Help an Indian Village from the Effects of COVID

Hi, my name is Melania, and along with my friends (Isha, Michelle, Nickia, and Anoushka), I am raising money for 250+ families living below the poverty line in Kheowali village (Sirsa, Haryana, India) impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have implemented some educational initiatives in this village over the past 10 months and now we want to help the villagers in dealing with the long and short-term impacts of COVID-19.

COVID-19 disrupted our lives in unthinkable ways and caused many inconveniences. However, the fact that you can read this shows that we have access to resources such as education, technological devices, internet connection, and regular access to food.

However, millions of people are lacking access to these basic needs and resources all over the world. While it is difficult to help all the people being impacted by COVID-19, we are launching this fundraiser with the hope to help a small village in India deal with the adverse impacts of COVID-19 and we want you to join us in this journey. 

Since COVID-19 started, the problem of food insecurity has been exacerbated because people have been unemployed; fluctuating food prices and disruptions in supply chains have made food more expensive. Getting access to sanitation products is even harder due to financial constraints. This is making it difficult for people in rural India to practice good hygiene practices such as washing hands with soap and cleaning the house with a disinfectant. This, in turn, can make them more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and other diseases.

The quality of education was a problem in rural India before the pandemic. The majority of the students in government schools are unable to read, write and perform numerical calculations according to their age.  In COVID-19, these issues have been amplified, more than half of the children attending government school in rural India do not have access to a smartphone and an internet connection.

We understand that sometimes these issues feel so far away from you or you do not know how you can help such a deep societal challenge, so we’ve created a Notion board about the problem and what we are going to help (including detailed plans and cost breakdown). We will be posting daily updates to our Notion board for full transparency to our supporters.

How will we provide help?

Distributing 250-300 food, sanitation, and medicine kits and providing literacy and numeracy lessons to 100+ students in the village who have been disadvantaged. Two of our team members are living in Kheowali and will manage the logistics and delivery of the kits.

Who will we help?

We aim to help 262 ~ families of Kheowali village (Sirsa, Haryana, India) who live below the poverty line. This translates into helping more than 1000 individuals.

How much are we raising?

We hope to raise 21,000 (CAD). This includes $14,410 for the food, sanitation, and medicine kits and $6000 for educational support. The rest of our goal will go towards costs of distribution, packaging, money transfer, GoFundMe fees, etc. Any extra funds will be redirected to supporting more families and extending the educational support. Full details on cost breakdown can be found on our Notion board.

We will be sharing proof of the delivery of this project once the fundraiser is complete. We will deliver the food items within 7-10 working days from when the fundraiser ends.

Who are we?

We are a group of committed alumni from the University of Alberta with interdisciplinary backgrounds. We have established an educational initiative in rural India since September 2020 through which we provided education to more than 50+ students. Apart from this, we conducted various projects such as organizing career workshops and community events. You can find out more about our work through www.jivamfoundation.org. With the current situation of COVID-19, we hope to increase our impact on the local community to help them navigate this crisis. However, we cannot do it without your support. You can find more information about us below and feel free to reach out to us. The team members will be overseeing the withdrawal and management of the funds.

• Isha Godara
• Melania Antoszko
• Michelle Kim
• Nickia Kwan
• Anoushka Gaekwad

We humbly urge you to provide support to our campaign. Even if you cannot donate, please share the campaign among your friends and family members so that we can reach out to more people. Please reach out to us if you have any questions.

We look forward to your support, every penny counts.