By Prakash Louis
Varanasi: The onslaught of the second wave of Covid-19 and its impact in an unprecedented manner has led to disease, devastation and death.
On the one hand, the impact of the virus on the physical, emotional, psychological, economic, educational and social life of the people is so severe that they will not be able to limp back to life. On the other hand, total lack of proper and genuine information and health care facilities has brought anxiety, fear, depression, darkness and death to people.
Added to this is the non-availability of proper and adequate information, guidelines and support from the state and federal governments,
More than a year, the citizens, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized communities that form 60 percent of the population have suffered untold misery and hardships. This depressing situation seems to prolong leading to further debilitating impact on the masses.
The masses have no clue as to what is happening and what the governments are doing to fight the pandemic. They have also idea what they have to remain safe and healthy. Lack of medical and hospital facilities drove people to despair and depression. The dead could not get proper cremation or burial. BBC News Agency reported on May 12 that more than 50 bodies were seen floating in the Ganges River.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, some Church personnel initiated an online meet to take stock of the situation and find ways to respond to the grim situation.
The Church people in Varanasi, the holiest city of Hindus, in Uttar Pradesh state organized a zoom meeting with the local unit of the Conference of Religious India with the bishop of Varanasi.
All of us realized that as members of the Church, we should respond to the cry of the people for assistance although we are also affected by death and sickness of our own people.
It was repeatedly reminded that we need to take care of ourselves first and foremost. We need to take care of other members of religious, priests and lay faithful. As we do so, we need to find out ways and means to respond to the needs of the poor and the vulnerable. Since, the situation is very different, it was felt that anything to be done has to be carefully planned and acted upon. Following the protocol is essential in all these.
In the first phase (end of March 2020 onwards), the Church of Varanasi joined civil society to provide relief to thousands of affected families. But this time, we realized we cannot go around and t do similar relief work. We also realized that we do not have the resources for such a massive work. Hence, it was decided that more of medical relief should be our priority.
Our objective was to a) make people aware of the protocols and invite them to follow whatever is possible; b) to provide appropriate and genuine information from a sea of information that is bombarded; c) Inform about the home remedies which are easily available; d) Connect those who need assistance to the right source; e) try to explore some medical assistance with our limited resources. Thus, we kept this focus in mind, to protect and to promote holistic health at this time of pandemic.
Church under the Diocese of Varanasi works in 8 districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh which within Uttar Pradesh is the most backward area. We are trying to address the poorest in the slums of the towns and villages in rural areas. With some assistance, many of the people who can escape the virus or can escape death can be saved and their families can be saved too. Most of the families have only one room with 5 members and for them to follow social distance becomes a huge issue. Toilet and bathing rooms, lack of facilities for hot water add to these problems.
The following assistance was provided:
We created awareness among people to follow the protocols and protect their people and others from the virus. This was carried out among workers, laborers, vegetable vendors, construction workers and other vulnerable groups, who do not have reliable information on the protocols. One of the important protocols communicated to them was to get vaccinated at nearest government health center.
We also prepared a handbill with information on user friendly and easily available home remedies. Around 50,000 hand bills were printed and made available for rural and poor masses for information. It was also translated into six regional languages. We are grateful to Bishop Eugene Joseph for funding the project. We bought the remedies for some poor families..
We have so far distributed more than 6,000 masks to the poor. The masks were designed in such a way to remain intact, double layered to protect people from the virus. Some masks were stitched in the prison that brought some income for prisoners. The handbill and mask have helped increase the awareness level among people
In the first phase, people were not that careful regarding wearing mask. Now they are ready to wear masks but cannot afford them as shops have raised the price. Vegetable vendors and cycle rickshaw pullers were also provided with masks. Since these are part of labor union, it was easy to distribute medical relief materials through them.
Blood donation camps were organized. Realizing the crisis of lack of blood for Covid and other patients at this critical juncture, we approached the priests and religious to take the lead in donating blood. Many young persons from other faiths also joined us in this venture. We organized blood donation camps at 5 different locations and over 50 units were collected. These are used for the poorest of the poor affected by Covid and for those who need blood but cannot get it. From the blood bank we are able to provide for some at least. Since we organized the blood donation camp through Popular Hospital, we have some access with that hospital now.
As we proceeded with providing assistance, we realized the need to provide basic medicine for those who have symptoms or tested positive or want to avoid it. We also became aware of the fact that the prices of the essential medicines to treat the virus has gone up and the poor cannot afford to buy them. We checked the guidelines provided by the central, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh governments and checked with doctors to arrive at a list beneficial for people. We negotiated with wholesale suppliers and got the price reduced and mobilized resources to procure them. Many volunteers wrote the mode of taking the medicine, the prescription and packed in small bags and distributed to the most needy people.
More than 1,500 medicine kits have been distributed so far, mostly for women, vegetable vendors, rickshaw pullers, daily laborers and other vulnerable group. We plan to continue this with the support of willing benefactors.
Inhalation has been suggested as one of the measures to protect oneself and to do away with the virus. For this Eucalyptus oil was found useful to have steam. Some of our family members and friends made available eucalyptus oil. Bishop Joseph also procured it in large quantity.
Realizing that when a positive person returns home after treatment in a hospital, he or she could spread of the virus. Hence, we undertook sanitizing such houses
(Father Prakash Louis is a Jesuit social scientist.)