients and Persons with Disabilities. Another Wipro Education Fellow, Mathanmi Hungyo from Recognise Rise and Empower Association (RREA) from Kamjong, faced an even greater challenge of working in a geographically isolated border region. Given the rugged terrain, Hungyo has been transporting aid in Shaktiman trucks, widely used as medium-capacity transport vehicles by the Indian Armed Forces before being decommissioned.
9
Supporting Migrant Workers in Distress in Chennai Bhoomika Trust launched the ‘Food First’ initiative to ensure that daily wage earners had enough to eat during COVID-19 regulations. The Bhoomika team quickly reached out to the residents, networked with the association members, slum clearance board officials, block development officers and tahsildars, and started distributing ration packets and hygiene kits, supported by a Wipro Foundation grant. The Trust’s initiative has provided significant relief for migrants and daily wage earners, auto drivers, electricians, painters, plumbers, construction workers, and women who work as domestic help. The team has been able to reach over 95,000 migrants and daily wage earners since the lockdown. Team Bhoomika has also played a critical role in supporting tens of thousands of migrants, specifically from Jharkhand and West Bengal, in their travel back home on the Shramik special trains. Volunteers from Bhoomika identified their locations, collected their details, worked with Greater Chennai Corporation to bring them to the station, and provided them with sanitation kits and food packets for their journeys.
10
Healthcare Aid
Through our partners, we have supported NGOs to help strengthen healthcare infrastructure. For example, setting up isolation wards, supply of consumables package that includes PPE kits, N95 mask, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, etc. Through Azim Premji Foundation, we are working in close collaboration with state governments and district administrations to understand their needs and enhance the healthcare capability of the governmental machinery wherever we see a gap. We have also supported hospitals with intensive care equipment, equipment for testing centers, isolation wards, oxygen cylinders and consumables. Reinforcing the healthcare network, training and capacity building of COVID care staff, and prevention and control through community-level awareness building have been key aspects of our overall healthcare intervention. From April 2021 till now we have supported 5127 government hospitals and 422 non-government hospitals with oxygen beds. We have also initiated procurement/delivery/set-up of 50,000 oxygen concentrators, 40 oxygen plants, 10,000 ICU beds, 20,000 isolation beds, 50,000 pulse oximeters, and twelve testing equipment that can process 1000 tests per day.
Collaborated with
5000+
Government Hospitals Covering More than 100 Districts 11
Repurposing Pune IT campus to care for COVID-19 patients Wipro opened its first Covid dedicated hospital in Pune in partnership with the Government of Maharashtra in June 2020. For this, we repurposed our IT building in the Hinjewadi area in Pune and offered around 1.8 lakh square feet of the premises for constructing the hospital. The hospital managed by Pune Zilla Parishad was built during a phase when Maharashtra was one of the country's worst-hit states, with 94,041 Covid-19 cases and 3,438 deaths. It took the Wipro team five weeks to set up the
hospital in partnership with the Maharashtra government. Wipro's Pune hospital is equipped with 504 beds, 18 ventilators, ICUs, and all other medical facilities required for COVID-19 treatment. Fifteen doctors and 70 nurses run the hospital. As a response to the COVID-19 second wave, an oxygen generating plant was also set up by the Wipro team in May 2021. Since the hospital’s opening, over 6800 patients have been treated, with only 11 deaths reported as of December 2021. 12
Accelerating COVID Care with Our
Healthcare Response
ICU Equipment and Devices 40
PSA Oxygen Generation Plants
60,000
Oxygen Concentrators
Priority Care 10,000
ICU Beds
20,000
Isolation Beds
80
Ventilators
300
Bi-PAP Machines
600
High Flow Nasal Cannulas (HNFCs)
Enhanced Testing 90
RT-PCR Machines
20
CB-NAAT Machines
Multiple
Turnkey Testing Labs in Government Hospitals
Support for Frontline Workers 500,000
PPE Kits & N95 Masks
50,000
Pulse Oximeters 13
Serving COVID-affected Communities in Mumbai DOCTORS FOR YOU In May 2020, our partner Doctors for You converted the Shivaji Nagar Urban Health Center in Mumbai’s M East ward into a 100bed COVID-19 isolation center. It was initially scheduled to be inaugurated in May/June 2020 as a Maternity and Child Health Care Center. But it had to be converted into a COVID-19 ward given the emergency. The Doctors for You team was on high alert as M East ward, with over 1.2 million people, is a Tuberculosis (TB) hotspot of Mumbai. Spreading of COVID-19 amongst the people there with an existing condition could potentially endanger their lives further. Doctors for You worked closely with the government and screened thousands of patients, and distributed PPE kits to health care workers including police officers and traffic personnel.
