Students of Harvard, Stanford, MIT Start Fundraiser To Help India Fight COVID-19

Due to India’s recent surge in COVID-19 cases, Harvard Business School student Shyamli Badgaiyan has started a fundraiser to provide necessary equipment and medical supplies to COVID positive patients in India. The fundraiser has already raised more than $160,000 in aid.

Badgaiyan, who hails from Delhi said, “I had been watching COVID-19 cases surge and been feeling terribly anxious and helpless.” She added, “I found myself thinking of ways to help from afar — an instinct I would later learn many students across the country were also feeling.”

Badgaiyan along with Priyank Lathwal, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University started the fundraiser. The two students have mobilised South Asian student organisations across Harvard, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern University, Tufts, University of Pittsburgh and many more universities to jointly fundraise for the cause.

The fundraiser, which launched last week, aims to use the funds to alleviate shortages in oxygen, protective equipment and other medical supplies that are straining the healthcare system.

The group is working with GiveIndia, an organisation partnering with key NGOs that have been authorised to supply equipment like oxygen cylinders, oximeters, and food to hospitals and COVID care centers in India.

Along with the HBS South Asian Business Association, other Harvard groups such as the Harvard Kennedy School India Caucus and the Harvard India Conference, partnered for the fundraiser.

“I felt sorry for my country and I wanted to do something even if I wasn’t there,” said Heer Joisher, a molecular and cellular biology PhD student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and co-chair of the Harvard India Conference. “If we don’t solve the Indian crisis, it’s going to trickle down to a lot of other countries,” Heer added.

“Creating this fundraiser has been a lesson in the power of channeling despair into action and hope,” Badgaiyan added. “It’s been incredibly heartening to see this collective action materialize, albeit heartbreaking to know just how needed our efforts have been,” she concluded.

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