Thanks to the help and support of community volunteers in Timmins, many international students from India were able to get through the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many events organized by the India-Canada Association, which includes up to 1,000 members from communities like Timmins, Hearst, Cochrane and Haileybury, had to be cancelled.
Association president Raj Mohanty said the annual Holi Festival, organized in partnership with the Northern College, was cancelled in March, while the Indian Independence Day, celebrated on Aug. 15, is likely to be called off as well. It’s also unknown yet whether the Diwali festival, typically celebrated in the fall, will be held at all.
“It’s disappointing for everyone, especially for the students. This was the only avenue to celebrate something and get together and celebrate the culture, the food,” Mohanty said noting for local people it was also a chance to see and experience a different culture.
“That’s something very hard for people to accept, especially in a small community like Timmins where the number of events like these is limited.”
When the pandemic started in March, some international students, working in the food service industry, lost their jobs. At Food Basics, there were no Indian grocery items available but many Indian students who are vegetarians rely on those products, Mohanty said.
“People were just scared because they didn’t know what to do with the lockdown and everything closing. From mid-March to early April, there was panic everywhere. People were depressed, it was very difficult," he said.
Together with his wife Liliana Mohanty, Northern College student Jigar Patel and other community volunteers, Mohanty spearheaded a few initiatives to help about 50 students and their family members.
Volunteers organized the delivery of Indian groceries from Toronto to Timmins. They also put the students and families in touch with Indian doctors in the community and got an insurance expert from Toronto to deal with student health insurance matters.
In addition, they also provided mental health counselling for those feeling stranded and worked with the Indian Embassy and the Consulate General of India to deal with expatriate-related issues.
Volunteers also partnered with local food banks and restaurants and food stores which provided food supplies to international students and other people during the first weeks of the pandemic.
“They’re far away from home. They miss their family and this is a very hard thing to believe in if this coronavirus is going to kill them or not. They’re living in fear,” Patel said. “But living in the community we can give them hope.”
Living through the pandemic added a whole new experience to international students, and Mohanty looks at the situation from a brighter side.
“I tell them (students), 'Living through those months added very extremely valuable life experience to your resume'. If you take it that way, there’s a positive learning experience,” he said.
“Yes, there were depressions. Yes, there were depressing times, that’s always there. But you have overcome it already in these two months.”
Patel, who finished the first year of the business-general program at Northern College this spring, said his summer plans to visit Niagara and meet up with his friends had to be cancelled. He said he didn’t have any issues attending lectures online as some of his courses were already offered virtually before the pandemic started and stayed in a constant touch with his family who lives back in India.
He praised the federal government for providing EI and CERB to international students and said Timmins' condition is better compared to bigger municipalities in the southern part of the province as the chances of getting exposed to the virus in the north are lower.
“In Timmins, it’s not that bad … Right now, I’m feeling very lucky,” he said.
