For over 15 months, AID has been deeply engaged in COVID relief and rehabilitation efforts in India. During the first COVID wave in 2020, AID’s efforts helped 200,000 people affected by the disease and the government-mandated lockdowns. We partnered with 30 grassroots organizations across 18 states to provide PPE to frontline workers, and food essentials, grocery support and direct cash transfers to communities left out of the government safety net, including migrant workers stranded in cities and remote villages.

Historically second waves of pandemics have tended to be worse than the first wave. The current crisis in India has engulfed India like a veritable tsunami. This seems to be due to a combination of reasons – complacency from a relatively low impact first wave of the virus, a lack of testing and an underreporting of cases, which slowed the reaction to the spike, a lack of forethought in allowing super-spreader events like the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival and state elections without proper precautions, and a lack of transparency in how the government was attempting to prepare for such a spike. The foundational reason behind the dire situation is, of course, the long-term underinvestment in the country’s health care system.

AID supports grassroots partners across India. During the first wave of the pandemic, AID worked in 18 states across India, supporting 65 projects through 44 NGOs. Before the pandemic, we supported over 100 projects each year across 20 states in India.

Since our founding in 1991, AID has had the privilege of learning from and working with hundreds of inspirational grassroots organizations from all corners of India. Pre-pandemic we supported over 100 number of projects from >100 grassroots partners. During the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, we worked with 30 partners – extant and new – towards COVID relief and rehabilitation efforts.

At AID, we strive to focus on the just, sustainable and equitable development of the most marginalized communities in India. Often, these are communities who are oppressed on one or more axes of caste, class, gender, religion and/or access to natural resources.

The Indian American community has been invaluable to our COVID relief efforts. Members of the large Indian diaspora in the United States not only donate generously and regularly to support AID efforts on the ground in India but many also routinely volunteer with AID. People with diverse skill sets have been contributing to the relief efforts in a multitude of different ways: Indian American doctors have organized medical advice helplines for non-severe COVID cases, Indian tech workers have built apps and websites to track availability of oxygen, hospital beds and vaccines, numerous folks have raised funds for COVID relief, coordinated relief efforts, talked to communities and AID partners in India, translated informational material into regional languages and much, much more!

You can contribute in a variety of different ways! 

1. Donate generously to our relief efforts on our website 
2. Volunteer with AID and help us coordinate relief efforts on the ground. Drop us a line at [email protected] or sign up here
3. Spread the word! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Indeed. AID has been involved in numerous relief and rehabilitation efforts after natural disasters in India including earthquakes (Gujarat 2001), tsunamis (Tamil Nadu 2004), cyclones (Odisha (1999), West Bengal (Aila 2009, Amphan 2020)), floods (Uttarakhand (2013), Chennai (2015), Bihar (2019), Assam (2017, 2019), Kerala (2019)) and COVID (pan-India (2020, 2021)). 

AID was founded in 1991 by Ravi Kuchimanchi who was a graduate student in Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Today, there are hundreds of volunteers in 40+ AID chapters spread across numerous cities in the USA, India, Australia and other countries. 

AID strives towards the sustainable, equitable and just development of some of the most marginalized communities in India. We partner with over 100 community-based grassroots groups across India to effect impactful, holistic change in diverse areas of social development including education, LGBTQ and transgender rights, sustainable agriculture, environmental justice and healthcare access.

Shrinaath Chidambaram

Director, Association for India’s Development

Phone: 508-561-8937

Email: [email protected]