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Leading Photographers Donate Work for Charitable Sale for India

PITCHING IN: Faced with a substantial second wave of the coronavirus, relief efforts in India are intensifying by the hour. To try to contribute from afar, Paper magazine editor at large Mickey Boardman; filmmaker and Hope4India and honto88 founder Shruti Ganguly, and CITTA founder Michael Daube have teamed up for the Hope4India charitable sale.

India has been gripped by a massive second wave of COVID-19 and oxygen, hospital beds and PPE are lacking. Health officials believe the B.1.617 variant has been the source of the spike in recent infections in India.

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Aiming to raise $200,000 through this open edition photography fundraiser, the group has a wide range of donated work from leading global photographers. Cass Bird, David Byrne, Jack Pierson, Larry Louie, Richard Phibbs, Johan Lindberg, Richard Singh, Kisha Bari, Paige Powell, Riddhibrata Burman and Sumaiya Sayed are among the creatives who have provided work. All of the money that is being raised will benefit relief efforts to create oxygen-refilling stations and make PPE donations in the affected areas. New Delhi is one of the areas that has been among the hardest hit.

Each of the unframed donated works is 8.5″ x 11” and is being sold for $150. The proceeds from the sale will go through CITTA and will be given to vetted partners on the ground in India. CITTA’s team has established that many of India’s poorer villagers and the daily-wage workers there are in need of food and are contracting the coronavirus. The distance and access to medical care has prevented many from getting proper treatment.

Purchasers of the unframed art will be helping a few organizations — the CITTA Rural Initiative, which helps remote villages that do not have access to hospitals, while The Save Life Foundation, Give India Foundation, AAPI for Medical Oxygen and Zomato Feeding India offer help in varying ways. The Save Life Foundation has been tapped by Indian government officials to secure and deliver oxygen to the hospitals in New Delhi. Hospitals in New Delhi have patients from eight neighboring states coming in. The amount of patients has increased by seven times and the hospitals need 11 times more than the normal oxygen requirements.

The Give India Foundation, meanwhile, is setting up oxygen plants in Bangalore, Mumbai and Patna.

Organizers of the benefit sale will continue to accept and add contributions to the site as they are made available.

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