The intense period of delta-variant COVID-19 brought to light the critical need for relief efforts in India. This need propelled us to rapidly mobilize our humanitarian initiatives over the last several months. Since May of 2021, the services and support that have comprised the first phase of the India Relief Fund—our immediate relief efforts—have reached thousands of people in the villages surrounding HI Allahabad and HI Khajuraho.
At HI Allahabad, we worked with local doctors and pharmacists to organize four medical relief camps that served several hundred men, women, and children around the HI Allahabad campus.
At these medical relief camps, people could access:
- Medical evaluations
- Preventive and curative medicines
- Masks and hand-washing soap
- Organized educational sessions about COVID-19 prevention
- Education about home isolation for mild cases
- Referrals to hospitals for serious cases
- Food security kits consisting of flour, rice, beans, salt, and spices
At HI Khajuraho, we organized medical relief efforts, distributed masks for COVID-19 prevention, and held extensive public health education talks. With the onset of the intense heat of Indian summer, access to clean water for people and their livestock was vital. From May through July, the Institute supplied 10,000 liters of water daily to nearby villages, providing relief from extreme drought conditions.
From late May through mid-July, when the monsoon rains arrived, the team sent 10,000 liters (about 2,650 gallons) of clean drinking water daily to the nearby village of Koda to supply a large portion of the village’s water needs. We did this by sending a 5,000-liter water tanker twice per day to different parts of the village to supply water.
Most recently, we worked with local authorities to organize vaccination drives for HI India staff and the local villages surrounding our campuses. In August, all eligible HI India staff and hundreds of people in nearby villages were vaccinated.
Thankfully, for now, COVID-19 is largely under control in the villages surrounding our campuses. We’ve concluded our immediate relief efforts and are continuing to evaluate if further support is needed.
We are also taking this time to direct our focus toward phase two of our relief efforts. In this phase, we will focus on longer-term community development in the three key areas of health, water and food security, and education. We look forward to providing you with updates in the coming months and will be sharing ways you can support this second phase of our relief efforts in India.
In service,
The HI Humanitarian Team
