A US-based charity has announced a donation of $34,000 (around ₹29 lakh) to its sister organisation in India to sponsor a nursing student’s studies, build outreach centres and establish a distress fund for patients.

The founder and president of Friends of Liver Foundation, which was registered in California in 2020, was in the city in the last week of December to hand over the grant to Liver Foundation.

“We announced a $9,000 grant for sponsoring the education of one nursing student for three years. The second grant of $15,000 is meant for setting up three outreach centres in north Bengal. The third grant of $10,000 is meant to help patients in distress who will need financial support for treatment. This fund has to keep growing and anyone can contribute to this fund in future,” said Kishore Nandyala, founder and president of Friends of Liver Foundation.

The three outreach centres — in Balurghat, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar — will be
used for early detection of liver diseases. “We plan to send a doctor once a month to these
three outreach centres for early detection of liver diseases,” said a member of Liver Foundation.

The US-based charity has already organised blood donation drives and awareness programmes on liver diseases.

Liver Foundation is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation that places liver diseases as a priority health issue in India.

“Some of the founders of Friends of Liver Foundation set up the charity in the US after they were impressed by the work we are doing in India. We were also looking to expand our footprint,” said Partha Sarathi Mukherjee, secretary of Liver Foundation.

Esther Duflo, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics in 2019, launched Friends of Liver Foundation in an online ceremony in 2020.