Meet Subhashani

Even before COVID-19 began to ravage the nation of India, Subhashani’s life was extremely difficult. Her husband had abandoned her when she was pregnant and she had no choice but to return to her parents for help. As a divorced woman she was now taunted and ostracized by the entire community, but things were about to get much worse.

The pandemic caused an immediate shutdown of the Indian economy and Subhashani’s family became jobless overnight. It wasn’t long before they had used up all of their meagre savings and all of their food was gone.

After going days without food, Subhashani became so malnourished that she miscarried, leaving her without a desire to live. Unable to pay their rent, the family started to walk the hundreds of miles back to their home village, but they had to turn back when they were beaten by police for defying the shelter-in-place regulations.

When our feeding team encountered Subhashani, she and her family had lost all hope and told them that they were on the verge of committing suicide. Her younger brother was suffering from a fever and there was no money for medicine. Our partners were there to offer food, but were shocked and heartbroken to hear the father ask, “If you could give us some money we could at least buy poison and die.”

Determined to demonstrate the goodness of God, our partners immediately intervened. Subhashani’s brother received medical attention and the medicine he needed to make a full recovery. They helped her mother find work as a house cleaner so that there was a basic income for the family.

Since then, our sewing school has been able to open up within the government’s pandemic guidelines. Now Subhashani is studying to become a tailor! Upon graduation she will be able to start her own small business out of her home, helping to provide for her family.

During the pandemic, Impact Nations sponsored feeding programs in eight different nations, providing over one million meals to people just like Subhashani. While saving countless lives, our partners have delivered hope to the hopeless. As one recipient said, “When we see food, we see God.”