Emergency Appeal: COVID-19 Time to Rebuild

Dear Friends of Action Change,

2 years on and the combating the virus in India is far from over, but with so much time off school is now essential to balance a safe return for students while helping to support the COVID Jab roll-out. Currently around 3% of people have been vaccinated and the healthcare is struggling. 

One of our projects in India is a special needs school and while we closed during government advice there is a light and we are now allowed to start welcoming some students back following strict guidelines. Therefore phase 1 is we had a vaccination drive at the school and it was great to see many of our students and staff come forward and receive their vaccination. Now this is complete we are actively fundraising to start funding from December 1st a physiotherapist to come to the school once a week, previously we use to run therapy sessions in groups but if we can raise $250 a week we will be able to fund a 3 hour weekly session where the physio will work with some of more struggling children to help them become more mobile and motivated to help them stimulate their brain to enhance their learning.

Through lockdown many students have experienced depression and struggled with limited support so we are excited to raise some funds and start getting our children excited and back to a routine as much as possible.

Although you might think COVID is slowly over we all know this is not true and we now move to learning to live with it but it is also going to take many months and years before we get back to where we were pre covid. We can only do this with your support so thank you! 

Also don't forget donations on 30th November #givingtuesday will be matched by GlobalGiving so please save the date and help us make a bigger difference before the end of the year.

Many Thanks,

Padmini

India Project Manager

Introduction 

Well over a year and we are all still fighting COVID-19. In developed countries like the UK and USA the press is flooded with the number of residence vaccinated but for places such as India, Africa and poorer communities the end is far from insight. In Kerala where we work 1.5 million cases of COVID have been confirmed and numbers are climbing. India is seeing 350,000 new cases each day. Governments are failing and communities have access to no oxygen and people are dying.

Report 

This term India was overwhelmed by the delta variant of covid and all schools were closed and had to move to online formats. It now costs a student $1500 per year to attend school a figure most families are unable to afford. We have stepped in to assist by paying teachers salaries so that the school are able to offer more scholarships and resources to families who are unable to afford the school fees.

Thank you for your support