COVID-19 UPDATE: India Needs Your Help
We are watching a humanitarian crisis of epic proportion unfold in India. As vaccination rates rise in America and we celebrate the return of a sense of normalcy here, the exact opposite is happening for our Indian partners. COVID is ravaging the country. They are currently facing the world’s worst ongoing coronavirus outbreak (with vaccines in short supply). So far there have been more than 25 million cases and 279K deaths, but the reality is likely much, much worse than the numbers we are seeing reported.
We have already lost a beloved caregiver (from one of our former partnerships) to COVID. Children in 2 of the 4 homes we support and/or have supported in the past have been diagnosed with COVID (or are currently suffering from symptoms that their caregivers believe to be COVID). A child in a 3rd home we support is believed to have Typhoid (though quarantine has still be recommended). Our partners are doing all they can to keep the sick children isolated and well cared for, in a country that is overcome by this disease. There simply aren’t enough tests, hospitals are full, and oxygen is scarce. The healthcare system is at a breaking point.
Currently, India is reporting more than 4,000 confirmed deaths a day. However, crematoriums across India have said only a fraction of the bodies they receive each day are getting counted by the government.
People are dying on the sidewalk, unable to get into the overrun hospitals. Some inside the hospitals are crammed two to a bed, and many don’t even have access to oxygen. Parking lots, river beds, and even city parks have been turned into makeshift crematoriums – with funeral pyres filling every space. It takes up to 6 hours to burn a single body, and the fires are burning day and night. Certain states are running out of the wood needed to keep the funeral pyres burning. They have even begun cutting down trees inside parks to use as kindling. Hundreds of bodies are washing up on the shore of the Ganges river.
A man runs past the burning funeral pyres of those who died from the coronavirus during a mass cremation, at a crematorium in New Delhi, April 26. Photo credit: REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Lockdowns are happening in some areas – but more contagious variants (with double and triple mutations) are moving across the country. COVID is now spreading to the rural areas – and the situation is dire.
Watching this all unfold has been devastating. This was our greatest fear when the pandemic began in 2020. We knew that an impoverished, overpopulated country like India was not equipped to control a highly contagious virus. Seeing the photos and videos on the news each day, it feels like we are watching a nightmare come to life. Our hearts are absolutely broken, as we are grieving the loss of Sosi, the House Mother from Asha Mission Children’s Home, and worrying for the children in our care, all of our other partners, and our friends across the country.
The situation feels hopeless. But if you’re reading this with a burdened heart, there is something you CAN do. A donation – of any size – can provide tangible HOPE in the midst of this crisis. Please open your heart and hands to help!
We’ve connected with partners on the ground in India who are working to meet some of the most pressing needs across the country. They are helping provide oxygen, medicine, PPE, and other supplies to hospitals serving very vulnerable populations. They are providing food to families who live on day to day wages that are suffering from food scarcity (due to unemployment and partial lockdowns). They are working to find communities that are overlooked and underserved, and helping them get the resources they need to survive.
But the needs keep coming – every day. Will you provide the funding to help these desperate people? As this virus rages on like an all consuming fire, your gift can be a cup of cold water that helps put out the flames.
Please give TODAY. We will get these funds to our partners in India – ASAP.