April 2020

COVID-19 ARMY

Food drive for WCC

“Hunger is something no one should struggle with or be judged for” – Dawn

    We all are affected by this pandemic, some more than others in many different ways. So many of us are blessed that we can feed our family without any struggles. However, many are not as fortunate.  

    In the past, I have done monetary contributions to many charities and also volunteered for many different organizations.  In the last week of March, I read Shefali Desai’s FB post about donating sandwich bags for NH Soup Kitchen. Her post presented an opportunity to contribute beyond monetary contribution. For me giving is not just my duty, it’s a privilege. 

    After I decided to contribute, I reached out to a few of my friends and shared the thought. My friends also saw this as an opportunity and decided to support the noble cause. Collectively we made about 60 lunch bags and delivered them to Shefali Desai’s house.  I then posted on couple of Newton Facebook Groups about this food drive for Lawrence homeless shelter and NH Soup Kitchen. Over the last few weeks, friends and community members showed overwhelming interest and reached out to me on how they can contribute as well. Knowing the government guidelines of staying home as well as social distancing, I proposed to everyone that they can donate whatever they are comfortable with :  lunch bags (Sandwich, snack and juice) or just sandwiches, brown bags, water bottles, snacks, juice boxes, etc. and leave them on my porch. 

    We have over 50 donors and each donor and their family has helped me to delivered more than 800 lunch bags thus far for homeless shelter and under privileged people. I’m so thankful for their kindness and generosity during these difficult times. 

If anyone is interested in contributing to the cause (non monetary), please feel free to reach out to me  Cell: 781-608-6926 / Email: [email protected] .  

For monetary donations, please visit “www.wecarecharity.org/ways-to-give” or donate via Venmo  to Shefali Desai.

–Manisha Trivedi

COVID-19 ARMY

Lexington Team

    Realizing the need of the hour, I called for volunteers in local WhatsApp group and closed FB group and was amazed by the response and started a dedicated WhatsApp group on March 24, 2020. Word spread quickly and 70+ empathetic hard-working individuals came together with the spirit of providing PPE to the needy. As a coordinator, I was overwhelmed at this outpouring of time, effort, skills, resources and love for the community. 

    We have a team of seamstress making masks with filter pocket. While young boys and girls made crochet bands, 3D printed mask securers, shields and personalized creative hand-made thank you cards. 

    To date, we have donated 2600 masks, 600 disposable caps, 215 reusable scrub caps, 250+ crochet band mask securers + 3D printed mask securers + 35 Shields.

This has been possible due to the empathetic, hardworking and motivated team members ???????????? 

Some of the beneficiaries of our donations are:

• 50 reusable scrub caps to UMASS university hospital in Worcester

• 10 reusable scrub caps to VA Boston Health Care System OR Boston Veterans Affairs Hospital 

• 100 reusable cotton masks to Brigham Woman’s hospital. 

• 150 reusable masks and donated to Saint Vincent Hospital Worcester. 

• 150 reusable cloth masks to hospice in Lincoln + 20 disposable scrubs+ 10 disposable head caps + 2 boxes of disposable gloves 

• 200 disposable scrub caps to Heath care providers at Reliant Medical groups (respiratory dept) 

• 50 reusable scrub caps to UMass university hospital 

• 125 masks do BMC, research unit 

• 200 disposable scrub caps to Saint Vincent Hospital (labour unit) 

• 100 masks+ 100 filters + 3Dprinter mask Securers (5) to BMC covid unit for homeless 

• 50 washable scrub caps + 50 filters + 45 crochet bands + 3D printer Bands to Brigham covid unit 

• 100 cloth masks + 50 filters to Amego for autistic individuals 

• 50 reusable masks to Cambridge health alliance 

• 100 masks + 25 filters + 20 crochet mask Securers to Haley house, a Homeless Shelter 

• 80 washable homemade masks with filters and 20 crochet mask securers to Fox Run Assisted Living

