Help co-ops in India and Nepal weather COVID-19

The International Cooperative Alliance has established the "Cooperatives Combat COVID-19 Fund" to help address the unprecedented surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths in India and Nepal. US cooperatives and cooperators can support the ICA's COVID relief work with a donation to CDF.

Indian and Nepalese cooperatives and their members have not been immune to the impact of the pandemic. The health, lives and livelihoods of members and their families have been affected; and cooperative businesses have been disrupted. Nonetheless, the cooperative communities in these countries have stepped up to address the challenge. According to ICA:

• Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO) is building oxygen plants,

• Uralungal Labor Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS) is shifting entire oxygen plants to hospital sites,

• National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) is providing support to cooperatives to plan and set up new hospitals or upgrade existing infrastructure,

• National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) is planning to use its own resources and raise money to carry out relief activities through their field offices, and

• National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCF) is working to address the needs of its members.

The ICA Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) Regional Office, NCUI and NCFN will channel contributions to areas in most need. All funds raised through the CDF link will be donated to ICA. Information about contributing directly to ICA is available here.

About the Disaster Recovery Fund

The Disaster Recovery Fund helps cooperatives and cooperators get back on their feet after disasters and other emergency hardship situations. Over the last three years, the Fund has provided over $450,000 in grants to cooperatives and cooperators in the United States, Uganda, the Bahamas, and Puerto Rico. In 2020, donations to the Cooperative Development Foundation’s Disaster Recovery Fund helped CDF provide over $230,000 in grants to U.S. based cooperatives, helping them weather the impact of COVID-19.