Support local communities to cope with COVID effects
KONE Centennial Foundation (KCF) has worked with project teams and KONE units to support local communities to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020.
India
In 2020 KCF and KONE India supported the Single Teacher Schools (STS) to deliver food in 20 impoverished villages in Tamil Nadu, during the lockdown. In 2021, when the devastating second wave hit India, KCF and KONE India made another donation to support STS to feed 675 families in those villages.
Also, KCF and KONE supported COVID relief programs run by Sevalaya’s (a community-based nonprofit) in the remote villages in Tamil Nadu, including:
delivering sanitation kits to frontline health workers in multiple locations
distributing food packages to 113 families in the villages who lost their livelihoods due to the lockdown
KCF and KONE India sponsored Sevalaya’s COVID relief projects
South Africa
In 2020, KCF supported the feeding scheme initiated by Mashup which is estimated to have fed 2,000 people in Westbury during the lockdown.
In July 2021, when the lockdown was re-imposed in Johannesburg, KCF supported Mashup’s COVID relief program. 50 vulnerable families in the community have received food packages.
Mashup’s COVID relief program - food packages delivering
Thailand
In collaboration with Zero-to-Hero, KCF supported the local Buddhist temples to feed 225 families in the HUana village, Province Phetchabun, during the lockdown in July 2021.
The food delivery at Huana temple
Employees from KONE Thailand initiated a fundraising program to support Zero-to-Hero during the lockdown. KCF joined the effort and doubled the employees’ donations.
Mexico
In Valle de Chalco, KCF has supported the Xico Arte in delivering essential supplies to vulnerable families in their community since December 2020.
Families in Xico Valle de Chalco received the covid relief food
Other COVID Relief Donations
KCF made donations to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to support:
COVID relief in the refugee camps in Greece 2020.
MSF India’s COVID interventions in Mumbai, Maharashtra, where the COVID-19 situation was devastating in May and June 2021.
Shagufta Sayyed, Health Educator making public announcement on COVID-19 during mass awareness campaign at Industrial pocket in M-East Ward, Mumbai © Premananda Hessenkamp
In 2020, KCF made grants to the Refugee Council of Finland and SOS - Children’s Villages Finland, which provide essential medical or social services to young refugees and asylum seekers in Europe who face particular challenges during the pandemic.
KCF also joined forces with KONE Corporation to support the Computers for All Campaign (Kaikille Kone) to help school children in Finland who lack devices keep up with distance learning when schools closed during the lockdown in 2020.
More information:
COVID-19 relief food distribution in Valle de Chalco in 2020