Indiaspora

I'm Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and host of the Stay Tuned podcast. I’m hoping to aid COVID relief in India by contributing what we raise here to Indiaspora, which is doing life-saving work. The situation in India remains dire, as I discussed recently on my podcast. Here's an adapted version of what I said there:

"For those of you who haven’t been following fully, it’s a disaster of unmitigated proportions in India after they did a pretty good job up until two months ago. The situation is really dire. The country is still reporting almost 100,000 cases a day, at least 350,000 people have died. There are thousands of deaths a day and everybody who is an expert on this kind of thing in that country says there’s a lot of undercounting. The crematoria are full. In certain cities they’re running out of wood to burn the bodies. People are just dying on the street.

My dad, as you may know, if you listen to the show, is a doctor trained in India and he’s been talking to former colleagues and friends of his there and sadly and tragically, he lost one of his med school roommates to COVID last week. And within two days, that classmate’s wife also passed from COVID. And he and others are figuring out ways to collect money to send targeted oxygen to doctors that they know in India. So there’s a lot of work underway, and we should help that country, even as we’re starting to come out of the COVID crisis. Because as you realize, we’re all interconnected, and if we don’t solve the problem in other countries, that’s going to be a problem for Americans too.

Indiaspora is a group of Indian leaders from around the world who have created a massive donation platform to get money to impactful nonprofits on the ground in India. I shouted them out on Stay Tuned for their remarkable work. At the end of April, they raised a million dollars in 48 hours to support families whose primary earners have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, also to help vulnerable migrant populations, and have made efforts to build makeshift hospitals."

Please donate if you're able, and check my Twitter, @PreetBharara, for updates on our progress!

My name is Mokshvi Shah, I am a 16 year old Indian immigrant in Gainesville, Florida, and I am begging you to help India breathe.

Right now, the Covid-19 crisis in India is worsening day by day, and funds are desperately needed. People are dying in waiting rooms and outside hospitals due to the lack of resources available to help such a high volume of people. When they pass, mass cremations are occurring on makeshift pyres with abridged funeral rites. Children in villages are left with nobody to care for them, sometimes leaving them undernourished for days, and neighbors or relatives refuse to help due to fear of infection. Every human life is sacred, but during this situation they cannot be treated with the proper care and respect they deserve simply because enough funds and resources are not available. This hits home for me because India is my home. It’s where I was born, where I spent years of my childhood, where my family still lives. And currently, that home can’t breathe. They need more oxygen, more nutrition, more isolation, and just more. If you are in a position to give, to help save lives, why wouldn’t you?

This is why I have joined with Indiaspora, a nonprofit community of global Indian diaspora leaders, to help raise Covid-19 relief funds for India. Indiaspora is an invitation-only organization that transforms the success of the Indian Diaspora into meaningful impact worldwide. Recently mentioned by Vice President Kamala Harris for their Covid-19 relief efforts, they also stress that the funds are sent immediately, because a month from now, it may be too late. Indiaspora will match 100% of the money I raise, and those funds will be given to these organizations in India:

    • WISH Foundation for Covid care centers or makeshift hospitals
    • GiveIndia which sends a direct cash transfer to the family of the deceased
    • Goonj and Jan Sahas for food relief and livelihood assistance 

I, myself, am putting in $500 of my own money from my baking business to this fund and my parents are matching up to $1000 dollars of what I raise. By no means does donating mean giving a large sum; even skipping your morning Starbucks and donating that $5.67 will add up.

This isn’t just for the adults, it’s time for youth to act as well. Teach your peers about what’s happening across the ocean, encourage them to take action as well. As children and young adults, our network extends further than we think, and the impact we can have on the future we have to live in is immense.

So please, stand with India. Help India Breathe.