Walmart, Flipkart and the Walmart Foundation has announced measures to support India’s COVID-19 response, including contributing personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and financial support for organizations providing essential relief materials to farmers and small businesses.
Walmart and Flipkart said in a statement that it will spend Rs 383 million to bring in kind donations into India to help with the front-line response efforts. The companies will focus on providing PPE, such as N95 masks and medical gowns, for distribution by non-government organizations (NGOs) to public healthcare workers.
Walmart and Flipkart say that they have already secured 300,000 N95 masks and 1 million medical gowns. “The emergency relief efforts we are announcing today underscore our commitment to continuing to work with the private and public sector in India to respond to this unprecedented challenge,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group.
In addition to this in-kind support, the Walmart Foundation is donating Rs 77 million to Goonj and Srijan, NGOs supporting vulnerable communities through the crisis. The funds will be used to support the procurement of essential relief materials, such as food, medicine, and hygiene items, for distribution by the organizations to support farmers, rural communities, and the micro-businesses.
“In times like these, we all need to come together to support our communities and the efforts of healthcare workers, NGOs and government organizations. We are grateful to all those providing relief in India and we want to help,” Kathleen McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer for Walmart and president of the Walmart Foundation said in a statement.
Walmart and Flipkart are also taking steps to help protect public health and the safety of customers and associates through enhanced hygiene practices across the supply chain and delivery network, insurance and health benefits for workers, contactless deliveries where possible and supporting cashless payments.