As the deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic overwhelms India, people are desperately looking for aid – medical oxygen, medicine, hospital beds, food. And with governments, state and central, seemingly unable to keep up with the demand, volunteers, citizen groups, and civil society associations have stepped forward to provide assistance to the needy. They are doing their best, often at great personal risk, but they can do with a helping hand.

So, if you want to help, financially or in some other way, here's a list, by no means exhaustive, of a few groups and volunteers that you can contribute to.

Uday Foundation

Uday Foundation provides food to people who come from distant places to Delhi for treatment and also helps them avail of medical facilities. Right now, the foundation is helping families affected by Covid, providing oxygen cylinders and wellness kits that contain necessary medicines, ORS and an oximeter. They are also feeding nearly 20,000 homeless families in the capital.

To donate for oxygen concentrators, click here.

To donate for wellness kits, click here.

To donate for food rations, click here.

Sayyed Subhani Miyan & Team

Picking up from where they left during the first Covid wave last year, Sayyed Subhani Miyan and his team are giving and refilling oxygen cylinders for free to Covid patients at Phool Gali Mosque in Bhendi Bazaar, Mumbai. Refilling aside, they distribute 20-25 cylinders per day, from 2 pm to 6 pm and 11 pm to 4 am.

Call 9833129121 to talk to them about how best you can help, or you can simply donate to them.

Yogita Bhayana & Team

Social worker Yogita Bhayana and her team of 11 have helped over 200 people so far. They provide oxygen cylinders and food for free, help poor families with hospitalisation and pay for their treatment. They have also roped in retired doctors, medical students, paramedics staff to turn a nonoperational hospital in New Friends Colony, New Delhi, into a medical facility soon.

You can contact Yogita on Twitter.

Shree Bhagat Singh Youth Brigade

Shree Bhagat Singh Youth Brigade have converted private vehicles into ambulances to ferry Covid patients and they also sanitise the homes of families with Covid patients.

“We have helped fix the shortage of stretchers at the Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital. We buy oxygen cylinders from vendors with cash when hospitals are unable to buy cylinders due to the delay in payment from the government. We have bought 300 cylinders and given them to hospitals so far,” Depp Khatri, the organisation’s president, told Newslaundry. “Our members also distribute food to people outside the hospitals. We don’t take money from anybody.”

You can contact Shree Bhagat Singh Youth Brigade at 9811472335.

Safe Life Foundation

The Safe Life Foundation, in collaboration with the alumni of IIT Kanpur, have launched “Breathe India” drive, under which they will buy oxygen concentrators from China for hospitals in Delhi.

“In the coming days, one thousand concentrators and other medical equipment will be bought and sent to UP and Bihar to help with the shortage of equipment,” Ashutosh Ranka, who is associated with the drive said, adding that they collected Rs one crore in just three days of launching. “Safe Life Foundation has been working with the Delhi government since last year.”

To donate, click here.

Yuva Kranti Roti Bank

Yuva Kranti Roti Bank is providing free nutritious food to 100 people daily in Chhapra, Bihar. They have been feeding the homeless for the past three years.

Contact them at 9661660003.

Red Foundation

Delhi's Red Foundation is distributing free ration kits to daily wagers as part of their "no one sleeps hungry" campaign. Each kit contains a week's supply of rations, flour, vegetables, biscuits and soap. The kits are primarily distributed to migrant workers, according to the foundation's founder Sachin Bharwal.

Contact them at 9990011190.

Doon School Old Boys' Society

The Doon School Old Boys' Society, or Dosco, has collaborated with the Uday Foundation to distribute Covid kits, food and dry rations in slums and poor neighbourhoods in Delhi and Uttarakhand. Through its "Dosco Impact" initiative, the organisation has also provided 3,000 PPE kits, one lakh face masks, and 9,000 pairs of gloves to medical staff across hospitals.

In Meerut, Dosco has tied up with the Gyanoday Foundation to provide free food to labourers, and it plans to establish an oxygen plant in Dehradun.

To donate, click here.

Welham Breathe

The alumni of Welham Girls' School in Dehradun have collaborated with Mission Oxygen to start the "Welham Breathe" campaign, which aims to provide free oxygen concentrators to Covid patients in hospitals.

"The country is facing a horrible calamity in the form of the Covid second wave," said Disha Chopra, the chief campaign officer of Welham Breathe. "Right now, people are dying from lack of oxygen. There is an environment of fear, trauma and helplessness...Initiatives like Welham Breathe are the need of the hour."

So far, the campaign has raised over Rs 27 lakh in a few days. Varun Aggarwal from Mission Oxygen said they plan to distribute 6,000 oxygen concentrators by the end of the month and set up 28 oxygen plants across the country.

To donate, click here.