Maximizing impact through partnerships
The Avery Dennison Foundation’s operating model calls for it to partner with local NGOs to administer grants advancing education, sustainability, and women’s empowerment. The Foundation is taking the same approach with COVID-19 relief.
“NGOs on the ground, which are often recommended by local Avery Dennison employees, are best equipped to deliver funds in the ways they will make the most difference,” said Avery Dennison Foundation president Alicia Procello. “We took care to select respected partners with proven track records in each of the countries where we’re supporting local responses to the pandemic.”
In northern India, The American India Foundation (AIF) will use an Avery Dennison Foundation grant of $230,000 to help meet the acute shortage of hospital beds in the Gurgaon area by working with a local company to build temporary hospitals in the parking lots of healthcare facilities. In the southeast, where the government has asked for help procuring medical supplies and equipment, AIF will apply a separate Foundation grant of $235,000 in the Bangalore area to support the sourcing and increasing awareness of vaccines, supplying diagnostic and emergency equipment to hospitals, and mitigating nutrition gaps caused by COVID-19 among women and children.
“AIF is so grateful to Avery Dennison for being a partner in this work at this crucial moment in India,” said AIF’s CEO Nishant Pandey. “ The ability to address the shortage of hospital beds has been instrumental in providing relief. We have all seen the images and heard the stories of patients being turned away because there are simply no more beds. This partnership has begun to address this issue.”
In Sri Lanka, the Rotary Club of Kandy will use a Foundation grant of $50,000 to provide ICU beds at a rural hospital in the country’s Central Province, which serves a diverse population. Funds will support four to five ICU beds in part of the country where medical facilities are scarce, along with ventilators and other equipment.
And in Brazil, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) will use a $100,000 Foundation grant to support its coordinated response to COVID-19 across the country.
“More than a year into Brazil’s COVID-19 emergency, the devastating impact continues,” said Procello. “MSF is a leader in the pandemic response globally, and is a well-respected advocate and a service provider in Brazil.”
“On behalf of the communities and patients we serve in Brazil, I want to thank Avery Dennison for its support of Doctors Without Borders during this time of crisis. The company’s generosity will help to sustain our response to the pandemic throughout the country, where our aid workers are caring for the most vulnerable people, supporting overwhelmed health systems, and keeping essential health services available,” said Avril Benoît, Executive Director of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in the United States (MSF-USA).