In addition to the COVID-19 response, the team provided primary health care to people in the community using their Medical Mobile Unit. This ensured that those suffering from minor ailments received medical attention, as 80-90% of clinics in the region remained shut. BHAKTIVEDANTA HOSPITAL Bhaktivedanta Hospital & Research Institute is a 200-bed multi-specialty NABHaccredited non-profit hospital committed to community service, education, and research in rural and tribal areas. The Mira-Bhayandarbased hospital did commendable work in providing healthcare services for people from vulnerable communities during the pandemic on their own and in partnership with the government. Within two weeks, a team from Bhaktivedanta hospital converted the Bharat Ratna Pandit 14
Bhimsen Joshi Municipal Hospital in Mira Bhayandar into a dedicated COVID facility, comprising of 20 ICU beds and 100 regular beds, with 40+ staff and doctors taking care of protocols and training. Thousands of patients have been treated for COVID-19 at this hospital. Except for patients with comorbidity, all others have recovered.
laboratory in Mira Bhayander and Northern Coastal districts of Maharashtra having NABL Accreditation and ICMR Approval for RT-PCR COVID-19 testing. Contributing to the ongoing search for COVID-19 treatment, the hospital has set up structured research on Panchagavya medicine in search of a costeffective solution for preventive care.
Dr. K. Venkataramanan from Bhaktivedanta Hospital says, “Mira-Bhayandar became a red zone, and COVID-19 cases started shooting up. We were left with no option but to activate our satellite center at PV Doshi Hospital. We needed ventilators, ECG machines, RT-PCR machines, automated/ semi-automated beds, medical supplies including PPE Kits, N95 Masks, Hand Sanitizers, etc. In partnership with Wipro Foundation, we set up a dedicated COVID-19 hospital.”
Between March to May 2020, the hospital performed 568 emergency surgeries, 203 emergency CathLab procedures for the heart, 65 normal deliveries and 73 Caesarian Section deliveries, and 15 fracture surgeries. A dedicated team at Bhaktivedanta provides training and education to doctors and nurses while coordinating with various agencies, post-traumatic stress disorder medical counseling, healthcare to rural and tribal communities through satellite centers, and doctors at doorsteps through their mobile clinics.
In over six weeks, the team also came up with their COVID-19 testing facility – the first
Global Coalition for COVID-19 Medical Care (GCCMC) The idea of the Coalition (https://gccmc.in/) was to bring together medical fraternity and hospitals to share knowledge and practices for better clinical outcomes, improve hospital throughput, and coalesce home and hospital care. The GCCMC initiative was launched in October 2020 in partnership with AHPI (Association of Healthcare providers India), CAHO (Consortium of accredited healthcare organizations), ACP (American college of physicians – India chapter), among others.
The platform has facilitated e-learning programs for healthcare staff with the Government of Maharashtra and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). Hundreds of doctors from various state governments have participated in GCCMC webinars since its inception.
15
Delivering Primary Health Care to the Disadvantaged in Aurangabad Wipro Foundation’s partner Savitri Bai Phule Mahila Ekatma Samaj Mandal (SPMESM) operates three OPDs and two mobile clinics in disadvantaged communities in Waluj near Aurangabad, attending to 250+ patients every day. Dr. Prassana Patil, Founder-Trustee, SPMESM, says, “For people in rural areas, it is difficult to come to a nearby city to seek treatment for their minor illnesses due to the lockdown.
