“India is facing a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases that is threatening its health-care system, claiming lives at an alarming rate, and leaving already vulnerable families in crisis,” said Ken Kim, director of International Disaster Response for World Renew.

Every day since April 25, India has reported over 350,000 daily new COVID-19 cases and it is likely there are a vast number of additional unreported cases. The daily death rate is now over 3,000. In New Delhi, India’s capital, someone dies from the virus every four minutes. Hospitals are overwhelmed. There is a severe shortage of hospital beds, oxygen, and medical supplies.

Although a complete country-wide lockdown has not been announced, the job loss, food insecurity, and economic vulnerability that come with lockdowns are a looming reality for millions of daily wage earners in India.

“Twenty percent of India’s people live in extreme hunger, and these people are struggling to feed their families and to protect their health during this pandemic,” said Kim.

Without relief measures by the government, a vast migrant “exodus” from urban areas to rural villages is a reality. And with such a mass movement of people, COVID-19 will likely spread into small villages that have even fewer resources to cope with high rates of COVID-19 infections.

local partner, EFICOR, to provide much-needed hygiene kits to 15 vulnerable communities in a rural area in the state of Jharkhand, as well as financial assistance to families to help meet their immediate needs, including food and medicines. While meeting the needs of these households, World Renew will also be supporting a local health-care facility serving a community of 5,000 people.

“Our approach will deliver support across this complex emergency, at the household level through support for livelihoods and food security, at the community level through advocacy and awareness raising, and at the institutional level through support for community health institutions to enable the delivery of safe, effective care at the time it is most needed,” said Ru Waddell, World Renew’s Asia director.

“The scale of need in a country as large and complex as India is almost unfathomable,” said Waddell. “The focus of World Renew,” he explained, “is to reach people whose stories you don’t hear or see on the news — the marginalized, the poorest, and those who need a helping hand to bring them and their families through this crisis.”

As India continues to grapple with this crisis, World Renew asks for your continued prayers:

This article is re-posted and adapted from CRC website