India’s International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) is a youth-led organisation that aims to bring the world closer. With Ajay Piramal, Deepak Parekh, A. R. Rahman, Shashi Tharoor, Suresh Prabhu and the Chiefs of Armed Forces on the board of advisors and a team of 26,000 students who work across 160 cities and 22 countries, the organisation is oriented towards sensitising leaders.
In light of the grave situation in the country, the organisation has launched its Find A Bed’ initiative. Many patients who test positive for COVID-19 only need home quarantine to recover; however, not all of them have access to the luxury of home quarantine. This is where Find A Bed comes in: a single nationwide repository of available beds for mildly positive, asymptomatic patients.
Bringing together 20,000+ student volunteers spread over 160 cities, a website has been created which lists all available beds in real-time. “Whilst assisting those in my circle of friends and family with getting a hospital bed, I slowly realised that about 98% of those who actually test positive for coronavirus do not require hospitalisation. We realised that the easiest way to help stop the spread and ensure that these patients take up quarantine care in facilities other than hospitals is by creating a repository of available COVID centres from across the country,” Rishabh Shah, Founder and President of IIMUN, tells ELLE.
“In about 72 hours, thanks to our team’s selfless work, we had a compilation of data spanning 446 cities and towns into one website. Type in your city name or zip code and get a list of centres near you.”
While the website is in English, it is being developed in different regional languages as well. In addition, IIMUN uses its network of 7500 schools and aims to turn them into COVID centres where patients will be supplied with resource and food.
“Having experienced this myself, when more than one family member tests positive in a household, the sheer anxiety that is caused in figuring out the logistics of how to isolate can be stressful. A platform like this provides to be the much-needed solution not just for ourselves but also to help larger groups of people who may not have access to information or next steps,” shares Sneha Savla, who is involved with the initiative.
How You Can Help: Convert any spare space you have, such as offices or workplaces, into centres, with the organisation’s aid. You can also amplify the initiative and become a cause ambassador.