These OPDs help a lot. They get primary healthcare and health advice at their doorsteps.” Wipro Foundation joined SPMESM’s work in rural Maharashtra by providing healthcare workers with N95 masks and hand sanitizers for patients visiting their OPDs. We also supported them in distributing dry rations to over 1000 families in their neighborhood.
COVID-19 Relief through Wipro Enterprises Limited Project Partners Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to re-scope our existing healthcare projects supported by Wipro Enterprises Limited by including COVID-related interventions along with the regular healthcare activities. In addition, we have also supported humanitarian aid to our partners based on their requests. Wipro Foundation has worked with Location partners of Wipro Enterprises Limited in Aurangabad, Devanahalli, and Haridwar. We have reached out to marginalized communities, providing dry ration and hygiene kits in addition to regular healthcare services.
Devanahalli, Haridwar, Sriperumbudur, and Hindupur) have started organizing health clinics, for providing access to essential primary healthcare services to targeted beneficiaries. Door-to-door visits and COVIDrelated awareness programs (online/offline) have been organized to ensure that the community is well aware of the prevention practices related to COVID-19. In addition to this, our partners have continued with their regular interventions for pregnant and lactating mothers and malnourished children. These organizations have also supported training programs for the field staff along with necessary protective equipment.
All the Wipro Enterprises Limited healthcare project partners (Aurangabad, Amalner,
16
Livelihood Regeneration Supported by:
The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the livelihoods of a majority of Indians, especially the estimated 39 crore workers from the unorganized sector who are without any social support and whose numbers have swelled because of the disruptions over the last year and a half. In this context, our partner, the Azim Premji Foundation, is playing an active role with livelihood-focused interventions in the states and districts where they have a strong presence. Collaborating with governments, the Foundation is facilitating easy linkages to banks and employment guarantee schemes and promoting participation in Gram Sabha meetings, village development planning, etc., for those from underserved communities. Women-led community collectives and networks are at the center of their initiatives. The foundation is attempting to do this by enabling them to run community kitchens/backyard kitchens and by enhancing farm and nonfarm livelihood interventions.
Providing Assistance to Rebuild the Lives of
Over 8 million People
Across
13 States in India 17
A New Lease of Life to Jharkhand’s Tribal Women The COVID-19 lockdown impact on the tribal population in Jharkhand could have been worse. But, the potential issues of the humanitarian crisis in this belt were mitigated by our partner PRADAN’s prompt interventions in identifying vulnerable families, taking steps to stop community spread, and engaging community members through their livelihoods. In all, the PRADAN team identified 38,733 vulnerable families, who have been promptly provided with dry rations, medical safety goods, and sanitary pads for women.
During the lockdown, livestock has proven to be a good source of income for many families, as women have been able to sell backyard poultry. To encourage this, PRADAN’s team regularly have engaged with the community’s women, advising them on increasing their capacity and on animal vaccination. Given the organization’s focus on cultivation, including kitchen gardens that can help families meet their nutritional needs, the team has embarked on one of its most significant missions. Through this exercise, the PRADAN team has supported 30,922 vulnerable families with improved seeds of paddy and pulses. 18
Employee Initiatives
Supporting Work from Home Given the sudden shift to Work From Home, Wipro employees have been provided with desktops and reimbursements for computer accessories. We have also procured a new communication tool, ONSOLVE, that has helped us reach out to Wiproites via voice, text, and e-mail during any crisis. In July 2020, we launched Wipro’s Health COVER ‘Back to Work (BTW)’ to enable a smooth return to work for employees through the app. The Laptop Walk-in Centre (LWC) was kept open for a few hours every day as a one-stop place to address IT issues, knowing the difficulties employees could face while resolving their technical issues.
up to 10 working days of additional leaves to all COVID-positive employees.
