December 1, 2021

Our bit in helping the world fight COVID-19

Written by

Games24x7

The COVID-19 outbreak has changed life as we know it in more ways than one. As the world adapts itself to the new way of living, our lot at Games24x7 decided to reach out and do their bit to slow down the pandemic.

It all started with requests pouring in from employees asking how we, the Games24x7 community, can help battle out COVID-19. The management responded immediately with a call for ‘Volunteer Warriors’. We were very surprised to see how much our employees cared about their communities. Many stepped forward to champion the cause and dedicate their time towards scouting for the right projects the company should invest in.

Milind Kadam, our Senior Process Specialist, was one of them. He leveraged his contacts to help ensure the safety of the police personnel and essential workers on the front-line. A plethora of cold calls later, he got through to a senior police officer whose jurisdictions include 13 police stations and about 1,135 police personnel as beneficiaries. The outcome? We provided 1,200 shields, 227 litres of sanitizers, 2,270 pairs of hand gloves and 30,450 3-ply masks to protect the police personnel. When asked about his experience, he says, “I feel fortunate to be a part of an organization that encourages me to work for humanity.”

Our Senior Relationship Manager, Swapna Indukuri, focussed her efforts towards helping daily wagers and migrant workers whose lives were upended with the sudden shutdown of businesses all over the country. Since they lived and ate where they worked, they were left with no roof over their heads and no food to sustain them. Swapna took the initiative, along with Games24x7, to provide 15,500 meals a day for 30 days to these families.

Garima Tripathi — our GM — Legal & CS — shares her experience in leading the team of volunteers. The Management took the idea to an altruistic level and granted funds independent of and beyond the Company’s CSR corpus so that there would be no delay resulting from adhering to protocol necessary for CSR projects. This exhibition of extreme sensitivity by the management towards the adversely impacted society in these trying times touched me deeply. I felt I was a part of an exclusive set-up where we work with passion to achieve not only business goals, but also approach our social & community causes with equal enthusiasm and dedication. I am a steadfast believer of the saying, “Little things reflect big.” I experienced this yet again at Games 24×7. With the organizational resources and support, we started our work towards helping communities struggling to deal with this outbreak. No time or efforts were spent in figuring out whether the company would get any 80G benefit from this COVID-19 support programme. For me, it’s the first time in my career of 15 years that I have experienced such selflessness coming from entrepreneurs.”

Healthcare workers are the soldiers without whom we couldn’t have come this far in the war against COVID-19. Therefore, taking care of the health of those who take care of ours has been the priority for Almas Palanawala, our Marketing Operations Associate, and the volunteers who teamed up with her. Games24x7 was able to supply 4 lakh three-ply masks, 75,000 litres of sanitizers, 16,000 N-95 masks, 8,000 PPE kits, 500 surgeon’s gowns along with visors, face masks, caps and footwear, 50 litres of Sterillium, a digital X-ray machine and 2 BiPAP machines to public and peripheral hospitals.

“When your organisation empowers you to empower those around you, you know you’re in the right place. My organisation encouraged us by creating a platform in which we could do our bit in supporting the less fortunate in times of crisis”, says Pooja Palkar, SDE-2. Her efforts as a volunteer for COVID-19 relief efforts were centred around enabling the underprivileged and unorganised workers to live a healthier and safer life.

Venkat Shailendra, Sr. Program Manager from the technology team, played a crucial role in identifying opportunities for Games24x7 to fight the virus. As a frontline Volunteer Warrior from Games24x7, he was instrumental in driving the sanitisation efforts in the neighbourhood of our Mumbai office. He equipped the police personnel and volunteers with protective gear and ensured that those in dire need got enough food to sustain themselves. When Shailendra noticed one of the sanitisation workers spraying without any protective gear, he gave his sunglasses to protect the sanitisation worker. “I feel blessed to be a part of an organisation that cares about the community.” Thanks to him, we could supply 10,000 face shields, 400 litres of sanitizers, 4,000 pairs of hand gloves, 60,000 3-ply masks and 500 eye-protective glasses for sanitisation workers.

Summary

Here’s how Games24x7 employees are standing by those who need help the most during these tough times:

Providing 4,65,000 meals to daily wage workers, the underprivileged, migrants and front-line workers, which includes the police, BMC workers, among others
Supporting Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to fill the gap in the supply of protective equipment to the healthcare workers in public, peripheral and other hospitals identified by the MCGM to treat COVID-19 patients
Voluntarily contributing a portion of their salary to support the cause