When 17-year-old Astha Dedakiya heard about the current COVID-19 crisis in India, her home country, she pooled her birthday money and began buying supplies to help.

Now, the Gilbert Classical Academy student has started a GoFundMe that has as of Monday evening raised almost $2,000 to ship clothes, soap, food and more to several Indian cities.

“Talking with family back home” in India has shown her how every family has been impacted by COVID-19, Dedakiya said.

India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000, according to the Associated Press. India’s official average of newly confirmed cases per day has soared from over 65,000 on April 1 to about 370,000, and deaths per day have officially gone from over 300 to more than 3,000, the AP said. 

Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.

Dedakiya, whose family moved from India to the U.S. when she was five, has been watching from afar.

“This is a place that I go every summer, and just seeing it struggling… I knew I had to do something,” she said.

Packing boxes of food and supplies in her garage

Dedakiya began with working with organizations like Goonj, a nonprofit focused on disaster relief and humanitarian aid in India, to figure out what they needed. She turned her focus to food, clothes, blankets, feminine hygiene products and water.

Two weeks ago, she shipped the first batch of boxes to Gujarat, Delhi and Mumbai. In the next batch two weeks from now, which will also include hand sanitizer and soap, Dedakiya plans to reach more cities in south India.

Dedakiya first pooled birthday money and asked her father for an advance on any money he planned to give her this year.

She then went through grocery stores with a list of necessities like rice, lentils and masks. Last week, a rice cracker company also donated a few boxes to her cause.

Every day after school, Dedakiya sets up boxes in her garage to divide and pack the supplies she bought. Her father helped her bring supplies into the garage and lift boxes into the car. But otherwise, Dedakiya is doing it herself.

When she received photos of the help her shipped boxes provided, she knew she had to continue helping.

Thus, Dedakiya set up a GoFundMe and told her teachers, school, neighbors, friends and family.

Sheela Bhatia, Gilbert Classical Academy’s cybrarian who is of Indian descent, said Dedakiya sent an email to a number of staff at her school about the fundraiser. 

Dedakiya walked around the school, pitching her fundraiser and cause to faculty and in her different activities like Student Senate, Model UN and National Honor Society, she explained. The school’s principal, Dan Hood, included it in the weekly newsletter. 

“I was expecting to get maybe around $500 or $800, and we’re almost closing in on like $2,000,” she said. “So the response has been incredible from the community.”

The money raised goes straight to buying more supplies, especially rice, which Goonj is struggling to get. If the fundraiser hits $3,000, it could help fund sending personal protective equipment kits to rural communities without access to masks. Dedakiya’s biggest goal is $5,000, when she could put half towards supplying oxygen tanks to south India.

Teen worked with Embassy of India in Washington, D.C.

Dedakiya ran into a problem when the shipping for each box cost more than the actual supplies in it. She emailed the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. for help, and she said it responded by waiving all shipping costs to India. 

To Dedakiya, who has always enjoyed helping people, knowing that someone in another part of the world got to eat and drink enough water for the day spurs her to keep going.

“There’s this one picture in particular where this kid is holding a bowl of rice, and he’s, like, really happy… I look at that almost every day since I’ve gotten it,” she said.

Dedakiya is also an ambassador for the Institute of Economics and Peace, and is one of the youngest members. She’s implementing her training and education on peace building into the fundraiser.

“For her to think about this and, you know, care enough to do something about it, too, is really remarkable,” said Bhatia. Someone young organizing a fundraiser gives her hope for future generations. 

“The food that we’re sending… and just helping people in general with blankets and clothes that they wouldn’t have gotten, like, in a non-COVID year” is all going towards a good cause, Dedakiya said.

Reach breaking news reporter Nienke Onneweer at [email protected] or on Twitter @thenienke.

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