My Personal Story

My parents emigrated to the United States from India in the late 1990’s and my sister and I were born in Connecticut. We later moved to North Carolina where I grew up as a pretty typical American child. In 2018, we moved to India so that we can experience India and stay closer with our grandparents. I’d never really spent much time with them before as I would only come every summer and they would come to stay with us for a few months every two years. Suddenly, I went from living in a development in Cary, North Carolina with big yards and freestanding houses to Hyderabad and its seven million people. I started attending an international school which may be the most similar thing to my life in North Carolina. During the two years, I enjoyed really getting to know my grandparents and my family’s culture. In 2020, Covid-19 came to India.

My grandparents and I have always had a close bond and as the pandemic spread, I started becoming worried. Suddenly, my friends and I stopped going to their family’s casual Saturday night dinners in order to prevent COVID-19 from affecting their grandparents. As I started reading the news, I found out that senior citizens are the age group that’s most vulnerable to Covid-19 both in India and the world. According to Zeenews, seniors account for 50% of all deaths from Covid 19 in India even though the average age of the population is 24 years old. Seniors are also twice as likely to experience complications from Covid 19 than younger age groups. Unlike most of the rest of the world, Indians between age 35-64 have also seen a high fatality rate. All senior citizens are more vulnerable to COVID-19 but the people who are affected the most are needy senior citizens as they are generally more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 and therefore need to take more precautions. Even if they are in old age homes, they generally have many underlying health conditions from before so they are still more affected. I am so thankful that my grandparents are safe and healthy but I knew I needed to help other senior citizens who aren’t so privileged.

So, I had to think about how someone my age might be able to help.