MUMBAI: Global wealth management major Julius Baer has announced a USD 1.4-million (around Rs 10.5 crore) commitment to support COVID-19 relief efforts, which will primarily go to nonprofits to help the needy households in the country hit by the second wave of the pandemic.
The Swiss company has pledged to make the donation that will be equitably distributed to three NGOs: Apnalya -- a Mumbai-based NGO working with the urban poor, Helpage India and Unicef India, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
A minor donation will also be made to the Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce that is working in the area of transporting critical health materials into the country.
The funds will be utilised by these NGOs to support vulnerable families with ration kits, mass screening and vaccination programmes, as well as food and health protection initiatives for the elderly and migrant labourers, Ashish Gumashta, Julius Baer India chief executive said.
An internal employee fund raising initiative has also been launched via JB Cares (the philanthropic association run by Julius Baer employees) that has collected around USD 100,000 within two weeks and this was fully matched by the Julius Baer Foundation with an additional USD 100,000, Jimmy Lee, head Asia Pacific and a member of the executive board at Bank Julius Baer said.