Responding to India’s Devastating COVID Surge

Rise Up Grantee YUVA's COVID relief word in India

The Rise Up team sends our thoughts, love, and strength to all of our friends, partners, colleagues, and Rise Up Leaders in India, who are grappling with a devastating spike in coronavirus cases. Right now, India is reporting more than 300,000 new COVID-19 cases every day, higher than any national daily total since the pandemic began. Experts believe the disease’s spread to be even greater, and the surge has overwhelmed India’s healthcare system, leading to shortages of oxygen, ventilators, medicine, and hospital beds. 

Our hearts are with our Rise Up Leaders, staff, and partners who are on the frontlines, protecting their communities from COVID-19. Currently, many Rise Up Leaders are connecting COVID-affected families with essential services and distributing rations and supplies to the most vulnerable members of their communities. We will share more details about how Rise Up Leaders are responding to this crisis and ways you can help support their important work in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, if you would like to help in this difficult moment, please consider making a donation to one of the organizations or taking actions from the list below.

Immediate Ways to Help

Support COVID-19 relief efforts in India: 

  • Khaana Chahiye Foundation is distributing daily meals, groceries, and other essential items to communities in need across Mumbai and Thane. Donate here. 
  • Maldhari Rural Action Group (MARAG) is connecting people across six districts in Gujarat with ambulances, oxygen supplies, and hospital beds, and providing meals to COVID patients and their families. Find information on how to donate via bank transfer here. 
  • Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), a Rise Up grantee, is distributing ration kits to those most in need and helping people register for the vaccine in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Donate here.
  • Avani, a grassroots organization founded by Rise Up Leader Anuradha Bhosale to protect the rights of women and child laborers in Maharashtra, is raising funds to support waste pickers and their families who have lost all means of income and security during this lockdown with food relief. Donate here.

Take action to end vaccine apartheid. Learn more here.

Stay tuned for more information on how Rise Up Leaders in India are addressing the immense challenges created by this surge in coronavirus cases and more ways you can help.