• 90 washable cloth masks, 50 washable filters and 20 crochet bands to the patients of Lynn Community Health Center and the temporary homeless shelter called the Salem Homeless Quarantine

• 100 masks+ 50 filters + 25 3D printed mask Securers + 20 crochet mask Securers to Rosie’s place 

• 100 masks + 50 filters + 25 3D mask Securers were donated to Edinburgh facility

• 200 disposable masks donated to VA 

• 50 masks donated to Community Dental Portland, ME 

• 100 masks + 50 filters + 20 bands to SNAP Special Needs Arts Program. 

• 100 masks + 20 crochet bands + 50 filters to Genesis NH. 

• 100 reusable masks + 50 washable filters + 25 crochet bands to the Marcus Garvey elder housing 

• 100 reusable caps + 50 washable filters + 25 crochet bands to Chelsea neighborhood that has been devastated by COVID. 

• 50 reusable scrub caps+ 18 bands + 25 crochet bands 

• 100 masks + 50 filters+ 20 crochet bands were donated to Combodian Community in Lowell. 

• 100 masks + 50 filters + 20 crochet bands were donated to Guild special needs facility. 

• 150 masks to Haley House in Boston 

• 100 masks to Stoney Hill community nursing home 

• 60 masks to Concord prison 

• 100 reusable masks + 50 filters to MAB Community Services. 

• 30 caps donated to Saint Vincent Hospital 

• 25 caps donated to Brigham Woman’s hospital 

• 100 masks to BMC

• 100 masks + 12 shields + 20 crochet bands + 50 filters to Lynn Community Health Center 

• 100 masks + 12 shields + 15 crochet bands to Lynn Community Health Center. 

• 100 masks + 50 crochet bands to non-profit Bethany homes 

You can help too by donating the required supplies to the team. Contact Nagasree on WhatsApp at (617)838-3468 or email at [email protected]

OR make a monetary donation at http://www.ekamusa.org/index.php/donatenow

Please Use the  DONATE USING CREDIT CARD OPTION.

–Nagasree Chakka

COVID-19 ARMY

3D printed PPE

    One day last month I got a call from my cousin sister in NY who is working in the front lines and she told him that that they were not providing masks. I tried to acquire N95 masks but in vain.  That’s when I found a hack to make them using 3M Air Filters.  I cut these filters and provide as inserts to people who are stitching cloth masks. I shipped some to my cousin in NY who was infected with Covid-19 and has now thankfully recovered!

    I wanted to help the front-line healthcare professionals in any possible way.  As of now I am 3D printing Mask Ear Savers, Mask Buttons, Masks with Filters and Face Shields.

    After that I got a Sewing machine, learned to sew and started stitching cloth masks with filter inserts. Soon I realized that sewing is not my strongest trait and then got a 3D printer and started printing PPE. I am providing these to local COVID stitching groups so they can be distributed to various healthcare facilities.

–Thomas Arul

COVID-19 ARMY

Bhakti Center of Lexington

Even though we are all in this difficult time together, some of us are fortunate to have the ability to lead comfortable lives even as we shelter in place, while many in our community are not equally blessed. It is our moral duty to use our resources to help support those in need. The least we can do for our community at such unprecedented times is to ensure we can provide healthy meals for some of the less privileged in our communities. Also, we have several doctors, nurses and essential services workers working hard so we can stay safe in our homes. The smoothies are a gesture of appreciation for their selfless service.

Our team is serving community members impacted by COVID-19 at the following locations:

1. House of Mercy in Lawrence: We are serving 150-200 paper bag lunches every Saturday. 

2. Lowell Transitional Living Center: We are serving vegetarian lunch for 70 people every other Saturday.  

3. Packed food for homeless shelter for kids in Waltham.

4. Support local restaurants and have smoothies delivered to town workers in Lexington and Boston Medical Center ER staff. 

