Onlangs riepen wij u op om voorbeelden van de gevolgen van coronamaatregelen die u en uw partners wereldwijd tegenkomen met ons te delen. We ontvingen vele berichten. Partinleden – en enkele niet leden – schreven over de gevolgen van de coronapandemie voor hun ontwikkelingsprojecten. Maar ook wat ze al nu doen om de gevolgen te verzachten. In Vice Versa vatte Yvonne van Driel in een artikel de berichten samen. In dit ‘liveblog’ nu de complete bijdrages.

Deze zevende editie staat in het teken van Stichting Amaidhi (India). Met meerdere berichten uit de frontlinie. Dank voor het delen.

Stichting Amaidhi (17 april): Corona en het St. Thomas Hospital
De coronacrisis raakt ook India hard. Het officiële aantal besmettingen met dit virus in India bedraagt nu 10.815 en ligt waarschijnlijk veel hoger. Ook hier geldt een lockdown vanaf 25 maart en die treft economisch gezien, vooral de arme mensen.

Tamil Nadu staat op nummer 2 van de zwaarst getroffen gebieden. Zoals bekend bij jullie steunt Amaidhi hier in Chennai 3 projecten: het straatkinderen project Karunalaya, het SIP-home voor kinderen met AIDS/HIV en het armenziekenhuis St. Thomas Hospital. Uiteraard houden wij contact met hen en hebben we onderzocht of zij onze hulp nodig hebben.

Karunalaya krijgt momenteel donaties vanuit het buitenland vooral om voedsel uit te delen aan mensen die geen aanspraak kunnen maken op voedseldistributie door de overheid. De kinderen en 2 medewerkers van SIP kunnen zich behelpen met de voedselrantsoenen die hen worden toebedeeld.

St. Thomas Hospital, geleid door dr. sr. Rexline, heeft vooral behoefte aan medische materialen. Ze verpleegt nu ex-coronapatiënten en patiënten waarvan nog niet vaststaat of ze wel of niet besmet zijn omdat ze nog niet getest zijn. De regering heeft St.Thomas Hospital ook verzocht, indien nodig, binnenkort ook coronapatiënten te verzorgen. Het ziekenhuis heeft 4 beademingsapparaten waarvan 2 erg verouderd zijn. Haar vraag betreft vooral desinfectiemiddelen, medische mondkapjes, schorten, handschoenen en andere beschermende materialen.

In het naaiatelier van haar medezusters worden momenteel ook (niet medische) mondkapjes gemaakt. Rondom het ziekenhuis zijn veel mensen, zoals migranten uit andere regio’s die geen recht hebben op voedseldistributie. Dr. Rexline heeft samen met paters en andere weldoeners een netwerk opgezet om deze mensen van voedsel en basisbehoeften te voorzien. Hier heeft zij wel voldoende geld voor.

Stichting Amaidhi (8 april): Mail van dr. sr. Rexline uit het St. Thomas Hospital
We get 2 to 3 suspected patients daily and we are referring them to Government Hospitals. Government gave the instructions to us to keep the beds ready with the ventilators for coming weeks when beds in government Hospitals will be full and new patients will be admitted in St. Thomas. We have kept 30 beds ready in the  ground floor. At present we have only 4 ventilators for the whole Hospital. Still we have to buy lot of protective materials for the doctors, nurses and patients .There is so much of demand to get the products also. They are increasing the rates f.e. face masks were 8 rupees (€0,09) and are now about 80 Rs (€ 0,96) .Like that more than 10 times the rates are increased . We have only 12 to 15 inpatients in our Hospital. Really we do not know when the crowd will come to our Hospital.

Suspected cases are tested in the private labs those who are able to pay  and other poor people are referred to Government Hospitals. Negative patients they come back to our Hospital for the treatment . Most of them, 40-50 daily  are treated as out patients in our Hospital. If really needed, we admit them in our hospital. People are scared to come to the hospitals .Many colleges , big buildings of the political leaders and institutions , trains from the railway department  came forward to give their buildings  to admit the patients  for the observation. Many corporate Hospitals have kept the rooms ready to treat the positive patients. our hospital is small and we don’t have that much facilities, f.e. we don’t have Air conditioned rooms for the patients.

Stichting Amaidhi (11 april): Mail van dr. sr. Rexline uit het St. Thomas Hospital
Since the disease is spreading and the number of patients is increasing government has extended the Lock Down till May 3rd.People are not allowed to come out of their houses and are given a ration of food. Medical doctors and other officials are recommending to extend the Lock Down. It is true we have a lot of financial crises especially the poor people are suffering. It is true the distribution of the food and other things by officials are not reaching all the people, especially migrants are suffering without food and shelter. Those are the coolly workers, those who are working  in the road side with the buildings as daily wages. They are from northern India.  Since the Lock down system was announced on March 25 th without prior information, they are not able to go to their native places also. They don’t have the ration card and they don’t get anything from the government. In a few places government and other social workers and other organisations, religious social work departments in each Diocese and Parish are supporting these people, in whatever way is possible. The problem is that we are not able to identify all the people who are suffering around our place. We are not able to reach them ,they are not able to come to our place. Police also is very strict in keeping everyone in their own place . We are supporting them with the help of the Social workers : our sisters and priests  those who are involved in the social work.. We reach them with the help of the police.

I support the ward boys and ayahs and also poor widows extra. In the rations they are receiving  each card 5 kilo rice,1 kilo Dal, sugar ,oil and so on. My sincere thanks for all the initiatives that you are taking to help the poor people.

Stichting Amaidhi (14 april): Mail van dr. sr. Rexline uit het St. Thomas Hospital
Regarding the food we will manage. Those poor people whom I know , they come not many at a time .Few people are coming  at intervals, those who are living around the hospital for asking our help. As I told you already we are distributing the food and basic needs around the hill side and around our Hospital of  St .Thomas Mount with the help of local councelors and police. Government is very strict that even the social workers have to join the local government for the  distribution. Sometimes the police, social workers , and volunteers  are working without food. Yesterday the Fathers from Loyola college  those who are taking care of the migrants, together with volunteers, social workers including our social work sisters, distributed the basic needs: rice, dal, oil, other things and cloths for about 500 people. We provided the good food  for the priests , nuns and social workers  from the hospital . In each area the local leaders have identified the people who need support.

Tsunami and the other disasters are different from COVID-19. The disasters  happened all of a sudden.  At those times we were able to identify the areas that are affected and supported them with large numbers. All of us were allowed to take up one area to care for the people.  This is not like that , people have to keep up the distance. It is very difficult for them also to take care of everybody. Many companies and even the ordinary people are generous to support the poor. The items are not reaching into the interior villages. Once again I thank you for your support.

U kunt nog altijd reageren op ons verzoek: Welke gevolgen heeft de coronapandemie voor uw partners? Vertel het ons! Wij plaatsen het dan in een volgende blog.

Foto: Stichting Amaidhi