(August 31, 2021) Crypto Relief recently donated $15 million to UNICEF India to procure syringes to meet the country’s COVID-19 vaccination needs. The syringes are expected to be delivered between September this year and January 2022 and is estimated to help India vaccinate over 16 crore adults. Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal also announced that Crypto Relief has partnered with UNICEF India and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India to procure 160 million syringes for a faster deployment of vaccines in the country.
While a few months ago the country was facing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, now there is a paucity of syringes to administer these vaccines which are back in stock. In a statement, Nailwal said, “Crypto Relief’s aim is to help India fight the pandemic and strengthen its public health infrastructure. This partnership with UNICEF has given us an opportunity to help the Government of India meet the need for 160 million syringes and aid the Government in its vaccination drive.”
“We are dedicated to addressing gaps in the Indian Public Health infrastructure by catalyzing capital towards areas like Scientific Research, Vaccine Awareness, District Health Systems Approach, Augmentation of Health Centres, Training and Capacity Building of Health Care Workers.”
The coronavirus pandemic has seen many fragments of the blockchain community come together to help with relief funds. A group called Fable had earlier auctioned digital artwork as NFT to raise funds via crypto to donate towards covid relief. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin had also donated the meme coin Shiba Inu worth $1 Bn towards India’s covid relief efforts.
In April this year, Nailwal set up Crypto Relief along with a group of volunteers; he also figured ways to collect cryptocurrency in the UAE via crypto wallets and convert them into fiat currency and transfer them through the US to India in ways that are in line with the Indian legislation. Nailwal’s relief fund has collected donations worth $6 million in 10 different cryptocurrencies so far.
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