The heartbreaking stories and images coming from India have many wondering how they can help. Local families with relatives there are scrambling to raise funds and send medical goods. But is it the best way to help? Doctors and public health experts say donating money to established organizations in India that have on the ground networks is a better approach.
India’s current COVID-19 wave has created an overwhelming need for oxygen and oxygen concentrators — the small devices that can distill oxygen from ambient air — as well as ventilators and certain medications like Remdesivir, said Dr. Dhrumil Shah, a primary care physician and current president of the Indian Medical Association of New England (IMANE). But Dr. Shah says sending anything on an individual basis isn’t helpful and may be creating more confusion on the ground.
There is “a lot of chaos and panic where families are sending oxygen concentrators to their own mother, father, uncles, [and] aunts which may not even be sick right now or don't even have COVID at this moment, which is not what we are recommending," said Dr. Shah. "You might be doing it out of emotional need or want, but that is taking one valuable resource from here and giving it to someone who may or may not need it."
Shah said his organization along with more than two dozen regional organizations have banded together to channel funds to groups like SEWA International and the American India Foundation, which can buy badly needed supplies like oxygen concentrators in bulk to be shipped to India through established distributors.
There has not been a call for volunteer doctors to head to India because a current license to practice medicine there is required. Instead, the focus is on setting up a telemedicine network to help consult with doctors as well as patients who don’t have easy access to doctors.
Dr. Raj Bhayani, president of the Federation of Indian Physicians Associations (FIPA), said his organization is calling for the Indian government to issue waivers so that doctors can practice telemedicine. Bhayani says a meeting Thursday will gather stakeholders from the medicine, technology and insurance fields to discuss the problem of minimizing liability for doctors who want to participate.
“The single biggest concern is malpractice,” Bhayani said. “We have the technology and physicians ready to do it. As soon as the liability issue is resolved, everything else is ready.”
Shah said doctors as well as other healthcare service providers like respiratory therapists, can contact his organization to volunteer to participate in the telemedicine effort.
Whatever non profit people choose should be registered through India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), India’s law regulating the flow of foreign funding into the country, advised Dr. Vikram Patel, a professor of Global Health at Harvard Medical School. Only Indian nonprofits with valid FCRA registration can legally receive charitable funds from donors outside of India. Patel said people can also donate through “GiveIndia,” which is a crowdfunding platform that allocates donations to vetted non profits that donors can choose.
Patel also suggested people consider organizations that work with the millions of low-income and migrant workers in India that have lost their livelihoods in the pandemic. Patel’s own focus is on mental health and refers donors to non profits like Sangath, an organization he helped found that supports the mental health of frontline workers and others.
“Don't forget, we're not only talking about the lost livelihoods of literally tens of millions of people, but also talking about the intense fear and anxiety that is sweeping the country," Patel said. "There's a kind of collective trauma in many ways in this humanitarian crisis."
