Varanasi needs us all. Join hands in our fight against COVID.

PLEASE CHECK THE UPDATES TAB FOR EFFORTS SO FAR.

No one should be left alone in this time of crisis, including Varanasi.

As the lethal second wave of Covid-19 is sweeping across the country and crippling healthcare infrastructure even in India’s biggest cities, smaller cities like Varanasi are left more vulnerable than ever before.

Varanasi is the nerve center of the region, the hub for some of the most underprivileged and densely populated parts of our country. Supporting patient loads from over 20 other districts which surround it, medical facilities in the city are already overwhelmed. Many suffering are travelling several miles from neighbouring regions such as Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, to bring critical patients access to basic care. There is limited access to ambulances, beds, oxygen or basic medicines. Queues of anxious relatives throng the city's few hospitals and the bereaved line the crematoriums and burial grounds operating at capacity. In villages around the city, the situation is equally grave with a shortage of medicines, facilities, information and an ever-increasing threat to livelihoods.

While necessary aid is streaming into our metros and bigger cities, we need to ensure that our smaller towns and villages, where the tragedy is equally if not more acute, are not forgotten.

How your donations will be used:

All proceeds from this fundraiser will be received by GiveIndia, who will enable direct donations to verified, grassroot NGOs which are already working tirelessly in Covid relief efforts. Through these organizations we will be:

• Facilitating oxygen supplies: Sourcing Oxygen Cylinders which can be kept in circulation throughout the city to service critical patients.
• Providing free meals: Fresh, healthy and wholesome meals will be distributed to healthcare professionals, caretakers of the sick and ailing, and crematorium workers. These distribution drives are already underway at key hospitals and Harishchandra and Manikarnika Shamshaan Ghats.
• Distributing medicines and informational kits: Basic medicines and informational kits with numbers to reach out for medical assistance will be circulated in villages, rural areas and places of greatest distress.
• Arranging ambulance runs: If the fundraiser can meet its initial target, we hope to extend the goal to enable the purchase of an oxygen support ambulance which can be loaned to hospitals for free-runs.

Some organizations this fundraiser will be supporting include:

• Hope Welfare Trust
• Kutumb

We are in continuous dialogue with several on the ground not-for-profit organizations to discuss ways in which our impact can be maximized and lives can be saved. 

No contribution is too small. Our city and our villages need your support.

Our historic holy city, this melting pot of cultures, religions, crafts and civilizations, has always stood the test of time. This time, at its most vulnerable, it needs us.

If you have ever soaked in the spirituality of our land, cherished a Banarasi handwoven textile, or have simply been intrigued by the oldest-continually inhabited city in the world, we encourage you to support Varanasi in this time of crisis.

No amount is too small.