The outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has challenged the world to be aware of people in desperation. Since the outbreak of the virus at the beginning of the year, Grace EduCare Foundation, a charity group co-founded by Claretian missionary, Father Jijo Kandamkulathy, together with others who are concerned about people in need worldwide, has been able to feed over 70,000 people in India, send 40,000 masks to the United States and help many people in China.
In 2014, Father Kandamkulathy and one of his seminary classmates, Bobby George, who lives in the United States, with the support of two legal advisers, founded the group in Texas. One year later, Grace EduCare started working in Macau with the initial aim of supporting students with financial assistance to go for university education in Asia.
Grace EduCare was formed with a basic philosophy—people who receive help from its scholarship will be committed later to help others in their own societies. Now, it has helped over 120 students with scholarships. Apart from India, the group has also given study scholarships to people in the Philippines and in Indonesia. The commitment scholarship requires the beneficiaries to sponsor the studies of somebody else through the organisation once they are employed.
With the outbreak of Covid-19 at the start of this year, the group felt that it could not ignore the sufferings of people around the world. “When we found that the (virus was) spreading out of control and that Wuhan, Ningbo and places in Anhui had difficulties, we decided to help,” Father Kandamkulathy said.
He recalled that the group contacted bishops and priests in these places and found that what they needed urgently were face masks. However, they were hard to obtain in Macau, as at that time the city had begun to ration them for fear of shortage.
The shortage of masks was even more serious in Hong Kong.
So, the group contacted the Project Vision, a social work organisation also run by the Claretian Missionaries in India, for support. They couriered an initial quantity of 2,000 pieces, but the parcel unfortunately didn’t reach Macau. After five days with no hopeful response from the couriers, the group decided to have someone bring 10,000 masks from India as travel luggage to Macau in February. Then, with the help of the Red Cross the masks were passed on to Jinde Charities in Hebei and, from there, to Wuhan, Ningbo, and Anhui.
The Claretian missionary said he was grateful for the tremendous generosity of people in Macau and Hong Kong. During a fund-raising activity held at Fatima parish, Macau, on May 17, goods were donated by shops to be sold and people visiting booths paid generously even for small items. In the span of five hours, the group raised over 30,000 Patacas ($29,100).
“Although the fund-raising was held in the parish, many non-Christians also came forward to help; just came to support the event,” Father Kandamkulathy recalled. The funds raised were channeled through the Claretians or other reliable organisations on ground.
The group has also given global online support for people that might need help. Together with Billion Lives, a technology company, and Project Vision, a platform was established to give online support to patients, caretakers and health care workers.
People with problems related to the pandemic can visit www.coronacare.life, and call from anywhere in the world for psychological support, information and guidance. The platform offers services in 15 languages, with the support of 30 volunteers working in different countries and regions such as Germany, Spain, France, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Macau, India and some African countries.
When the pandemic in the United States began to get out of control, the group also sent masks to elderly homes and other medical facilities in Philadelphia, Texas and New York.
Millions of people in India have been without work during the Covid-19 outbreak and are facing starvation, but the group began to procure food even before the lockdown there took effect. In Macau, they managed to raise a fund of over 1.5 million Indian rupees ($168,000). Together with other organisers in India, the group was able to feed over 70,000 people. About 10,000 packages of groceries were prepared. These had rice, grains, spices and detergents that would sustain them for two weeks.
Three years ago, when South India was hit by flooding, the group, together with the Claretian’s Prefecture of Apostolate, helped in relief work and also undertook a project of building houses. So far, 10 houses have been built for families that lost their houses completely during the floods. The Claretian missionaries in India oversaw the relief and rehabilitation work. SE
