This weekend was a mixture of joy and grief for me. The joy: #NESCBWI21. I officially accepted my Crystal Kite award at the New England SCBWI conference, presented the closing keynote address, and felt surrounded by the warmth of supportive friends and colleagues. It was a perfect virtual conference experience for me.
Yet, through it all, a part of me was immensely sad. COVID has been raging out of control in India and the tragedy was brought to international media attention last week. Many people I care deeply about live in India, some of whom are unwell or have suffered great loss. If you are in a position to help, here are links to 3 organizations I trust:
- HasiruDala works with adults and children like those in THE BRIDGE HOME : https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/HasiruDalaCovidRelief. My cousin vouches for this organization and if you’d like to learn more about the parent waste management company, here it is: https://hasirudalainnovations.com/ It is an organization that I hope to be able to donate to regularly in the future, and the most closely related to the Vijis, Rukkus, Aruls and Muthus who need your help right now.
- Akshayapatra is another organization working hard to bring food to marginalized communities in India affected by the current tragedy: https://www.akshayapatra.org/covid-relief-services
- My brother-in-law is chairman of the British-Asia Foundation, which is doing a fundraiser as well: https://givematch.com/charity/british-asian-trust-uk
If you have any questions on any of this, as always, click on the post itself, and when the window refreshes with just the post, you should see a box for a response. Thank you for anything you feel able to do, to help others at this time of tragedy.
Updating and adding a few more links 5/7/2021. I wrote this post a few days ago. I am updating it today because since the time I wrote, things have only worsened in India. On a personal level it has been a roller coaster, and I spent so many days in prayer, to feel relieved about 2 people who are very dear to me; but this morning I received another piece of news that feels surreal and too shockingly close to share publicly. I will be offline to spend the weekend in prayer, among other things. But here are links to some other organizations.
Finally, below are links to a kidlit Covid-relief for India auction, to which I’ve donated 3 items.
https://www.booksforhope.org/items-for-auction/17-signed-books-padma-venkatraman