We have also changed the leave policy in the rare event that an employee had exhausted all their paid leaves (both fully and partially paid sick and earned leave) and needed to take extra time off for recovery from COVID. We decided to grant
Health and Well-being of Employees Launched in February 2021, the NOWNurturing Wellness platform provides 24x7 emergency care experts to evaluate physical, emotional, and mental health and wellbeing of Wipro employees. It offers telemedicine and doctor consultations free of cost. Using the CNH Care App, Wipro employees get pre-vaccination consultation, information on vaccination centers, comorbidity counseling,
booking assistance with the Co-WIN app, adverse effect monitoring post-vaccination, and certification and second dose reminders. In May 2021, we organized COVID vaccination camps at our Electronics City campus for Bangalore-based employees and their family members. We are making necessary efforts to roll out vaccination camps across other major offices in India. 19
Employee Contributions Many Wipro employees have contributed generously to Wipro’s COVID-19 response through Wipro Cares. All contributions were matched 2:1 during the COVID first wave. Wipro Cares is an employee-led community initiative and engages in Education, Primary Healthcare, Community Ecology, and Disaster
Response in proximate communities. These contributions have supported our extensive partner network of NGOs in over 20 states, who have been working relentlessly to address the humanitarian and health crises arising out of this pandemic.
Wipro Cares-Project StepOne Initiative When the COVID-19 pandemic began to sweep the nation in 2020, Wipro Cares started working with Project StepOne, a volunteer-led organization consisting of technologists, doctors, and creative problem solvers. The Wipro Cares-Project StepOne partnership supports the government’s efforts in tele-screening COVID-19 patients using the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). Volunteers’ responsibilities include calling patients who have recently been diagnosed with COVID-19 and helping them with relevant information to support their recovery. All volunteers received training before interacting with patients and had committed to devoting at least 1 to 2 hours per day. Vishal Nagpal, a Lead Consultant from Bangalore, volunteered for this initiative as he wanted to contribute to COVID-19 response. His work involved identifying high-severity COVID-19 cases (including patients with comorbidity) and getting them immediate medical treatment if needed.
“Once, I had to interact with a young couple who had tested positive. They were worried because the couple had toddlers and didn’t want to risk getting them infected. I was able to share emergency contacts and help them stay calm. Both the mother and father were relieved, and I was glad that I could lessen their anxiety,” says Vishal. As a Wipro Cares – Project StepOne volunteer, Vishal has assisted over 300 people.
20
While volunteers provide basic awareness on self-isolation, hygiene, diet, and measures to follow during the quarantine period to patients, it also helps them reflect on the importance of support during these tough times. Sony Shetty, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, started volunteering at the peak of the second wave. Her most touching experience was with a senior citizen in Delhi. “We ended up chatting for almost half an hour. He was happy to have finally spoken to someone after days of being in quarantine. Two takeaways from this experience have been — it might be just a phone call, but it makes a difference to people’s lives, and there might not have been a face to the names, but there was a personal connection for those few minutes,” says Sony. Over the past months, Wipro volunteers have supported people from different age groups
– from a young couple who tested positive to quarantined senior citizens. There have also been occasions when volunteers interacted with people who don’t have enough support in the family or whose family members have succumbed to the virus. “It has been emotionally challenging for us as volunteers and those on the other side of the phone. Yet, personally, I felt good to provide that moral support to patients and their family members,” says Prasad Tanksali, Senior Architect – Europe, iDEAs, who also volunteered for the project. Nearly 2000 employees were nominated for the project, and over 500+ volunteers took training. Leading with empathy, Wipro volunteers have helped more than 14,000 patients get timely access to information on COVID-19, including doctors and hospitals.
