SecurFoundation launches Masks4India donation effort

June 11, 2021: SecurFoundation, the philanthropic arm of logistics, M&A and financial services firm SecurCapital, has launched a Covid-19 relief effort to raise money and send 68 million masks to the Indian subcontinent to help doctors and stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Steve Russell, chief executive officer, SecurCapital, said, “Our goal is to support prevention with a desperately needed supply of PPE products as well as support equipment focused on treatment.”

With 54 million BYD surgical and 14 million N95 NIOSH-approved respirator masks in their temperature-controlled, pharmaceutical-grade warehouses in the Dallas / Ft. Worth, Texas area, SecurFoundation has unveiled the donation platform Masks4India.org to send these urgently-needed lifesaving supplies to India and throughout the region. Individuals and companies can make a donation that will fund and ship anywhere from a single case to an entire airline container.

Neel Gonuguntla, president of the US-India Chamber of Commerce Foundation (USICOC), welcomed their efforts. “We are grateful for the support BIG Logistics extended to the USICOC Foundation to help ship over 100 oxygen concentrators to Bangalore to address COVID needs on the ground. PPE including masks are the need of the hour now as India seeks to bring down the case counts and prevent a third wave of the pandemic.”

The masks are stored in the warehouses of SecurCapital portfolio company BIG Logistics. BIG recently collaborated with the US-India Chamber of Commerce Foundation on a donation of oxygen concentrators shipped to Hyderabad for use in local hospitals. The immediate need for masks, however, is the protective step that slows the increasing number of infections and fatalities, an urgent point underscored by this effort.

BIG Logistics CEO Vinod Baliga initiated the outreach efforts to the Indian business community in Dallas / Ft. Worth.

“SecurCapital and BIG are collaborating with the US-India Chamber of Commerce Foundation and US-Nepal Chamber of Commerce and other business and charitable Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and commercial airlines supporting the relief effort to identify the locations with the greatest need.”

Russell, who served as CEO, Salesforce.com Asia, Australia & India, has many friends and professional colleagues in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka whose lives and families are directly being impacted by the pandemic. SecurFoundation’s 1 + 1 + 1 philanthropy model was launched in 2017 emulating that of the SalesForce Foundation where companies donate 1 percent of equity, 1 percent of products and 1 percent of employee time and profits to charitable causes.