The Little Engine That Can: A Hindu Faith-based Organization in the US Responds to the COVID Surge in India

They advise us to not let a crisis go to waste just as they point out that it is in crises that leaders emerge, that it is in demanding times that organizations, otherwise off the media radar, can rise to the challenge and prove their real worth. So it is that when the whole world and very much the Indian government and Indian people seem to have been caught with their masks down, and the second wave swamped the country that a Hindu faith-based organization in the US, Sewa International, found itself leading the charge to buy, pack, and ship much needed medical equipment like oxygen concentrators and ventilators from the US to India. Within two weeks of starting their Facebook fundraising campaign, with a modest goal of raising $500,000 the team leading the charge found itself in a whirlwind of activity, with money pouring in, and urgent demands for medical equipment singing the ears and burning the eyes of volunteers responding to phone calls and monitoring the Facebook page and Whatsapp message boards. Within two weeks Sewa International had raised almost $15 million and had spent $6 million of it. Their Facebook campaign goals quickly changed from $500,000 on April 25 when they started the campaign to $1 million to $5 million and then to $10 million. At present that social media campaign has raised nearly $8 million from more than 106,000 people.

In 2019 the organization had raised about $7.6 million, and their 2020 figures are…