India Needs Food, Not Just Oxygen

As the second wave of Covid-19 is ravaging India, global fundraising is focusing on medical supply and oxygen funding in the big cities, yet the lockdown is also having a devastating toll on smaller cities and rural communities.

Sambhali U.S. board member, Tanmay Juneja, shared an article with us from Developing India: “Why international donors should stop funding oxygen: Many more Indians are in need of necessities like food.” What we found is that many points made within the article resonate with what Sambhali Trust has seen on-the-ground in Jodhpur and rural Thar desert.

According to a study by Azim Premji University, the number of households pushed into poverty between March to October 2020 rose by a whopping 77%. The second wave is making the problem exponentially worse as breadwinners die from the disease.

India Development Review put out a call to non-profits asking them what they need; 70% said they need food and rations. With the lockdown in Rajasthan in place at least to the end of June, the overwhelming need is for basic necessities, spreading awareness of signs and symptoms, where to get tested, and vaccinations.

During the first wave, Sambhali Trust focused on getting food, soap, masks, health information and other necessities to isolated rural communities in the Thar Desert, a health campaign in the city of Jodhpur, and increasing resources to combat the growing gender-based violence brought on by the pandemic. During this second, more severe wave, Sambhali Trust is stepping up again on multiple fronts. They have launched the Sambhali Trust Food Bank serving over 4000 people in both Jodhpur and rural Rajasthan. The Trust is also providing masks, medicine, vaccine registration, and other emergency care to past and current program participants and others in Jodhpur and the rural Thar Desert as well as working with the local government to distribute masks and provide medical supplies to hospitals and other medical centers.

The people of India are not only suffering from the virus but also hunger, lack of jobs, and inadequate information on what to do when they get infected. Sambhali Trust is doing extraordinary work to serve its community. For more about other steps the Trust is taking, read Together Against the Pandemic's Second Wave. You can help by sharing this post and donating here.