Mercy Mission was an informal coalition formed on 21st March, 2020 with a group of 25 NGOS in Bangalore, to fight the COVID Pandemic together. Since 25th March 2021, Mercy Mission has been registered formally as a not-for-profit organization under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960.
It’s objective was to combine forces and expertise of various organizations to provide immediate relief and support to migrant laborers who were stranded in the city or were heading home, to daily wage workers who suffered loss of earnings, and to the poor in the slums living in extreme poverty such as the elderly, beggars, widows and children.
With the onset of COVID 19 in India in March 2020, there was great uncertainty on what lay ahead. However, what was clear even then was that there were no precedents to what the world was facing, and there was a need to prepare and respond like never before.
Realizing the enormity of the challenges that lay ahead, a group of NGOs operating in Bengaluru across various fields and activities decided to pool in their resources and met for the first time on 25th Mar 2020 and agreed upon creating an informal coalition named “Mercy Mission” (MM) and agreed to work together to take the COVID fight head-on. In the next few days, many other NGOs also joined the bandwagon. MM grew rapidly to become a coalition and collaboration of 25+ NGO's.
Some of the initial NGOs that came together to form Mercy Mission were HBS Hospital, The United Foundation, Project Smile, Lifeline Foundation, Humane Touch, Thanal, VCET, Humanitarian Relief Society, Swabhimaan, HWA Foundation, Palm Trust, Healing Touch, Cigma Foundation, Al-Ansaar trust etc. These NGOs were already working in Bengaluru in different thematic areas such as health, education, microfinance, housing, food / Ration support, slum development etc.
Mercy Mission launched various projects, covering all aspects of support and assistance needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It included last journey services, step-down hospitals food kitchens, dry ration distribution, Helpline (both telephonic and booths in the slums), medical camps, plasma donation, awareness campaigns, Oxygen Centers, Vaccination facilitation and many more.
Mercy Mission is now an officially registered society striving with its core values of Compassion, Unity and Sincerity to God.