We are a team of 35+ great individuals contributing to some/all of the initiatives above. It really is a team effort and I am only helping coordinate the logistics.

For anyone interested in participating, please reach out to us at [email protected]

–Raj Heda

COVID-19 ARMY

KN95 Mask Drive

    We started a KN95 mask drive to support the New England community medical soldiers who are working on the frontline with COVID-19 patients and experiencing extreme shortage of PPE. The community has generously supported our drive enabling us to donate 1150 KN95 masks to 12 hospitals that had the most need in the New England area. 100% of the donations go to buying KN95 masks with no overhead of delivery of masks to hospitals or paying fees to PayPal/Venmo. We anticipate nursing homes and other VA hospitals to have needs in the coming month that we are already gearing up our drive for. 

    In this unexpected war between humanity vs. virus we have decided to proactively engage at grass roots level to solve PPE problem for medical staff and giving back to the community especially in challenging times and bring together individual skills, resources and strengths to build an organic drive from initiation to execution. Many New England members are looking for such organizations to contribute and we are glad to bring them this drive. 

    The drive is run by three passionate New England women – Gunjan Kuthiala from Merrimack, NH (Founder, CEO NRILIFE productions and Managing Partner Jobgini), Twinkle Morbia from Shrewsbury, MA (Entrepreneur, Syna’s Collection and Krish Enterprises) and Sunanda Pepalla from Acton, MA (Chief of Staff Operations, Dell Global CT Office and Founder of American Alpha Assets LLC).

    We all have our reasons for the drive but with the same end goal to help medical frontline staff. 

Sunanda says “I brought my work skills of solving problems and passion to give back to the medical staff and community to address the need of the hour. I had already been doing individual donations in my personal capacity and when Twinkle called to joined hands, it was a no-brainer and this drive was born”. 

Gunjan says “I personally feel, am doing this drive for my own selfish reasons which is first, my husband is asthmatic & I love all my friends/community members and having lived here for 17 years, I didn’t want to experience the nightmare of medical system to collapse in this pandemic war and being a warrior by trait, did what my gut/survival instinct suggested.” 

Twinkle says “The drive was an outcome of my desperation to help the community during self-quarantine as I had just returned from India. One phone call to my friend Sunanda led to the birth of this drive and there was no looking back”. 

To donate to this cause, you can

Venmo to: Twinkle Morbia (Please use these hashtags #venmoitforward #venmo #helpothers #payitforward #kn95maskdrive)
OR

PayPal to [email protected] (#kn95maskdrive)

–Twinkle, Gunjan, Sunanda

COVID-19 ARMY

The Shield Team

     My husband Sundar Sivaraman and I are printing 3D Face shields to be used as personal protective equipment.

 In the unprecedented times, we felt powerless against the virus and wanted to do something to help the frontline workers. This was a perfect opportunity.  On March 29, I got an email from Doug Scott, an educator at Hopkinton High school asking for help in 3D printing face shields. Sundar and I jumped at the opportunity to help as we had a 3D printer at home that was lying unused.

It all started around March 22, with a tweet where Mass General Hospital President Dr. Peter Slavin said he was worried about the lack of personal protective equipment. This prompted a call to action from Doug Scott of Hopkinton High School, Mike Looney from Mashpee Public school and Mark Westlake of Minnesota. 

They came up with a design to 3D print face shields and The Shield Team was born.

The Shield Team is a network of about 190 educators, students and residents across 22 states doing their best to help flatten the COVID curve by producing protective face shields for those in need.

#theshieldteam2020
Visit for more info:

https://www.mrscottbot.org/p/covid.html

As of current counts, TheShieldTeam has delivered 22,050 Face Shields, 28,839 sheets, and 4727 comfort straps all over the United States.

