Mike Patel — a prominent hotelier in Atlanta and former chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) — remembers the Gujarat earthquake of 2001, when the Indian-American community had come together to raise resources to help India in a big way.
He feels that over the past month, there has been a similar effort by the community in trying to help Indians who have been hit hard by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When we first started getting reports about the second wave of the pandemic in India, we realised that the situation would deteriorate very fast and we had to do something soon,” Patel told TIMESOFINDIA.com.
“Earlier, we’ve had big concerts and events to raise money for various charitable causes in India.
But now, even though the situation in America is improving, it is still not possible to host big shows.
So, we reached out to the community online through social media and other networks.” There has been outpouring support from the community including hoteliers, doctors and Indian-Americans from different walks of life.
“Various community organisations, including temple trusts and professional bodies, stepped up to help and raising funds was not an issue,” said Patel, who was a close aide of former US president Bill Clinton and served as a commissioner in his White House initiative for Asian Americans and Pacific islanders.
While resources poured in, the other big concern was ensuring that individuals, families and hospitals who needed help the most, received it.
“This is a cause which most members of the Indian-American community could relate to very easily and people came forward to help in a big way.
We have already collected more than $2 million,” Patel added.
“However, it is very important for us to make sure that we worked with credible partners on ground in India and could send resources to people who needed them the most and there was no corruption or malpractice in disbursing and distributing the resources.” Many organisations were roped in to help including Joy of Sharing Foundation, a charitable organisation set up by another hotelier of Indian origin, BU Patel, and different chapters of Rotary International in India.
“We have also tied up with logistics firms UPS and FedEx for warehousing facilities in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad as well as several NGOs in India, which are monitoring the distribution of medical equipment, medicine and food on the ground,” Patel explained.
Working closely with him is another Indian-American hotelier named Sant Chatwal, a long-time friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
“In the past, too, the Indian-American community has come forward to help people in India in the time of crisis.
This time, we reached out to the community across the United States through team efforts.
Indians have the highest per capita income among all immigrant communities here and our network extended to all community members and was not just restricted to Gujaratis or Punjabis or any other particular segment,” Chatwal told TIMESOFINDIA.com from New York.
“Indians from different walks of life including doctors, hoteliers and tech professionals are all supporting our efforts generously.
In India, we are working through various organisations including gurudwaras, temples, masjids and NGOs,” he added.
SEWA International, a Hindu faith-based organisation, has also become a nodal point in mobilising support for India’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“India has been reeling under the impact of the second wave of the pandemic and almost all Indians here in the US have family in the subcontinent and find themselves affected in some way or the other,” said Gitesh Desai, president of SEWA International, Houston chapter.
“When we started raising funds to buy oxygen concentrators and other equipment to send to India, our goal was to raise $5 million.
But the support was so huge that we have already raised over $22 million, which we have been using to help Indians with goods and services that they need to combat the pandemic.
The help that has been pouring in from the Indian diaspora is overwhelming.
Individuals, corporates, private foundations, mainstream organisations as well as community organisations are supporting us,” Desai explained.
Indian-American doctors, too, have partnered with SEWA to set up a telemedicine platform called eglobaldoctors to offer free consultation to patients in India.
SEWA is, in fact, working with over 180 partner organisations and 14000 volunteers on ground in India and many others in America who are running a digital helpline platform.
However, there are serious concerns among the Indian-American community about the funds reaching members of the disadvantaged communities in India as well as addressing long term recovery efforts including a more robust healthcare system.
“Almost all Indian-Americans have pitched in to help recovery efforts in India because everyone has been impacted either directly or perhaps through one degree of separation,” said Shekar Narasimhan, Dharma into Action Foundation (DhIA) Foundation president and chairman of AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee which mobilises the Asian American community.
“In these efforts over the last few weeks, the Indian diaspora has often punched above its weight in supporting India but it is also important to ensure that the next steps address long term issues so that such a dire situation does not arise again.
We are looking at supporting families who have lost their breadwinner to Covid-19 and efforts are being made to provide educational support to children along with skills to find jobs,” Narasimhan explained.
Even as US President Joe Biden has extended support to India in multiple ways over the past couple of weeks, the Indian-American community has emerged as a strong lobby that is influencing India-US relations.
“The Indian-American community is now stronger and wealthier than ever before and is different from all other immigrant groups in the way that members have stepped forward to support the motherland not just with funds but also volunteerism and service,” said Robinder Sachdev, president of Delhi-based think tank Imagindia Institute and a co-founder of the US India Political Action Committee.