Indian community helps stricken nation

Thousands of kilometres away from India, New Zealand’s Indian communities have been busy doing what they can to help those being affected by India’s second coronavirus wave.

Last week, the Indian Consul working with Indian associations and organisations across the country sent 72 oxygen concentrators to India. And there were plans to send 42 more this week.

The Red Cross in India is helping with the distribution of the oxygen concentrators.

Crematoriums and burial grounds are being inundated with the dead in India while hospitals are overloaded with people. This comes as India has seen Covid-19 cases exceed 21 million and the number of deaths has shot past 238,000.

With many people unable to get help at hospitals, there has been an increase in demand for oxygen concentrators – devices that take in air and remove nitrogen, leaving an oxygen-rich gas people can use to help with breathing problems.

‘‘It’s been quite good that we’ve been able to work together and get those devices sent to India quickly,’’ New Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Patel said.

A Givealittle page had also been set up to help raise funds for the oxygen concentrators, he said. So far, more than $180,000 had been donated.

Families in New Zealand had also been raising private funds for their relatives in India.

The situation in India was unpredictable, he said.

‘‘Covid-19 over there is not like Covid-19 in New Zealand due to the vastness of the country and the population.’’

India’s cases began to ebb in September, but this year began to rise again in February. Despite warnings from experts that another wave was coming, election rallies were held and religious festivals drawing in hundreds of thousands of people went ahead.

Hearing about what was happening in India was disturbing, Patel said. But it was a relief that many people could talk to family over the phone.

For Indian communities across the country, there was no doubt people would know somebody who had been infected with Covid-19, Atul Prema, general secretary of the Wellington Indian Association, said.

‘‘In my own village, four people I’m close with have Covid19.

And there are at least another 25 cases in Ganesh Sisodra, a rural village close to Navsari – the district where most Wellington Indians come from,’’ Prema said.

The Wellington association had been meeting to think of ways it could help those in India.

It had organised an interfaith meeting for May 16, inviting people to discuss how they could provide local support.

Prema said the association in Wellington would also be hitting the streets to fundraise and let people know about what was happening in India.

‘‘We’ve all seen images of the funeral pyres,’’ Prema said. ‘‘We can’t imagine what that would be like in New Zealand. It’s mindboggling.’’

India’s honorary consul in Auckland, Bhav Dhillon, said the speed it managed to get the oxygen concentrators to India was ‘‘nothing short of amazing’’.

Booking freight was the hardest challenge, and he was pleased 72 oxygen concentrators had made it to India this week.

‘‘I give credit to each one of these organisations – there’s 15 to 20 of them who worked hard.’’

‘‘We’ve all seen images of the funeral pyres. We can’t imagine what that would be like in New Zealand. It’s mindboggling.’’ Atul Prema General secretary of the Wellington Indian Association