Mahabodhi monks and donated ventilators.
By BGR Staff
BGR recently donated funds for two ventilators to the Mahabodhi Maitri Mandala hospital in Bengaluru, India. Additionally, BGR provided $16,000 in other kinds of financial assistance to organizations in India and Sri Lanka delivering aid to people afflicted by the virus.
In January this year, the number of COVID-19 infections in India dropped dramatically, and many of the country’s political leaders proudly proclaimed that the nation had triumphed over the virus. This optimism, however, turned out to be premature. In March, a second wave of infections began to sweep across the country, reaching a peak in April that continued through much of May. By late April, India passed 2.5 million active cases and was reporting an average of 300,000 new cases and 2,000 deaths per day.
As the number of cases spiraled upward, hospitals ran out of beds, oxygen supplies were exhausted, medical staff were working extra shifts, and the number of corpses exceeded the capacity of crematoria. As of mid-June, India had the second-highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world (after the United States), with 29.3 million reported cases of infection, and the third-highest number of COVID-19 deaths (after the United States and Brazil) at 367,081 deaths. Many commentators, however, believe these reported figures are vast undercounts and that the real numbers could be three or four times higher.
In mid-May, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote to his friend, Ven. Bhante Ananda, general secretary of the Maha Bodhi Society, Bengaluru, to inquire about the condition of the monastery in Bengaluru, where he taught in 2019. The Maha Bodhi Maitri Mandala, the humanitarian service wing of the Maha Bodhi Society, operates a hospital in Bengaluru. Bhante Ananda wrote back to Ven. Bodhi to inform him that the hospital desperately needed five ventilators, each costing almost $10,000. They had received funds from supporters in Switzerland for one ventilator, but lacked sufficient funds for the other four.
Ven. Bodhi proposed that BGR provide funding for one ventilator from its emergency fund; a donation of $10,000 from the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS) to BGR enabled us to cover the costs of a second ventilator; and Ven. Bodhi requested his publisher, Wisdom Publications, to donate funds for a third ventilator. Indian Buddhists living in the greater New York area offered to raise funds for the fourth ventilator. In this way, by May 21, the Mahabodhi Maitri Mandala had acquired the funds needed to purchase four ventilators, which would be used to save the lives of the hospital patients.
Besides the donation of the ventilators, BGR made several other emergency donations to relief organizations working in India. These are:
- $6,000 to CARE India, to provide essential hospital services, health workers, beds, oxygen supply, and more.
- $2,500 to the Foundation of His Sacred Majesty, an organization that renders services to the poor, deserving, and needy section of the Indian population without distinctions of caste, creed, race, sex, or religion.
- $2,000 to the International Medical Corps, which is working with its partners in India to meet the most urgent health needs, including medical supplies, personal protective equipment, sanitation, and hygiene supplies.
- $2,000 to Akshaya Patra Foundation, which is providing food to thousands of needy people across India.
- $1,000 via Ketto, a fund-raising platform in Mumbai, to purchase oxygen concentrators.
BGR also provided $2,500 in emergency assistance to the Karuna Trust, a social service organization in Sri Lanka, to provide parcels of dry food rations to poor families left desperate and hungry because of the pandemic.
