A ventilator for the Landour Community Hospital

How the people of Landour with the help of friends raised money for medical equipment at the Landour Community Hospital — all in a day

Five days ago, Priya Kapoor, the editorial director of Roli Books, tweeted out to say that the Landour Community Hospital (LCH), an 80-year-old institution, was fundraising for a ventilator. She appealed especially to those who had “visited and loved Landour”, saying, “Every bit counts.” Landour is a cantonment town near Dehradun in Uttarakhand. Every bit did count, because donations ranged from ₹95 to ₹1 lakh, to meet the initial target of ₹11 lakh. This was then extended to ₹20 lakh, and then to ₹30 lakh, almost met by 417 supporters. Binu Thomas had set up the Milaap.org funding campaign for a ventilator at the hospital where her husband, Dr George Clarence works as the head. “It had been on my mind for some time, and then when COVID happened I felt we should have this equipment for our community so no one has to travel to Dehradun,” she says, of the 35-kilometre distance from the hills that can mean an hour’s drive away. “My bhaiyya here, who is from Mussorie, played a vital role in motivating me to do this.”