Covid aid: Help pours in from overseas for south Gujarat villages

STRUGGLING TO deal with the rising variety of coronavirus instances, some villages and cities in south Gujarat have began receiving assist from a number of quarters. The Gujarati diaspora within the USA and Australia have despatched dwelling donations to assist in humanitarian works, like offering tiffin providers to sufferers in dwelling quarantine, repairing and upkeep work at crematorium. The Pardi taluka in Valsad, which has been reporting excessive variety of infections, is among the many few beneficiaries.
On Monday, 127 contemporary Covid-19 instances had been reported in Valsad district, of which 25 had been from Pardi. The taluka additionally reported 9 fatalities as a result of an infection taking its complete toll to 41. Until May 3, Valsad district recorded 3,645 instances and 34 deaths associated to Covid-19. Of the 449 instances reported in Pardi taluka, presently, 114 are energetic. There are three main hospitals in Pardi — Mehta Hospital, Mohan Dayal Hospital and Pardi Hospital — which are treating coronavirus sufferers.
Volunteers from a neighborhood affiliation, Jeevdaya Group, which has been supplying meals to sufferers beneath dwelling quarantine within the Pardi city stated they’ve began receiving donations from overseas. Dharmesh Modi, a Jeevdaya member, stated he additionally part of a Facebook group, ‘We belong to Killa Pardi’ which has a number of members who’re related to Pardi however settled overseas.
“Since April 15, the Jeevdaya Group has started tiffin services for over hundred people in the town. There are teams which cook food and others that deliver it at the doorstep of patients twice a day. As we were facing a fund crunch, we made an appeal on the social media seeking donations. There are many of the villagers who are settled abroad, and now several have started donating funds,” Modi stated.
The Jeevdaya members have additionally reached out to cremate the Covid-19 useless. “After we received donations from abroad, we managed to repair the chimney Monday,” Modi stated.
In Tapi district’s Vyara taluka, too, donations have began pouring in from NRIs within the USA and different international locations. Following an attraction for assistance on a Facebook group, Vyara Mitra Mandal, which has a number of natives from the city who’re presently settled overseas, 10 oxygen concentrators had been despatched by members from the USA. Funds had been additionally donated to buy 10 oxygen concentrators and 20 BiPAP machines regionally, Hasmukh Bhakt, a member of the FB group and a social employee, stated.