Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
@gauravsabnis
Apr 24, 2021 • 21 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
Very important.
For those Americans and other non-Indians looking to donate for dealing with the horrific second surge in India, I'm going to make a thread of organizations I recommend donating to. Lot of hindu RW and fascists in the mix you should avoid. My recos are from personal experience.
I'll start off with what in my personal experience is the gold standard for humanitarian work in the south asian ecosystem. @Khalsa_Aid is there everywhere, from natural disasters to feeding and caring for BLM and women's march protesters. 501c in US.
khalsaaid.org/donate-usa
A milaap crowdfunding fundraiser for ventilators in community in hospital in remote mountains. Still a thousand dollars short of the target as I post.

milaap.org/fundraisers/su…
Just to elaborate, what I'm posting here are organizations or drive that
1. Can accept US donations (regardless of 501c).
2. That I myself have donated to, so an FYI fwiw in case you want to be careful about your money not ending up with scammers or fascists.
Also I know @Hemkunt_Fdn is doing great work in sourcing and supplying oxygen BUT it can't accept donations from foreign citzens, which I technically am so can't donate. But if you're an Indian citizen with a way to pay in rupees, I recommend it too.
hemkuntfoundation.com/donate-now/
This is a great master list to refer, with each entry clarifying whether it can accept foreign funds or not.

FYI, this is very important because the Modi government has resurrected or created lots of red tape around payments from overseas.

Oh just realized... Before I continue with my online #CovidIndia shopping spree, any matching initiatives I should be aware of? I'm generally not comfortable tweeting donation amounts but happy to DM or email receipts if it leads to matching donations.
One thing I'm planning to do and which I recommend, is send a personal "stimulus" payment of sorts to everyone in Pune I know who is blue collar or working class. Cooks, cleaners, watchmen, etc. Direct cash transfer.

The limit for that, from a foreigner, is ₹50K ($700) fyi.
Also planning to send parents money with instructions to tip every delivery person delivering anything a certain amount I can afford that will also help them more. Consider doing that. Covid has disproportionately hurt those who serve us in india at ridiculously cheap wages.
These orgs are doing great work and I'm donating to them of course, as should you. But if you just make a cash gift, whatever you can afford, to those people in India often not allowed to ride in your elevator or made to disinfect extra or walk a thousand miles, please do.
That extra few thousand rupees at a crisis time like this will go a long way for those who literally live daily wage to daily wage. You have no idea how much it means to them even if they are too proud to ask or acknowledge. We can't even imagine the scope.
I've asked my mom to draw up a list of everyone in our lives in Pune who is working class and am planning to send them a modest "stimulus" as much as I can afford. Please consider doing this with your own families in India. Support those who work for you for less than peanuts. Image
The reason this is extra helpful in India is that while even a petulant idiot like Trump got the point of why a direct cash transfer is necessary in lockdown times to at least get food, rent, Modi is about putting the onus on the weakest. And giving money to the richest.
This is an exceptional list! Lists orgs that help some of THE most vulnerable groups and people in India. Who have been hit hard THE hardest. With details and links. Great work.

Alright, Monday morning. Let's resume this thread.
Donated to and personally recommend @apneaap if you're looking to donate with a non indian credit card or bank account.

A million meals for sex workers and their children in the most vulnerable places

globalgiving.org/projects/suppo…
Waste pickers in India live really hard lives at paltry pay and 19th century equipment and no safety net. If you've spent a day in India, you've seen at least one elderly person coughing while picking up filth people throw. Covid has been brutal on them.

fundraisers.giveindia.org/projects/provi…
Ooooh yay! Americans can now donate to @Hemkunt_Fdn
Through ketto.
ketto.org/fundraiser/o2f…
Another worthy effort I donated to and encourage you to do so too.

Donate to this. As you might have noticed, my focus is on work being done to help THE most vulnerable sections of Indian society. Hundreds of millions on a daily wage existence facing a de facto famine because of covid and a lack of social safety nets.

Oh a general donation pro-tip. I know a lot of people prefer to donate anonymously because they don't want the "credit". I used to be like that too until an activist said please always put your full name down cos
A) people who trust you see it, trust us
B) Matching initiatives

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Gaurav Sabnis

Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @gauravsabnis

Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Nov 13
I know that's what they will come in wanting to do.

