A WORD (OR TWO HUNDRED) FROM THE EDITOR

This pandemic has brought out the best of us and the worst of us. With the deadly surge in infections overwhelming health services in India, aid has poured in from across the world.

Canada pledged $10 million through Red Cross. UNICEF deployed senior level experts and sent critical lifesaving supplies, including 3000 oxygen concentrators, said Dr. Yasmin Haque, UNICEF representative in India.

Global humanitarian nonprofit CARE is converting a stadium into a temporary hospital and setting up care centres with much-needed supplies.

The Humanitarian Coalition launched an appeal to raise funds and rush emergency assistance. Executive director Richard Morgan called on all Canadians to do what they can to help. The following agencies are members of the Humanitarian Coalition: Action Against Hunger, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, CARE Canada, Doctors of the World, Humanity & Inclusion, Islamic Relief Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec, Plan International Canada, Save the Children and World Vision Canada.

Global News profiled members of the diaspora who are pitching in. Among them, Sabina Vohra-Miller, co-founder of the South Asian Health Network, who is “on call daily with a coalition of doctors on the ground to help figure out what aid they need to send to India” and Aswini Sivaraman, “who created a comprehensive resource document listing different ways the Indian diaspora and non-resident Indians can donate and volunteer”.

A gentleman in Mumbai was sending 200 food packets to those who were unable to source food due to COVID restrictions or associated difficulties. Twice a day, every day, for lunch and dinner, for free.

Two young men in a small town in India turned their vehicle into an ambulance to transport patients to hospitals. Three others in Delhi were transporting the dead to crematoriums. 

Sikhs had set up “oxygen langars” to help resuscitate patients who were turned away from hospitals when they ran out of oxygen. 

But there were also reports of pharmacies running out of common painkillers and medicines used to relieve fever and cold symptoms. The price of oxygen cylinders skyrocketed to 100,000 Indian rupees. People begging for oxygen cylinders were being turned away brusquely or worse, threatened with action against them.

Some people claimed COVID was a myth, even as chimney stacks of crematoriums melted and collapsed from constant use.

And there are those who are caught for using a fake COVID-19 document upon arriving in Canada from an international destination.

One of my mother’s favourite bhajans was Allah tero naam, Ishvar tero naam from the movie Hum Dono. I am reminded of a line from it:

Nirbal ko bal dene wale, balwano ko de de gyan. O giver of strength to the weak, grant wisdom to the powerful.

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Shagorika Easwar