Over 50 lakhs raised on online crowdfunding for COVID patients

Hyderabad: ImpactGuru.com, healthcare financing platform for patients, in its latest findings revealed that the platform has raised over Rs. 50 lakhs cumulatively for several patients diagnosed with coronavirus hospitalized across India. The timeline of the findings is from October 1, 2020 to October 29, 2020. The highest funds raised for covid patients were from Hyderabad followed by Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai.

One of the cases is that of 45-year-old Mahesh Kumar, a COVID-19 patient, currently undergoing treatment at Sunshine Hospital, Secunderabad.  

“It is a nightmare in our lives, never expected such an unfortunate thing to happen. We are from a middle-class family able to manage the bills till date with help of our savings and insurances, now we are short of a few lakhs after all the money has spent.” said Varalakshmi, Mahesh’s wife. 

Unable to cover her husband’s treatment expenses, Varalakshmi took to crowdfunding on ImpactGuru.com. In 5 days, Rs.7.78 lakh has been raised on the fundraiser.

Since the initial months of the pandemic till date, ImpactGuru.com has raised Rs.15 cr+ from over 800 COVID-19 related fundraisers.

Crowdfunding is an alternative method of raising funds online for medical expenses, with the patient (or his/her friends or family) primarily relying on social media networks to mobilize donors to finance the relevant medical bills.

Piyush Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, ImpactGuru.com said, “Through our platform, we have fundamentally changed the established practice of how critical illnesses are financed in India not through loans or insurance or selling assets, but by healthcare crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is driven by a culture of generosity, it allows people to raise money quickly in a hassle-free manner without any payback liability. We hope more families come forward to utilize our platform in their time of need to get the best available treatment for critical illnesses.”