–Meena Kaushik

COVID-19 ARMY

Stitch a Mask, Save a Life

    The COVID-19 pandemic has affected each of us and has everyone wanting to do something! Talk to anyone, and their first comment is – I wish I could help! For me, it began as a conversation with a friend. Her family runs a fabric business and she was trying to help by supplying local seamstresses with donated fabric. That was my lightbulb moment. Since I cannot sew, I had to find another way to help. I realized that there are a lot of talented people who can sew, and who want to help, but don’t have the supplies. Also, most seamstresses were working off of personal donations, but those can only go so far. That’s where the fundraiser came in. What started out simply as just family and friends helping out, soon grew into a GoFundMe campaign. 

    We are running a fundraiser to support making masks and PPE for healthcare workers in Massachusetts — the fundraiser is called Stitch a Mask, Save a Life. Our primary goal for raising funds is to support seamstresses and other volunteers who are working to make masks, surgical caps, buttoned headbands and other personal protective equipment for front-line healthcare workers. There are individuals as well as teams of seamstresses who are working round-the-clock to sew masks and other gear, and our goal is to help them with supplies and materials and help get the masks to the health-care professionals, the elderly, and other essential workers who need them the most.

    The fundraiser is being run by me, but it supports seamstresses from all over the area. We have provided masks to hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, EMTs, the fire department, the Postal Service and several other essential workers. We continue to have new seamstresses come on board and the need for masks continues to be a constant for now!

Our fundraiser has a GoFundMe campaign page. Here is the link to contribute —

https://www.gofundme.com/f/kzd8kd-stitch-a-mask-save-a-life

Please help us spread the word so we can do more and support more! 

–Renu Thamma

COVID-19 ARMY

Sewa International’s DIY Mask for healthcare professionals

    In the current COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing is taking a toll on our community, Sewa International’s Boston chapter volunteer Shova Sharma, with the help of other Sewa volunteers was instrumental in starting the DIY face mask project. 

    Sewa is thriving on the efforts of these self-motivated volunteers who are giving their time and energy to sew protective masks for the healthcare workers and professionals. 

    The rapid spread of coronavirus has left the healthcare workers with severe shortage of face masks. Shova who is spearheading the DIY mask project, wants to spread the word that the protective masks are free. Inspired by her grandmother’s philosophy of ‘Once a giver is always a giver’, she is determined to make a social impact. “Fabric is like a chocolate for me right now. Whenever I get a call, I promptly run like a child to collect.” She shares enthusiastically.

    She suggests that by using these protective cloth masks, health officials can make sure that N95 respiratory masks and surgical masks are reserved for the frontline healthcare workers.

Ideation of DIY masks: 

    It all started with a brief conversation between Shova and other Sewa volunteers Nisha Sinha and Sarvalakshmi Uppuluri. They were discussing how this pandemic is growing exponentially and the healthcare professionals are directly impacted by it. Driven by Sewa’s mission of serving humanity in distress and providing an aid to local communities, they decided to sew masks and donate.

The core team: 

    The DIY mask team is strategically divided into Collection, Distribution/Delivery and Sewing team. 

• Collection Team is responsible for collecting the fabric from stores and other sources. 

• Distribution/Delivery Team is responsible for the pick and drop of the fabric to the sewing team’s houses. And finally dropping the box of masks to various centers. It is strictly at-the-door-step service only, keeping guidelines of social distancing in mind.

• Sewing Team is led by a Kiran Komaragiri, a fashion designer and sewing expert. A member of the HopTown Legacy volunteers group, she has been conducting online sessions on sewing. She carefully guides the sewing team to cut and stitch, by following the pleat pattern.

A project in progress:

    Through its strong network of sewing enthusiasts, Sewa’s Boston Chapter is determined to help the healthcare workers in the frontline of this pandemic. Currently the team has 75 volunteers and together they have successfully sewn and donated approximately 4000 masks to 20 leading hospitals in Massachusetts.