21
Resilience in the Face of Crisis A Wipro Employee’s Experience
Wipro employees worldwide have come forward in different ways to support those affected by COVID-19. One among the many is Wipro employee Koushik Nath from Guwahati (Assam) who used his problem-solving skills to help hospital staff. Part of the iCORE-DOP team, Koushik was hospitalized with high fever and breathlessness at a private hospital during the second wave of the pandemic. But since the hospital lacked oxygen supply, he had to be moved to a government-run COVID center. While he was fighting for his own life, he saw other COVID patients losing theirs owing to the lack of oxygen.
22
Koushik says, “When my condition improved, I was moved to the general ward. One day, I noticed a number of oxygen concentrators in the store room next to my ward. Curious, I asked one of the attendants why the oxygen concentrators were lying unused. The attendant said that they didn’t know how to use the machines.” Given Koushik’s mechanical engineering background and his considerable experience in using medical devices, he requested the staff to bring him the manual for the oxygen concentrators.
“It wasn’t difficult for me to get the concentrators working. I could also manage to unofficially train several hospital staff members to use the concentrators,” he adds.
On reflecting on this experience, Koushik says, “If something needs to be done, you must go ahead and do it or at least give it a try! Do not get bogged down by processes or think you alone cannot make a difference.” 23
Our Response So Far 13 million
150 million
People received food, dry rations, and personal hygeine kits in 27 states and 3 UTs
People accessed healthcare services as a result of our capacity building support for hospitals in 100 districts
500,000+
8.3 million
PPE kits and N95 masks distributed
People being helped with livelihood regeneration across 13 states
3.7 million
636 million
Soaps distributed
Meals distributed
102 million People reached through the vaccination program in partnership with multiple state governments Financial Commitment for COVID-19 Response Rs. 2,125 crore* (~USD 286 million) *Total contribution from Azim Premji Foundation, Wipro Limited, and Wipro Enterprises Limited between April 2020 to June 2021. Includes commitment of Rs. 1000 crore (~USD 130 million) made in May 2021 to substantially expand our work on vaccination.
24
Timeline of Our
COVID-19 Response April 2020 •
•
• •
•
Azim Premji Foundation, Wipro, and Wipro Enterprises Limited commit a sum of Rs 1,125 crore (USD 156 million) for COVID-19 response Wipro changes the CSR grant approval cycle from 30 days to 48-72 hours to process COVID-19 response grants Over 200,000 PPE kits and N95 masks committed for frontline workers Wipro initiates work to repurpose the Wipro Pune campus to a dedicated COVID-19 hospital for the underserved Around 1.6 million people, including about 600,000 migrant workers, receive humanitarian assistance in Bengaluru
May 2020 •
•
•
•
•
Livelihood regeneration projects initiated in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan Partnerships with state governments of Kerala, Maharashtra and Odisha to strengthen primary healthcare Collaboration with National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru and Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, and urban hospitals, with significant community outreach programs Completion of the conversion process of a large part of Wipro’s campus in Hinjewadi, Pune, into a dedicated COVID-19 hospital Ramping up of infrastructure for testing and treatment of COVID-19 in Mumbai through partners like Doctors for You (DFY), Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Shatabdi Municipal General Hospital, and St. Georges General Hospital 25
June 2020 •
•
•
•
Promotion of better clinical and operational processes across the country with learnings from National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru, and Bangalore Baptist Hospital Planning and implementing a comprehensive healthcare response in Bengaluru in coordination with the administration and partners, including NGOs and hospitals Joining of hands with Makunda Christian Leprosy and General Hospital (MCGLH) in Karimganj, Assam, to upgrade the leprosy colony to a general hospital, potentially reaching out to 2.7 million people in Assam, Tripura, and Mizoram Ramping up of integrated healthcare response in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Telangana and Uttarakhand
July 2020 •
• •
•
Increasing available testing capacity to around 80,000 RT PCR tests per day in collaboration with various partners Enhancing oxygen bed capacity in primary and secondary healthcare institutions Enhancing tertiary capacity by providing ICU equipment such as high flow nasal cannulas and ventilators in severely underserved districts like Yadgir, Karnataka and Dhamtari in Chhattisgarh, and to those healthcare facilities serving large populations Intensive frontline work across 50 wards covering 8 large slum clusters in Bengaluru on awareness building, screening, enabling local quarantine facilities, access to ambulance services, etc.
