COVID 19 RELIEF FUND Rural India

The year 2021 brought a lot of challenges, changes and many uncertainties. It began in hope, flirted with whiplash, and shuddered to a halt with devastating impact on the rural villages in our working area and unprecedented harm and hardship to people and local economies. Thankfully, despite all the challenges this year, our team continued working ceaselessly to help the most marginalised. 

Thanks to their remarkable efforts we were able to reach out to around 1 Lakh people in 75 rural settlements in Tamil Nadu, through various prevention and relief initiatives. Our team distributed 50.000 cotton cloth masks, whereof about 400 masks were donated with the grants received through the GlobalGiving Platform. 3000 families received food essentials worth Rs.500 and 20,000 families were given homoeopathic immune boosters.

The Second Wave recorded the highest number of deaths and infections in our working area. Due to the lockdown, many incomes were wiped out almost completely at the bottom of the distribution and the lack of access to benefits (including social security) that come with formal employment,  daily wagers, construction workers, drivers, street vendors, and domestic helpers have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and lockdowns. 

As it is true in many places we also witnessed increased violence against women and children. Reasons like health concerns, economic stress, unemployment, cramped and confined living conditions, and alcoholism – men in the family drink or did not have the possibility to drink - have contributed to increased violence against women and children. 

Our annual summer camp and the many sports activities and exchange programs also got   disrupted due to the pandemic and the children in our communities suffered the most from the closure of schools for about one and a half years. Unlike the more privileged students they had difficulty continuing their education due to lack of tools and devices needed for online classes and had to work at home. When schools finally reopened a lot of students experienced learning difficulties due to the long intermission.To encourage and anticipate hope and joy we distributed art materials for 1966 students covering 20 government schools. 

We could feel joy and excitement rippling through the air when entering the schools to hand out drawing books, colour boxes, painting materials, a stationary pouch and two masks for each student.

2022 offers hope that the calendar might return to a sense of normalcy. Then again, that was the expectation heading into 2021, too, before the delta variant complicated things. Now the omicron spread is the big wild card. But as of now, we are plowing forward to continue with our diverse programs for the youth towards better years to come.