Local Nonprofit Responds to India’s COVID Humanitarian Crisis

BURLINGTON, ONTARIO — In India, the latest wave of the COVID pandemic has unleashed a humanitarian crisis. The healthcare system is on the verge of collapse with hospitals experiencing a severe shortage of oxygen, beds, and medical supplies and the daily death rate continues to rise.

In response, World Renew–a local nonprofit engaged in disaster recovery and poverty alleviation work around the world–is coordinating efforts to supply families in 15 communities in rural northeast India with hygiene kits that include masks and soap, financial support for securing food and medicine, and supplies for the local hospital so it can meet the medical needs of a community of 5,000 people and slow the spread of the virus.

In this effort, World Renew seeks not only to come alongside a region of India where people experience extreme poverty and vulnerability to COVID-19, but also to help slow the spread of the virus as urban workers migrate back to their rural homes due to lockdown. In particular, World Renew is anticipating the threat to India’s Northern neighbor, Bangladesh, where infection rates have already started climbing. World Renew plans to scale up their response to include Bangladesh as needed.

Executive Director of World Renew, Canada, Ida Kaastra Mutoigo says, “Right now, someone in India is dying from COVID-19 every 5 minutes. The scale of loss from this pandemic is heartbreaking and unfathomable, but if we do nothing, it threatens to grow much, much worse. With social distancing virtually impossible in many of the communities where World Renew works, we must address the pandemic with prevention where possible, robust medical support where needed, and advocacy efforts that urge our leaders to make vaccine patents and supplies available so millions of lives can be saved. Above all, we must pray ceaselessly for God to bring healing and hope to those who are suffering.”

Until then, World Renew’s work on the ground in India continues. “Our partners in India have been working through this crisis from the outset and at times at the expense of their own health and safety; we have a duty and a calling to support them in their ministry as best we can,” says Ru Waddell, Regional Director of World Renew, Asia. To join in these efforts or learn more about the COVID crisis in India, visit worldrenew.ca/corona/india.

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For more information, please contact:
Ruth Alkema
Content Specialist
[email protected]
289-253-4754

World Renew
3475 Mainway, PO Box 5070 STN LCD1
Burlington, ON L7R 3Y8