Besides, Sewa has also distributed free masks to other essentials services like Spice Hut and Whole Foods Market, Hopkinton Police Department, Hopkinton Fire Department, Nashua City Hall, rehab centers, nursing homes, physicians, assisted living centers etc. Sewa has been receiving much appreciation for its selfless community service.

Volunteer’s health a priority for Sewa: As the coronavirus outbreak continues and physical distancing becomes more stressful, Sewa’s top priority is the health of its volunteers. The volunteers are advised to diligently practice the social distancing while visiting hospitals and healthcare facilities for dropping masks.

    As the project gradually progressed, the volunteers have come together as a close knit unit, building new friendships amongst themselves.

Guidelines for the DIY masks: There are guidelines of carefully handling the mask sewing kit and delivery of the final product. Sewa volunteers are following the hygienic procedure of handling the raw materials.   The collection team must wear gloves while picking the fabric from the stores.  After collecting the fabric, it should be washed and sanitized with utmost precaution.  

    The sanitized fabric is packed in a sealed bag and dropped at the doorstep of various volunteers who are responsible for sewing.  The sewing team handles the material with utmost precaution while cutting and stitching. Hands should be washed and sanitized and stitching should be done in a clean place.  After the masks are ready, it should be packed in a sealed bag and left at the doorstep and the collection team should be informed.  The collection team picks the sealed bags of masks from the doorstep of the sewing team.   At all times, the volunteers engaged in pick and drop of the materials should wear a mask and gloves and follow all the guidelines of social distancing.

Encouraging children in Volunteerism: Confusion exist about how long will this crisis last. In the midst of the pandemic, school closures and widespread social disruption, families are learning to adapt to this novel crisis. Parents find this as an opportunity to encourage children in community service while working from home. It is heartening to see young children lending a helping hand in cutting and measuring the fabric. 

Committed in community service: Amid this unprecedented time, it is incredible to witness the commitment of Sewa volunteers. Our healthcare workers are overwhelmed with sick patients, and limited resources to protect themselves. Sewa is continuing to inspire many people who offer to help the community. While maintaining social distancing and united in their mission, Sewa is determined to fulfill its three-fold mission of serving the community in distress, aiding the local community and promoting volunteerism. 

The force behind the cause:

    Shova Sharma, Geetanjali Virmani, Ashwani Virmani, Radhika Dixit, Sarvalakshmi Uppuluri, Bhargav Surma, Medha Nadgir, Ajay Goel, Kajal Dixit, Anju Garg, Kavitha Mamidala, Sanjeev Kaushik, Mrudula Patel and Nisha Sinha. Also supported by other Sewa volunteers, HopTown Legacy volunteers and many more volunteers. 

–Nisha Sinha

COVID-19 ARMY

Operation Feed the Soul

    Operation Feed the Soul’s mission is simple: to connect restaurants and food places that are having a hard time keeping afloat these days and those on the frontlines (be it hospital, post office, PD). We are that bridge — by buying meals from the restaurants, we get to keep them open and, at the same time, use their yummies to keep the folks that are working so hard to keep us healthy fed with love. 

    100% of our donations go to the meals. We cover restaurants from Westford to Bedford to Cambridge to Framingham to any city/town in the Greater Boston area. We cover departments from ICU, to ED, to respiratory, to facilities, to housekeeping, to radiology…again, the list goes on. 

    With the donations we receive, we then purchase meals through partnering restaurants allowing them to pay their employees and expenses while business is extremely slow, all the while feeding our heroes who are fighting this battle for us

    Suzanne Koller, Aarti Kapuria, Michelle Chapman, and Sarah Blackman are the founders of this cause. We wanted to do something to help. We wanted to help, we wanted to not feel helpless, we wanted to create hope. There are very few times in life that something can be a win-win, and this is one of those times. Our village is over 1.6k strong!

