The India Association of North Texas opened its doors over the weekend to provide vaccines for the community.
Association President-elect Urmeet Juneja said they’ve vaccinated about 250 people as of Saturday.
“We found that there is a lot of Indian community here that is finding it a little difficult to get the vaccinations,” Juneja said.
But though the clinic may have started as a way to eliminate language barriers, Juneja said they’ve seen a lot of people motivated to come through in recent days because of the COVID-19 disaster in India.
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New cases there have topped 400,000 a day, and temporary cremation sites have popped up to deal with a tsunami of deaths.
“With such an unfortunate situation in India, I think people appreciate that we have access to vaccines here and we’re able to get vaccines in time,” Juneja said.
Among them was Sri Kanth.
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As the 27-year-old got his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, he said it wasn’t lost on him that he and his wife wouldn’t yet be eligible in India.
Many of their loved ones aren’t.
“Seeing that even in my town, my state, there are people struggling with oxygen … and I see lots of deaths in a day,” Kanth said.
While working to get people vaccinated at home, the association is also focusing on raising money to help those back in India.
“We all have relatives, we all have parents, we all sisters and brothers and are praying for them,” Juneja said.
Saturday, the association's first donated shipment of oxygen concentrators arrived in New Dehli.
Juneja said they hope to raise $100,000 to send more.
They’ll also continue encouraging North Texans to get the vaccine.
