Newtown’s educational connection to India was initiated in 2017 when the Newtown International Center for Education (NICE) and Vatsalya Gram — an organization in India that provides homes for women in need, families for orphans, and vocational and life-training skills for women, along with offering three schools — joined in a sister-school partnership with Newtown High School.

After an initial 2017 visit by Newtown High School educators, NICE leaders, and a local resident, the Board of Education approved student visits. By 2019, two groups of Newtown students had visited Vatsalya Gram.

When Sadhvi Ritambhara, a spiritual leader in India and Vatsalya Gram known as Didi Maa, visited Newtown in 2019, she reflected that the two communities have “such a beautiful relationship.”

Nothing breaks the boundaries of distance more than familial love.

So as the location of one of Newtown’s “sisters” in education, it is this love that drives home the horror of the second wave of COVID-19 infections in India.

As reported by the Associated Press on May 4, COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting in India at an “alarming speed... The reported caseload is second only to that of the US, which has one-fourth the population of India but has recorded over 32 million confirmed infections. The US has also reported more than 2½ times as many deaths as India, at close to 580,000.”

The hospital system, the Associated Press reported, in India is crushed under the weight of the current infection rate. While officials did not speculate as to the causes of deaths, it is clear people are dying due to shortages of bottled oxygen, hospital beds, or because they did not have access to a COVID-19 test.

This is no time to point fingers, blame, or ignore suffering. This is no time for insular vision, eyes closed.

When a family member is in need, we make help available.

Agencies — like Project Hope, (secure.projecthope.org/site/spagenavigator/2021_04_india_covid_response_unr.html?s_subsrc=hh1); American India Foundation (AIF) (aif.org/donate/covid-19-response); the Center For Disease Dynamics, Economics, & Policy (CDDEP) (cddep.org) — are working to support India in this time of crisis.

There are many other organizations, such as Save The Children (support.savethechildren.org), working to help those suffering and dying from COVID-19 in India, the US, and elsewhere (remember to research organizations before donating money); and, as recently reported, US officials have pledged support for India.

Help is needed now.

When the next terrifying pandemic or unexpected threat happens, we will want our cries heard. To be heard, we must also listen.

We are a community that knows how to give.

We are a community that knows how to love.

It is time to respond to a family member in crisis.

It is time to show our sisterly love.

Eliza Hallabeck is the education reporter at The Newtown Bee. She can be reached at eliza@thebee.com.