Walk for India organizer Renuka More reports on a successful fundraiser to assist the unfortunates in India who were directly impacted by COVID pandemic.

Vegas Cares Humanity is a nonprofit organization that me (Renuka More) and my husband, Dr. Deepak Nandikanti, MD have founded to help India during the COVID-19 crisis. Our mission is to help India fight COVID-19 during this heart-wrenching catastrophe by delivering emergently needed medical equipment with the help of donations from the community.

Life during the pandemic has been very challenging and we all realize the immediate need to support each other whether it be a friend, family member, community, state or country. We all are aware of the devastating situation in India during the 2nd wave and the sufferings of the people. The sudden surge in Covid-19 cases during the second wave has been challenging to deal with and has been extremely difficult to meet the increasing demand for medical equipment like oxygen concentrators and ventilators. With the ongoing pandemic and the emerging need for medical care is far beyond our imagination. 

To contribute our bit, We had two different “Walk For India” events in May, first one on the 16th at Mountain Crest Park and again on 22nd at Red Ridge Park. We had about 50 participants at each of these events to support this cause. Many medical professionals and the Las Vegas community showed great support for this cause and donated generously. We also had donations from many people who contributed directly in spite of not being able to attend the walk. So far, we have collected about $17,500. Many Organizations like Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, North American Physicians of Indian Origin, Las Vegas Indian Chamber of Commerce, Asian American Group, Detox Me, Friends of India, Share Village Las Vegas, Red Rock Medical Center and Nevada State Bank have supported this event with their generous donations.

Currently, We are buying the oxygen concentrators, BiPAP- Ventilators from vendors in India and getting them delivered to the government hospitals and facilities in need. Currently we are helping a  COVID hospital run by Govt. that is located in Hyderabad and also COVID Clinics run in Slum areas by a NGO, Janakalyan Prathistan near Pune. We are speaking to a few other COVID facilities to know their requirements and help them as needed. 

We want to sincerely thank Rita Vaswani and Dr. Prabhu Rachakond for their guidance and support. We also want to thank our entire  organizing team and also several volunteers who helped us including Rajani Phalke, Ratan Surpure, Anu Pande, Deepak Nandikanti, Chandra Mehata, Karthika Reddy, Garima Bharadwaj, Ruhi Daswani, Rupali Gupte, Jasmine Arolkar, Sundari Dasi, Medha Limaya, Paresh Joshi, Jatinder Sharma, Richard Kashanski, Thayar DeMay, Gopi Latpate, Prashant Gundre, Vivek Veerapaneni and Madhuri Jorige.

Moving forward our organization would like to help out veterans, homeless shelters and the local Las Vegas communities.