India is facing an unprecedented health crisis as the latest wave of Covid-19 impacts the entire country. Its most vulnerable are the children and the elderly in some of the poorest areas. Tripura Foundation has been working hard round the clock and across multiple time zones to develop impactful solutions that will help the families of our Hope Stations. ‘Hope for India’ is our latest campaign that targets the most immediate needs of our vulnerable families in rural villages as quickly as possible. It focuses on delivering relief to impoverished Hope families in India by providing provisions and rations kits.
Providing Education Remotely
One such effort has been around meeting the immediate educational needs of the children who attend classes at our Hope Learning Stations (HLS). Prior to the latest Covid-19 lockdown in India, the children in our Hope Learning Stations visited their teachers to submit their homework, obtain new assignments for the following week, and receive food rations that they could take home to their families. However, due to the lockdown, our educational programs are now conducted remotely (Read more about them in our previous blog article here: Bridging the Digital Divide and Preventing Education Loss for Hope Children), and our programs have been unable to distribute the much-needed Hope rations kits to the families.
Assisting the Government Efforts
Most of the state governments in India help people with some sort of food assistance. But what the state governments provide is typically not sufficient enough to support an entire family. Families do not have the advantage of working from home, nor can they take days off when they already earn lower than average wages. Many of the families that our programs serve only had one working family member to begin with. Due to the pandemic, these sole providers have completely lost their livelihoods, creating stress on the entire family. They are in desperate need of the basics to survive.
Rations Kits Included With Protein-rich Foods
To supplement the government rations, Tripura’s ‘Hope for India’campaign focuses on delivering relief by providing provisions and rations kits, which consist of hand sanitizer, masks, and meals. The meals are vital during this time, as they include staples like protein-rich foods, grains, such as dahls and chickpeas, and immunity-boosting herbs, such as turmeric, cumin, and pepper. Because India is a vast country with varied food habits, Tripura Foundation is committed to providing food grains as per the geo-position requirement of each state.
Building Momentum for Our ‘Hope for India’ Campaign
Tripura Foundation is eager to begin distributing the items after the lockdown eases restrictions, as the government is not permitting any form of gathering during this lockdown period. We believe that the lockdown will be over by the 2nd week of June. Until then, we are working hard to build momentum for our ‘Hope for India’ campaign by preparing provisions and rations kits, but we need the support of generous donors in order to reach our target numbers.
Our elders, our children, and their families need you now more than ever. To learn more about the range of our programs and how to give, visit our campaign page. If you have ideas or wish to share your personal stories, contact us here.