26
August 2020 • • •
Supported 167,000 farmers to farm at least 1 acre of land to meet food security needs Supported 200,000 rural households with starting kitchen gardens for nutritional security Over 100,000 households provided with vaccination support for their livestock
September 2020 - March 2021 Covid-19 cases in India saw a decline from October 2020 to March 2021. Azim Premji Foundation resumed its work in education, and Wipro Foundation resumed its focus on Education, Ecology, and Primary Healthcare domains. In parallel, we continued our efforts towards strengthening our integrated healthcare response in select regions of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Telangana and Uttarakhand. •
•
•
•
Launching of GCCMC (Global Coalition for Covid-19 Medical Care) - a mobile platform supported by Wipro for the medical fraternity - to exchange information and share best practices on COVID-19 treatment Augmenting testing capacities in remote areas, for instance, CB-NAAT machines in difficult-to-access hill regions of Uttarakhand such as Ranikhet, Dhauladevi, Chaukhutiya, Agastyamuni, Jakholi, and Ukhimath Extension of our awareness-building efforts in Rajasthan through more advocacy/hand-wash points, IEC material (big hoardings) in Sirohi and Tonk. Similar hoardings are being put up in Chittorgarh, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, and Barmer In Uttarakhand, provisioning of screening kits (pulse oximeter, IR thermometers, etc.) at Community Healthcare Centres (CHCs), Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in Haridwar, in addition to conducting orientation for health staff for awareness building in the region
27
April 2021
• • • •
•
May 2021
• •
•
•
June 2021
•
•
•
To address demand during the second wave, we process over 1500 COVID-relief grant proposals Directing support to Chhattisgarh, one of the worst hit states in this second round of surge Commissioning of a 250 liters per minute (LPM) oxygen plant at our Pune COVID hospital In Bangalore, committing support to LabourNet for 5 hospital helpdesks to enable better bed management Joined hands with Khana Chahiye, Sajha Manch, Voluntary Action for Rehabilitation and Development (VARHAD), and Red Brigade to deliver humanitarian aid and meals
Completion of setting up of a 250 liters per minute (LPM) oxygen plant at our Pune COVID hospital Supporting the public healthcare system with oxygen in Bangalore, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, North East Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan Committing of support for 50,000 oxygen concentrators, 40 oxygen plants, 800 ICU beds, 10,000 ICU beds with piped oxygen, 20,000 isolation beds, 50,000 pulse oximeters, and testing equipment that can process 1000 tests per day Focusing of efforts on some of the most disadvantaged regions of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Telangana and Uttarakhand
Providing ambulances in Bangalore, Yadgir, Jaipur, and Bhopal to enable better access to Wiprosupported treatment facilities Augmenting the capacity of the public healthcare system with over 10,000 oxygenated beds, 1000 ICU beds, 100 testing centers with approximately 80,000 per day testing capacity Our comprehensive COVID-19 response was initially supported by INR 1,125 crores of contribution; this is increased to INR 2,125 crores to enable substantial expansion of work on vaccination
28
Partner Aknowledgements
JHAMTSE GATSAL, TAWANG
DOOR STEP SCHOOL (DSS), PUNE
For our remotely-located community, having access to medical facilities at the firstresponder level is essential. One of our worst fears during the first wave of the pandemic was how to support our children and staff, especially those with comorbidities, in the event of an infection. Stabilizing them to get them to our bare-bone facilities at the district level had to be considered. Wipro Cares supported us in purchasing oxygen concentrators for Jhamtse Gatsal Children's Community in addition to health supplements and supplies to enhance the immunity of our staff and children. We could not have done this without your help! Thank you.
