Protect Children From Blindness in India

Dear Friends,

You may not be surprised to learn that SevaChild has paused its Protect Children from Blindness Project in India due to the terrible coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. Our volunteers and partners are unable to travel to rural villages and urban areas for fear of spreading the virus or becoming sick with the virus themselves. We have therefore decided to pause this campaign and pivot our mission to providing badly needed food rations to poor families who can no longer work due to the pandemic and strict lockdowns throughout most of the country.

Up until the pandemic struck in March of 2020, this campaign to provide vitamin A to malnourished children had reached up to 2.2 million children throughout the country. Our network of nonprofits, government health departments, clinics and primary health care centers were providing vitamin A drops to children once every six months. These twice-yearly drops provided all the vitamin A that children under the age of five need. We hope to return to this mission of providing this vital nutrient to Indian children once the pandemic and lockdowns are behind us.

If you would like to support our work providing food rations to poor families, we invite you to go to our Providing Food Rations to Starving Indian Families project. Your $20 donation will provide a month's worth of food to an Indian family of five.

Please consider becoming a monthly donor to help feed one (or more) family and help get them through the pandemic. 

You will be giving them food and hope. There are no greater gifts you can give these families at this time.

Sincerely,

Jeff Bibler

Dear Friends,

The COVID-19 pandemic is still very much a threat in India. While infection rates have come down this year, India’s economy shrank more than any other major economy in 2020 -- by a crushing 10 percent. This left millions of poor families out of work and on the verge of starvation. They will continue to be at risk of hunger and malnutrition through 2021.

SevaChild thus continues to focus on providing meals and food rations to poor families in eight Indian states. One food ration bundle provides a month’s worth of food to a family. These rations make all the difference to thousands of families who have no other options for feeding their loved ones.

We encourage you to donate to our emergency food rations program on GlobalGiving to help them eat and survive during these pandemic times. Please consider becoming a monthly donor as it will be months, perhaps many months, before they will be able to work without the threat of the virus. Please click here to give.

When the lockdown is lifted and conditions are safer for our staff and volunteers, we will return to providing vitamin A doses for children under the age of five in India. 

We appreciate your donations, and your understanding during this challenging time in our world. 

Sincerely,

Jeff Bibler

Development Director

Dear Friends,

The COVID-19 pandemic is still growing and causing enormous loss of life and economic damage in India. SevaChild continues to focus on providing meals and food rations to poor families in three Indian slums. These families have not been able to work as the economy has ground to a halt, and there is simply little work for them to do.

And with many travel and movement restrictions still in place, our teams can still not distribute vitamin A to malnourished children. We are thus focused on providing these families with food rations as they have few other sources for securing food to avoid malnutrition and even starvation.

We encourage you to donate to our emergency food rations program on GlobalGiving to help them eat and survive during these pandemic times. Please consider becoming a monthly donor as it will be months, perhaps many months, before they will be able to work without the threat of the virus. Please click here to give.

When the lockdown is lifted and conditions are safer for our staff and volunteers, we will return to providing vitamin A doses for children under the age of five in India. 

We appreciate your donations, and your understanding during this challenging time in our world. 

Sincerely,

Jeff Bibler

Dear Friends,

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown in India (which is being gradually lifted), SevaChild has paused its vitamin A distribution campaigns. We've temporarily shifted our focus to providing meals and rations to poor families in slums who have not been able to go out to work or purchase food because of the pandemic and lockdown.  

When the lockdown is lifted and conditions are safer for our staff and volunteers, we will return to providing vitamin A doses for children under the age of five in India. 

We appreciate your donations, and your understanding during this challenging time in our world. 

Sincerely,

Jeff Bibler

Development Director for SevaChild

As we stated in our last report, the first 5,000 children in Uttarakhand state received their vitamin A micronutrients in October of last year. We're happy to report that another 5,000 children have received their first doses of vitamin A micronutrients in 2020. We're thrilled that our goal of reaching 10,000 children in Uttarakhand has been met -- and it would not have been possible without your financial gifts.

We have shifted our focus and resources to developing our administration network in Uttarakhand at this time due to growing government enthusiasm and support for our work there. We look forward to bringing you the latest developments in our next report.