The nerdy historic govt wonk point I'm making is that Musk-Vivek will find even that privatization thing hard to pursue cos US govt has gotten that treatment for 40 years now!

Adults weighing 40 kg can't lose much weight!
The idea of cutting 2 trillion from the federal budget is just so shallow and poorly thought out!

You think that other smarter and more dedicated libertarians and fiscal conservatives wouldn't have done it already?

The bros forget how poor most Trump states are lol!
Every Republican administration with Congress majority comes in promising to make really huge cuts.

And they do make cuts.

But they realize that their red states get more from the federal government than they put in.

Tornado & hurricane country is all Trump country, remember
Read 6 tweets
Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Sep 6
True story of the only private coaching I took in school in Pune.

It was for 10th Boards English.

This story will lay out many systemic issues with the Indian one shot exam model.

I went to a school that had us read Macbeth in 8th & write about it!

My English was great!
At age 16, entering 10th standard, I was in fact extremely proficient at the English language. As well as all my friends who joined that coaching class with me.

Because scoring well in 10th Boards English had nothing to do with being good at English.

It was about exam hacking
I don't know how Maharashtra SSC English works now, but at least in my day, the state topper would get like 82 or something. They got 100 in math science but English, even crossing 70 was a big deal.

As as exam setter myself now, that makes no pedagogical sense. At all!
Read 17 tweets
Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Jul 18
Doing lecture prep for Fall & adding this new story in the product development strategy session. Thought it would make a nice 🧵

Did you know that a lot of calculators & music equipment we have is the result of cigarettes not having filters during world war 2?

Fun story! Image
Cigarettes back then came like this. A fully white paper tube filled with tobacco that you lit at one end and smoked from the other.

This inevitably meant that you "wasted" some tobacco at the mouth end while throwing it away.

Tadao Kashiyo in WW2 Japan saw an opportunity! Image
During WW2, cigarettes that mostly came from Allied countries became very expensive in Japan. Especially American & British brands which were sold at a premium on the black market.

Tadao Kashiyo was an engineer who was into fabrication. He created a new product that sold itself.
Read 10 tweets
Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Jul 4
One thing Rajnath Singh said in LS that stuck with me

"Such schemes are there even in US and they don't complain so why do you complain?"

That made me sit up.

What?

Surely someone would fact check this cos what is he even talking about?

US military agnipath?

So I checked.
There is NOTHING in US military remotely resembling Agnipath!

At the 18-22 age, the US military actually wants you to enlist for life if possible. And will happily keep you on for life if you serve honorably.

The short term stints are like Indian Short Service Commission.
So yeah, there exist options in the US military where you sign on for a short stint. And can be deployed. But they'll also send you to college for free.

My brother in law got an engineering degree from UC Riverside by enlisting in the Air Force for a few years. Then left.
Read 7 tweets
Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Feb 21
Very interesting conversation with a gujarati bodega owner nearby.

"I support Modi but something is wrong in gujarat. There are more gujaratis taking the risky border routes in the last 2 years than the 20 years before, from my observation. And they all say, no jobs in gujarat"
"Until recent years, gujaratis wanting to move either came through family visa or arranged marriage or student visa or at the most, overstay tourist visa. But risking life and limb like this in such big numbers? Modi needs to pay attention to gujarat. It's in trouble."
"the family that froze to death on the Canadian border. They didn't have a bad life in gujarat by any means. So why risk your entire existence? Something is wrong, brother, something is very wrong."
Read 6 tweets
Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Dec 20, 2023
"Wherever you go in this world, you will find a t̶e̶a̶ s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶ great school founded by a Malayalee."

K.T. Behanan was a brilliant Yale educated social scientist & Indian bureaucrat who landed in NYC with his doctor wife & 5 year old son.

Ran straight into systemic racism./1
The year was 1947 & Behanan, a Syrian Christian from Kerala's influential Kovoor clan was a 45 year old superstar in the Babu circles of the brand new India.

He accepted a position for India at the brand new UN, working on education policy with the Trustee Council.

Ironic.
He landed in a New York that was very different from now. "Separate but equal" was still the law.

Schools were openly & emphatically segregated. Brown v BoE was some years away.

By putting idealistic UN in Manhattan, America's mouth had written a check its ass couldn't cash.
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(