How do you become a superhero? Do you need to don a red and blue cape to save the world? Of course not. All it takes is a kind heart and readiness to act.

When the second wave of Covid-19 hit India, Nitin Vijay-Martin, a sophomore at Cherokee High in Marlton, NJ, watched in horror as it devastated his home country. As the death toll rose and images of people gasping for breath began to surface, Nitin felt he needed to act.

After some extensive research, he learned that RDT’s Hospital in Bathalapalli provides essential support to people living in rural areas. To help their team, Nitin created a GoFundMe page and asked to his neighbors, friends, and family to support VFF USA’s “Mission Oxygen” efforts.

Donations poured in and within 24 hours he was able to raise over $1,000. In the end, Nitin’s GoFundMe campaign collected a total of $2,500 to bring oxygen supplies to India. Nitin’s grandparents and other relatives in Anantapur are enormously proud, just like our US and Indian teams are.

Nitin is one of over 400 superheroes from the US, India, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, UK, France, Norway and Spain who shared our message with their friends and families and donated to help those in desperate need.

We are also deeply grateful to our corporate and foundation partners for their help: LinkedIn, Ciena, Infoblox, Fox Corporation, Gartner, Genworth Foundation, Nordstrom, T.C. Energy Corporation, Headspace, Bank of America, Veeva Systems, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Hyland Software, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Oracle, NVIDIA, Google, SAP SE, Dropbox, Intel, Paypal, Twilio, Visa, Arm, Oath, T-Mobile USA, Dolby, Apple, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gartner, Netflix, Lending Club and many others.

The funds that these superheroes have donated have been used to purchase oxygen cylinders, PPE kits, and other medical and pharmaceutical supplies in India. We are so grateful to everyone who contributed.

Text by VFF USA