As COVID-19 deaths continue to rise in India, a Cincinnati collaboration is teaming up to send personal protective equipment with hopes of saving lives.This week, Johns Hopkins University reports more than 28,000 COVID-19-related deaths. Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce told WLWT it decided to create a stockpile of personal protective equipment early in the pandemic. Since then it has been able to supply and donate thousands reached of critical medical and protective supplies. With cases rising in India, GCCCC contacted the Indian American Chamber of Commerce to donated some of its remaining stockpile. Cincinnati-based Partners India responded to request resources to be shipped as soon as possible.The Christian-based nonprofit works to educate and empower youth in rural India to obtain employment and get out of generational poverty. During the pandemic, Partners India has ramped up its feeding efforts and provided tests, medical care and vaccines for its health care initiatives.On Tuesday, the two groups loaded close to 30,000 masks and more than 500 bottles of hand sanitizer into a van to ship to India. The hope is to provide more supplies and medical equipment as the donations become available.“Even with our differences there is a common ground that we see when someone is suffering. When someone is in pain," Partners India International President Ashish Pushkaran said. "That is the generosity that is displayed right here which appears to be an amazing thing.”Pushkaran recently returned from India just before President Biden's travel ban went into effect."I walked through the streets of India a few weeks ago where I could smell the smoke from the funeral pyres from the makeshift crematoriums," Pushkaran said. "I saw ambulances going up and down the hospitals carrying the patients. One with carrying the patients one way and coming out with dead bodies to the crematoriums. I walked into some of these hospitals where I saw in the hallways people struggling to take a breath."Because of the daily overwhelming intensity and trauma of the pandemic, Partners India holds weekly Zoom calls with Cincinnati-area medical professionals and local Indian doctors. The goal is to provide medical insight as well as counseling and therapy. Pushkaran told WLWT how Indian doctors have shared about a rise in doctors dying by suicide because of the weight of the pandemic. Another Zoom call is set to take place on Saturday.To join the weekly Zoom call, donate PPE, email Pushkaran at [email protected] or call 513-677-1769.Pushkaran says the immediate need is oxygen concentrators which takes normal air and transforms it into oxygen-rich breathing air. Pushkaran says the organization has the funding to purchase but is having trouble finding the devices to ship to India.GCCCC says it also needs personal protective equipment donations and money to continue to give and cover the costs for more pandemic-related causes and organizations.
As COVID-19 deaths continue to rise in India, a Cincinnati collaboration is teaming up to send personal protective equipment with hopes of saving lives.
This week, Johns Hopkins University reports more than 28,000 COVID-19-related deaths.
Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce told WLWT it decided to create a stockpile of personal protective equipment early in the pandemic. Since then it has been able to supply and donate thousands reached of critical medical and protective supplies. With cases rising in India, GCCCC contacted the Indian American Chamber of Commerce to donated some of its remaining stockpile. Cincinnati-based Partners India responded to request resources to be shipped as soon as possible.
The Christian-based nonprofit works to educate and empower youth in rural India to obtain employment and get out of generational poverty. During the pandemic, Partners India has ramped up its feeding efforts and provided tests, medical care and vaccines for its health care initiatives.
On Tuesday, the two groups loaded close to 30,000 masks and more than 500 bottles of hand sanitizer into a van to ship to India. The hope is to provide more supplies and medical equipment as the donations become available.
“Even with our differences there is a common ground that we see when someone is suffering. When someone is in pain," Partners India International President Ashish Pushkaran said. "That is the generosity that is displayed right here which appears to be an amazing thing.”
Pushkaran recently returned from India just before President Biden's travel ban went into effect.
"I walked through the streets of India a few weeks ago where I could smell the smoke from the funeral pyres from the makeshift crematoriums," Pushkaran said. "I saw ambulances going up and down the hospitals carrying the patients. One with carrying the patients one way and coming out with dead bodies to the crematoriums. I walked into some of these hospitals where I saw in the hallways people struggling to take a breath."
Because of the daily overwhelming intensity and trauma of the pandemic, Partners India holds weekly Zoom calls with Cincinnati-area medical professionals and local Indian doctors. The goal is to provide medical insight as well as counseling and therapy. Pushkaran told WLWT how Indian doctors have shared about a rise in doctors dying by suicide because of the weight of the pandemic. Another Zoom call is set to take place on Saturday.
To join the weekly Zoom call, donate PPE, email Pushkaran at [email protected] or call 513-677-1769.
Pushkaran says the immediate need is oxygen concentrators which takes normal air and transforms it into oxygen-rich breathing air. Pushkaran says the organization has the funding to purchase but is having trouble finding the devices to ship to India.
GCCCC says it also needs personal protective equipment donations and money to continue to give and cover the costs for more pandemic-related causes and organizations.
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