Contribute a day’s salary for Covid-19 crisis
With the healthcare workers, the firefighters, the police officers and the army amongst other civil services personnel at the forefront of the battle against Covid 19, the Parul University stakeholders took a selfless step towards contributing to this fight. Amidst the current lockdown in Vadodara city and all of India, as a social distancing precautionary strategy to curb the spread of the virus, the faculty members and stakeholders of this University took the initiative of pledging their one day worth of salary towards the Covid 19 relief work.
This Friday the University’s teaching and non teaching staff from the Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Rajkot campuses unanimously agreed to contribute a part of their salaries amounting to 28 Lakh, dedicated towards supporting the Gujarat Chief Minister’s relief fund.
Covid 19 has not only become an issue relating to the health sector, but rather this pandemic has become a threat to all the sectors of humanity, from the economic sector to the educational sector. It was in line with this point of understanding, that the 2000 teaching and non teaching staff members collectively agreed to go beyond merely social distancing by giving their active support even from home.
Beyond the daily salaries, some of the faculty members went the extra mile to contribute their full monthly salaries towards this fight, expressing their desire to ensure the well being and the welfare of the community and nation at large. “Amidst this nationwide lockdown, I was more than glad for the opportunity to actively help and be a part of the combat against Covid 19 even while social distancing” said Dr Shailesh Patel, who was amongst the Parul University faculties who committed their entire monthly salaries for this noble course.
In addition, the University went on to launch a crowdfunding initiative, by creating a link through which not only the University’s staff, but the Indian society at large could donate. The outbreak of this virus has rampaged not only the medical wellbeing of the people but also their socio economic welfare. In particular, it has resulted in the loss of income sources for the daily wage labourers and community workers. In an effort to combat this specific challenge, Parul University created this funding platform so as to welcome contributions from well wishers across the nation. Within 20 mins of going live with this platform, there were already donations amounting to 1 lakh, displaying the highest form of solidarity and togetherness in helping one another to navigate these times of economic uncertainty.
The funds which were donated were further converted into specific food relief packages, which included the most essential supplies which may be required by these daily wage labourers. The food packages contain rice, aata, tuver dal, oil, potatoes, haldi powder, sugar amongst other essentials. The first run of this campaign saw donations amounting to INR 3,13,349, from which these food packages were put together and will be continued to for a period of time.
“In such a time such as this I believe it is imperative for us to recognise as humanity that we are all in this together, which is why it is of great significance that we join our hands today and work together so that we all may all come of it in his Covid 19 pandemic. As a University and as a Community, we believe such efforts will go a long way in developing our students with a heart of social service”, said the University’ Medical Director and Head Social Responsive Cell, Dr Geetika Patel.