Urgent: Help India's Most Vulnerable Survive the 2026 Heatwave

The sun is not just uncomfortable this summer. It is killing people. Last month temperatures in Banda, Uttar Pradesh hit 47.6°C. Across North, Central and Eastern India — from Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan to Odisha — millions of people are stepping out into heat that the human body was never meant to endure. The India Meteorological Department has warned that there is no respite in sight, and experts say 2026 could match or exceed 2024, the warmest year ever recorded.

For most of us, a heatwave means staying indoors and turning up the fan. For millions of others, there is no such choice.

Who is most at risk

The people most exposed to this crisis are the ones with the least protection. These are brick kiln workers, street vendors, waste collectors, construction labourers, and daily wage earners who cannot afford to stop working, no matter how high the mercury climbs. For them, extreme heat is not an inconvenience. It is a life-threatening emergency.

Dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke are already claiming lives. And the worst weeks are still ahead.

ActionAid to rescue

ActionAid Association, one of India’s most well-known nonprofits is already responding. Their teams are setting up cooling and hydration stations at bus stands, marketplaces, and labour congregation points across high-risk regions in North, Central, and Western India. They are distributing ORS, safe drinking water, and nutritional supplements to prevent heat-related illness. Awareness campaigns are reaching communities with information on symptoms, precautions, and emergency contacts.

But the scale of this crisis demands more — more reach, more kits, more stations, more people protected.

Your donation will help the most vulnerable

To protect 3,000 of the most vulnerable people, we need to provide:

# Cotton cloths to shield heads and necks from direct sun

# Reusable water bottles to encourage hydration through the day

# Energy and hydration supplements — ORS, electral powder, coconut water, sattu

# Portable umbrellas and shaded structures for street vendors and brick kiln workers

# Water pots at public locations for clean drinking water access

# Awareness materials and community outreach sessions

# Engagement with employers to ensure shaded rest areas and work breaks

Your donations go directly towards keeping someone alive through India's most dangerous summer in recent memory.

The summer essentials

With your donations, ActionAid will be able to provide the most important summer essentials that protect our most vulnerable. Some of these items and their prices include:

 # ₹100 provides a cotton cloth to protect someone from direct sun

# ₹250 puts a reusable water bottle in a worker's hands

# ₹600 gives someone a portable umbrella — their shield for the entire season

# ₹2,000 sets up a portable shade structure for an entire work site

Please donate now

Donate to this fundraiser on Give.do, India's largest and most trusted online donation platform, and help ActionAid Association reach the workers and communities who need protection the most.

Because no one should die from the heat simply because they had to earn a living.