India’s 2nd wave of Covid has devastated the country. In the last 24 hours, 412,262 new cases and 3,980 deaths were recorded. The hospitals in the larger cities cannot cope with the number of severely ill and dying patients. Worryingly the virus is now spreading through rural India, which up to recently had escaped the worst effects of Covid. These villages are totally unequipped to deal with a surge of the virus in their community. In the town of Susner, in Madthya Pradesh state, very ill patients are being treated outdoors on blankets on the ground.
Nandri villages luckily so far have escaped this rural surge. Still, their biggest challenge is surviving the economic hardship that the Corona virus has caused. When families become financially destitute and struggle to feed their children, being able to keep their sons and daughters in education is impossible. Their priority is to put food on the table for their family. Nandri prioritises supporting them and keeping the children in education with financial support and loans.
Maria is one such student, who has been helped by Nandri’s Higher Education Programme. Her parents are poorly paid coolies and with 5 children, the family were struggling to survive. Maria had ambitions to become a nurse but her parents could not pay for her Higher studies. Nandri stepped in and thanks to their financial support, Maria is completing her first year of a BSc in nursing. When she qualifies, she will get a well paid job in a hospital and be able to help her parents feed her siblings and also support her brothers and sisters to continue their own education. By financing the education and the future of one promising student, Nandri has changed the destiny of the entire family.
If you would like to help Nandri continue to support our families and our students and help break the cycle of poverty, please donate: https://www.nandri.org/donate
We cannot continue to help our Nandri families without your generous support.
