Coronavirus: Rebuild Lives in India and Nepal

Dear Supporter

As some aspects of life begin to return to normal in many richer parts of the world, the health and economic crisis of Covid is still peaking for the poorest people in India and Nepal. Please see below a letter from Irene Tayshete, a Karuna Programme Manager based in Mumbai:

"I have seen first-hand the effects of the crisis in India. From the chaos at its outset, to the terror and uncertainty that I witness in people every time I leave my home, here in Mumbai. 

Yet, even though I joined the Karuna team just a few months ago, I can also see just how much of a difference your support is making to people every day. Thank you for everything you have done. My colleagues in the UK tell me how things are beginning to shift there. Activities are restarting, people are beginning to feel safe again. People can even hug! I want so much to see that here, too. I want people to feel safe again - safe to touch their families, safe to leave their homes, safe to go to work. And yet, as the world moves on, I’m worried that so many will be left behind. 

Things are still a long way from normal here. Our partners remain in crisis mode, unable to return to planned project activities with local lockdowns and restrictions still in place. For many marginalised people, the financial hardships and food shortages remain. Still more suffer from post-covid health complications, with proper treatment too expensive for poor families. 

While it does appear that the second wave is lessening, information is particularly difficult to get from the areas we work in. Nationally infection rates are decreasing, yet reports show an increase in infections in rural communities. Even according to official figures, only 3% of India’s population are fully vaccinated.

Your support has allowed thousands of people to survive the crisis, something I have seen for myself. We need to keep working for the thousands that are left. Please continue to give anything you can to our Coronavirus Crisis Appeal. Thank you."

As the newest wave of coronavirus continues to spread devastation, lives are hanging in the balance. Ambulances are overbooked, hospitals are overflowing into the streets, and oxygen, perhaps the most valuable resource of all, is in tragically short supply.

As is so often the case in a crisis, it is the poorest and most vulnerable who are suffering the most. 

Since our Coronavirus Crisis Appeal began last March, we have been able to make over £780,000 of emergency grants to support thousands of vulnerable people affected by the crisis. Your generosity to make this possible has been astonishing. Thank you. 

Yet, as the surge in cases intensifies, we are receiving increasing appeals from our partners to respond to the changing needs of those most affected.

For example, in recent weeks we have started supporting a new medical aid project for covid-affected people in the slums of Nagpur. Temporary ambulances, equipped with oxygen cylinders, take people from the poorest communities to government hospitals and emergency treatment centres for free. There, they are provided with food and life-saving medical treatment — treatment they could not afford or access otherwise.

Over the coming weeks we will be doing everything we can to get life-saving aid to the people that need it most — but we always need your support. If you can, please help us do this.