The Covid 19 Pandemic has changed everything for the people of India. They already faced an average daily earnings rate of 2-3 dollars per day and literacy rate averaging 64% to 74% with the lowest among women, the struggle to survive is very real. Restrictive Covid 19 lockdowns have caused local store closings, limitation on food supplies, and 50 to 100% increase for even basic essentials. All of this is proving too much for many widows and families.

Learning to Hope is a nonprofit that has a pre-K-5th grade school in Assam India with approximately 150 students on any given day. Students at Grace English School receive a completely free education. But due to the pandemic much of our efforts have had to focus on providing for our families in ways beyond their education. We have been doing monthly food drives to feed our students/families and neighbors. This has caused a strain on our usual school funds, but we realized the need was too great to ignore.

For many during the Lockdown leaving the village to get food was not an option. Government authorities are keeping people from interacting by not allowing them to leave their cities or in our case our rural village. They are hoping this will keep Covid 19 from spreading but it presents the people with serious issues. Many rely on local transportation to get to a store, but that has been shut down as well. And even if stores were open, our rural village is not within walking distance to them. If they are fortunate enough to find a ride and find a store open, they will discover the prices have almost doubled. Most people in our area are out of work and can’t afford the inflated food prices.

Our Learning to Hope School Board and Staff are doing all we can to help, and we are hoping there may be some of you willing to do so as well. We have access to vehicles to pick up and deliver the food through wholesalers that we use for our school lunches. Our plan is to continue to provide monthly food drives until the cities open back up and people can get back to work. It only cost around $15.00 per student/family per month. Each family is given the essentials such as rice, dahl, eggs, salt, potatoes, soap, tin fish, enough for a month. Any financial gift you can make will make a huge difference.

Thank you for taking the time to read about the needs we are trying to address in our little corner of the world in Assam, India.

All gifts will be given through First Baptist Church of Lodi making all gifts tax deductible.

Please read this story of a woman now categorized as “India’s Covid Widows”

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/07/18/1016371045/he-left-me-all-alone-in-the-world-indias-covid-widows-struggle-to-survive