“When tomorrow comes, the bright light will shine so don’t worry.”
In search of this light, my land of 1.2 billion people is waking up day after day and hoping to finally see the light at the end of this eternal darkness we find ourselves in. BTS fanbases worldwide have carried out extraordinary humanitarian projects, and we as an organization have shed light on these projects. This blog is a little bit more personal, a little bit more emotional; perhaps the effect of the circumstances I, as the writer, find myself in.
India is home to over 1.2 billion people, and my country is dying on its streets. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has crippled India and brought on a tsunami of new infections. Healthcare facilities are falling apart, and frontline workers are finding it impossible to keep up with the serpentine queue of patients waiting for treatment. With a situation this dire, Indian ARMYs have come together to provide all the help we can to save at least some lives. At BVM, we usually focus on one fanbase in our feature or a specific project taken up by a fanbase or a collaboration. But for this blog, I thought I would try my best to cover as many initiatives as possible because they are all trying their best to help in different ways ― it would be unfair to focus on just one and leave everyone else out.
COVID Relief For India – CRFI BY BTS ARMY
“A group of young volunteers working towards helping on-ground COVID relief organizations in India” is how the COVID Relief For India volunteers describe themselves on Instagram. The second wave of COVID has ravaged India and is showing no signs of slowing the destruction. In such a situation, a group of young people wanted to seek help from ARMY in India through social media. BTS has a huge fanbase in India, and ARMYs are known to donate to good causes – therefore, seeking help from the fandom was a fast and practical way to gather a significant sum of money and start the project immediately.
More than INR 21,00,000 (approx. 28,300 USD) was raised in less than 24 hours with the help of ARMY alongside non-ARMY donations. The funding project managers did not delay in transferring these funds to support the COVID Relief workers in India. These funds have primarily supported free oxygen cylinder suppliers, medical supplies delivery, community kitchen initiatives, and ration kits for catering to the patients at home and homeless patients. The project initially started in Delhi NCR and Maharashtra, which have been greatly affected by the second wave. But the funds have gradually been extended to support other badly hit Indian cities and towns.
Using the funds collected, CRFI has also made contributions to different organizations engaged in covid relief work in different parts of the country. In Maharashtra ― the worst affected state in India ― CRFI has donated to the She and India (SAI) Foundation, which aims to buy PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) kits and HIV kits for non-critical COVID patients. SAI foundation will also purchase ventilators for rural centers with CRFI’s donation. In Tamil Nadu, CRFI has donated to the Pharm Foundation ― established by transgender social worker M Nila ― to provide dry rations to the transgender community in Tamil Nadu. In Assam, PPE kits will be provided to the LGBTQIA+ by Xomonnoy, a project CRFI has donated to. The list is quite long and cannot be documented in a single blog, but from the nature of examples cited, one can already see the diversity of these donations.
National TV channels and newspapers have covered the overwhelming response from the Indian ARMY for CRFI’s first donation drive. As India continues to reel under the second wave, CRFI has announced that they wish to conduct a second donation drive.
COVID Help Bangtan India
When people are frantically searching for oxygen cylinders and hospital beds to save the lives of their dear ones, providing leads for these emergencies is tremendously helpful. Nearly all Indian citizens are sharing information about COVID resources and emergency supplies on social media platforms. A group of Indian ARMY, called covid_check_bangtanindia, came together to form a COVID-related resource platform on Instagram to share and amplify all verified information from different parts of the country. An admin of the page opened up to me on how the Filipino ARMY inspired them to open up a resource page for helping the Indian people. The admin stated,
“The main objective of this project is just to help the COVID patients and healthcare workers as much as we can. We are seeing a major scarcity of resources, and people are dying because of a lack of treatment at the right time. So, we want to help people as much as we can by providing them with leads.”
Though the project is based entirely on COVID right now, the admin doesn’t rule out the possibility of their venture expanding to other areas when the COVID situation improves in India.
COVID work is mentally taxing as sometimes, even with your best efforts, you may not be able to help someone in a critical condition. But the admin doesn’t want to stop at any cost -
“we are keeping our personal life aside for the cause and won’t rest until India gets better.”
This is not the first time the BTS fanbases in India have been in the spotlight for their donation drives. In 2020, the donation drive conducted by @btshelpsindia for Assam flood relief had received international praise, and even BTS mentioned the donation drive during their interview with Rolling Stone India last year.
The visuals coming out of my country are breaking my heart, and as an ARMY and as an Indian, I would like to sincerely thank the BTS ARMY in India for doing such great work. We will get through this, we will see the light, and “Tomorrow” will come.
DISCLAIMER: We do not own any audio & visual content in this video except for the editing. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS. No copyright infringement intended.
Written by Basabdatta
Edited by: Clare
Checked by Aury