INDIA FIELD REPORT - COVID-19 RELIEF PROJECT
World Compassion Fellowship's involvement in India began at the very inception of WCF - in 2006. In fact, many of my co-workers on Wall St at that time were of Indian descent, some of whom were the initial supporters of WCF. To this day, I'm grateful for the support that got us started.
Our first mission was to bring a small medical team to conduct Medical Clinics in the Bangalore area. Since then, we've brought other medical teams to various parts of India ranging from Gujarat to New Delhi. We've partnered with ministries such as Promote Life, based in Baroda, to bring medical and humanitarian care to thousands of people in the region.
In addition, we worked with a local field partner to provide Food and Education support for extremely impoverished children in a leper colony, slums, tribal areas and the streets in the Calcutta area.
In March 2020, the Indian government announced a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19. Over 100 million Indians had moved from their villages to the cities to find work to support their families back home. Almost overnight, most of them lost their jobs and started a long, arduous migration back to their home villages hundreds or thousands of miles away. With the railway network shutdown, many had to walk hundreds or even thousands of miles to get back home. Some didn't make it. In one incident, 16 laborers were run over by a freight train as they slept on the railroad tracks. Others died from roadside accidents, exhaustion, dehydration or hunger. At least 205 died of accidents and 120 died from suicide so far. An article in CNN details the dangerous journeys some made: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/30/asia/india-migrant-journey-intl-hnk/index.html
In April 2020, we knew that the pandemic lockdowns were going to have severe consequences on the poorest of the poor such as these migrant worker families. So, with a generous matching grant from our friends at Harold C Smith Foundation matched with individual gifts, WCF and our 2 main Indian partners have provided Food and Hygiene Care Packages to a total of 2,800 families all throughout India.
WCF distributed Food/Hygiene Care Packages to 1,300 families with approximately 6,500 people rescued by this effort. These families are located within the following groups:
Leper colonies (these 300 families live in practical isolation on outskirts of cities)
Widows
Slum dwelling families (living in mines, railways, etc)
Tribal villages (these families live in very remote areas and receive very little help)
Minority families
Other extremely impoverished families
The distribution process was halted for several days due to the devastating super cyclone 'Amphan', which caused major disruptions in the coastal districts of West Bengal and other areas in India.
Testimony [Leprosy Colonies]: WCF and DWT distributed 300 food/hygiene care packages to the people in the leprosy colonies. They were more than happy to receive the relief packages, since they had scarcely anything to eat for the last few days. The people who live in the leprosy colonies hardly expected this act of generosity, as they live in the outskirts of the city, far from the general community. For such individuals, it was like a miracle, as they had almost lost hope of surviving. They expressed both joy and thankfulness.
WCF and Promote Life distributed Food/Hygiene Care Packages to 1,500 of the neediest families throughout Gujarat, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Our partnership with this ministry enabled us to have a broad reach in different parts of India.
Testimony: Ajay is a mobile food cart vendor who lives with his five-member family in Danteshwar. He had taken loans to support his business, but since the lockdown started and with no work or income, he has been finding it difficult to repay the loan installments and to feed his family. He cannot thank the ministry enough for providing the kit without which he says they would have been unable to survive.
Thank you again for your partnership with us.