During the lockdown, when the entire country was at a standstill, people from unorganized sectors such as construction sites, brick-kilns, roadside vendors, etc., lost their jobs overnight. There was no clarity of work, and contractors and builders stopped communicating. When families contacted DSS for food grains, we reached out to Wipro for help. And like always, the Wipro team stepped up once again and provided foodgrains for a month. This meant a lot to the families as the support came when they were starving, and there was no hope for employment.
29
FOURTH WAVE FOUNDATION, NORTH KARNATAKA Fourth Wave Foundation, with the support of the Wipro Foundation, had provided essential Services comprising of food and hygiene material for families of Children with Disabilities. The ration kits were beneficial to the parents of children who had no source of income. GUBBACHI LEARNING COMMUNITY, BANGALORE At Gubbachi, we pride ourselves on having responded to the pandemic in a flexible way. This has been primarily possible because of the confidence that was reposed in us right from the very beginning by Wipro Foundation. From reaching out to us early in the lockdown of 2020, enquiring about the condition of our communities to offering quick support to alleviate hunger, to discussions on repurposing the budget to respond better to the learning and nutrition needs of the children, the Wipro team was immensely supportive. INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES TRUST (ISST) ISST received financial support from Wipro Cares to run its activities smoothly. They understood the situation and guided us from time to time to improve our work. ARMY NAVY AIR FORCE WIVES ACTIVITY (ANAWA) TRUST, NOIDA Besides the financial and material support,
Wipro Cares' sincere concern for our children and their families has been truly touching. Through Wipro Cares, we received generous rations of essentials for children and their families who otherwise were on the point of starvation. In addition, Wipro Cares also organized workshops for our Teachers to train them in imparting effective online education to children. More particularly, the workshop on the use of technology in online teaching, and pointers on sites they could turn to, was effective in preventing dropouts as our teachers became more confident and efficient. URMI FOUNDATION, MUMBAI With the sudden lockdown, most relief works focused on supplying rations. With food and hygiene as a priority, medicine supply for the elderly and special children was affected. Many children with epilepsy also lost their lives. Wipro helped us in supplying medicines to severely epileptic children. VIKRAMSHILA EDUCATION RESOURCE SOCIETY, KOLKATA Our partner communities in West Bengal (rural and urban) suffered the double impact of COVID -19 and cyclone Amphan. Wipro emerged as our friend and ally once again in this critical time of need to directly reach the lives of those most vulnerable. Wipro has always been a sensitive and socially conscious corporate citizen. Their support helped mitigate the immediate need of families through a curated kit of dry ration and sanitation items.
30
Recognition
India Today Healthgiri Awards 2021 With the help of over 500 NGO partners and 50,000 frontline workers, Azim Premji Foundation and Wipro began responding to COVID-19 in India starting April 2020. In October 2021, on the 152nd birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s leading publication India Today recognized Wipro’s contribution to COVID-19 in India as ‘best far-reaching corporate contribution for a wider social impact’.
31
Wipro Foundation is a public charitable trust set up for corporate citizenship and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Wipro.
Integrated response to COVID-19 in collaboration with
Disclaimer: The information in this document is based on internal data and other sources that are considered to be true, but which may not have been independently validated, and are intended for general advice. All information in this document is provided in good faith, however Wipro Foundation makes no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability or completeness of any information in this document. Wipro Foundation assumes no responsibility and disclaims all liability for any errors or omissions in the information, or for any claims for damages (including exemplary ones) that may result from the use of, or inability to use, the information contained. The authors’, partners’, and interviewees’ opinions are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Wipro Foundation. Recipients should rely on conclusions drawn from reliable sources or professional advisors before making any decisions. No portion of this document or related files may be copied or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without Wipro Foundation’s prior written consent.
For Internal Communication In Partnership with
Wipro Limited Doddakannelli, Sarjapur Road, Bengaluru - 560035, India CIN: L32102KA1945PLC020800 Email: info@wipro.com wipro.com
33