Donations can be made by:

Venmo (Suzanne-Koller-1)

OR 

Check made payable to Suzanne Koller and mailed to 90 Great Rd Bedford, MA

OR

PayPal – [email protected] – please send via friends and family so there are no added fees or taxes

—-Aarti Kapuria

COVID-19 ARMY

Sew We Care

    Sew We Care is a caring community of selfless volunteers who are helping make masks for healthcare and essential workers during the Covid 19 crisis. Niswarth Seva is the principle behind our initiative and each and every member abides by it, whether they are sewing, cutting, ironing, or delivering. We are not affiliated with any major organization, our masks are never sold, only donated, and we do not accept monetary contributions. At times, individuals and Corporations have helped us out by directly shipping us fabric and supplies, however we have sustained ourselves primarily by the generous donation of new and gently used fabric from our kind-hearted community.

    We maintain a spreadsheet that is shared with all our volunteers. To date, we have made and delivered over 5000 masks – Some of the hospitals we have donated to include Beth israel, MGH, MetroWest Framingham, Emerson, Norwood, Melrose, Brockton, VA in West Roxbury, Heywood in Gardner, Beverly, ….along with area nursing homes, senior centers, home healthcare centers, police officers etc.

    We have about 3000 more mask requests in the pipeline, and are actively working to create these and more. 

    The way our community has come forward and joined hands is unbelievable. The wave that this ripple has created in our community moves us to tears and makes us believe in the inherent goodness of people. Through this initiative, we feel a deep sense of gratification and a renewed faith in humanity. This has brought hope into a seemingly hopeless time. We are sincerely indebted to each of our members and would not be where we are without them. Today the need of the hour might be sewing, but tomorrow if we are faced by a different crisis, we are positive that our Sew we Care group will rise to the occasion. We just got the exciting news that one of our  members shared the video and model with people in  India, where 5000 masks were made and donated by an NGO near Kolkata, with the generosity of sponsors who provided fabric. Seeing this kind of social impact being created is the biggest reward and motivation for us!

    When Covid-19 started feeling real to me, a deep sense of anxiety set in. Being an A type personality, I needed to do something to channel this into positive ways. I came across a request for sewing handmade masks with very clear instructions by Emerson Hospital in Concord, and decided to act upon it. Upon successfully making one, I realized that if I had more fabric and people helping me cut and iron, I could sew a lot more per day. Out of desperation, I posted this plea for help on facebook and in my town group, and within a couple of hours I received tons of fabric donated at my doorstep. At the same time Jharna Madan, a dynamic leader in our community, reached out to me saying, “I saw your post on facebook, I want to help”. Encouraged by the generosity of so many and by Jharna’s willingness to help, I called her and we decided that I would make an instructional video and she would help spread the word. Rest is history! In a nutshell, it was my anxiety and the need to do something to help that spurred this project, but it gained wings through the generosity and vision of Jharna and all the members in our group.

    Jharna Madan says, I too felt extremely anxious on the onset of Covid-19 and had a deep desire to help in some way. Just then, I came across Manisha’s post and that was it. The instructional video Manisha made along with the sewing video was shared with all our volunteers. It’s a completely collaborative, yet socially distanced, process. We created a WhatsApp and a Facebook group wherein people were encouraged to reach out to either of us for guidance and questions. Our volunteers designate themselves by ability: providing 100% cotton cloth, cutting, ironing, sewing, or delivering. Our WhatsApp group is used to communicate requests, delegate tasks, and exchange tips & tricks to work efficiently. So it’s basically an assembly line that spans across households, all connected by our collective desire to be of service through sewing. Many of our  homes serve as epicenters: those providing cloth will drop off the bag on the porch, and those who cut & iron will come pick it up. Once cut and ironed, someone else is responsible for actually sewing the masks. Finally, the masks are delivered. At each step, Sew We Care volunteers practice all social distancing protocol and have not allowed that hurdle to impede their progress.

Connect with us at if you would like to help: https://www.facebook.com/groups/210234213748408/

–Manisha Jain