Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Bihar Flood Relief Visit Report Dec 16-19, 2008


Bihar Flood Relief Visit Report Dec 16-19, 2008

Priya Ranjan, Dharmendra Kumar, Sanjay Kumar
We started on 16th after noon from Patna towards flood relief zone.
Update from Beldaur 16th Dec 2008

We stopped overnight at Sanjay Kumar’s place in Khagaria to get a firsthand update of the flood relief in Beldaur block of Khagaria district. Many parts including Beldaur district has not been included in government’s flood relief zone for reason not known to us. Sanjayji stressed on the fact that help and solid support provided by United States groups gave him the confidence to lead the relief operation in a powerful fashion. His group was working with more than 100 people in 27 terribly affected villages for two months of intense relief support which very much continues even today. Now they are taking a much more structured approach which is required to do proper planning, accounting and reporting of all relief efforts along with relief material. His work has been broadly supported by Eureka Siksha Abhiyan, AID India, Ghadi Detergent Tikiya, Sarvapriya Khadi Gram Udyog. He was also able help the affected people in a very effective manner due to solid support provided by Goonj which made food packets available, provided both new and used clothing, and also arranged for blankets which was badly needed in the severe cold weather.
Some of the people who helped Sanjayji directly were Shailendra Kumar Verma, Vinay Kumar, Maheshwarji, Aamir Singh all from Beldaur.
Update from Alamnagar Block, Madhepura district 17th Dec 2008
Alamnagar is one of the worst affected areas in terms of damage, relief access due to terrible infrastructure and lower social, economical demographics. Even today it is not easy to reach there from district headquarter by vehicle because the road connecting the district and block headquarter is damaged in a terrible fashion. Due to this problem we had to travel from Khagaria to Alamnagar via zero mile Pirnagara which is a very circuitous route to reach Alamnagar facing 14 road cut-offs which are temporarily filled with swampy soil. Despite of all these efforts of two hours which was only eighteen kilometers we could only reach til Akha village and we had to return on the same evening without visiting Alamnagar block headquarter. We visited the whole village and particularly looked at Mushhar tola which was even more affected due to lack of political and social support mechanisms. Our local host Kamleshwari Sahu ji informed us that basic government promise of grain has NOT reached to this village.
It is important to note that local group of 200 young cyclists under the leadership of Kamaleshwariji transported basic goods for one thousand families in the same vicinity some 40 days ago when situation was terrible over there.
It is interesting to note that local shops are already functioning and people are transporting their basic goods using boats but local administration has not managed to muster its logistics to provide the basic government promised support. We observed that Mushhars are surviving on Khoobia (local variety of grass seed) and snails.
Relief Distribution in Akha Village
We witnessed relief getting distributed to 337 poorest Mushhar families. People were selected by local villagers themselves. Relief packet consisted of one carpet+one blanket+one sari+one sweater (all new)+two packs of biscuits+and some used pants and shirts.



Meeting in Shivnandan Mandal Law College Madhepura on 18th Dec 2008.
This meeting was chaired by Mr. Sanjay Kumar who is our local collaborator. Also present were Dharmendarjee, Shankarjee from Indus creative vision and Priya Ranjan from Maryland, USA.

 Shri Rajesh Kumar from Supaul addressing flood relief meeting. His heroic efforts have save many lives.


This meeting was organized to understand and learn from the ongoing relief efforts. More than 200 people participated in various capacities and basic idea was to invite one person from each village so that more than 187 villages from Supaul, Saharasa, Madhepura, and Khagaria districts where relief effort is being continued can be represented. Meeting was very well organized and multiple speakers one after the other spoke about their inspiring heroic efforts which saved multiple lives. They also described gut-wrenching scenes of how they saw their own colleagues sinking in the flood waters while trying to help out people. There were people from political families, students, lower caste people and various social, economic, political groups who agreed on the fact that this was one of the worst tragedies they have ever seen in their life and local people rose to the occasion and provided a great example of courage and support while outside support from different national and international groups only reinforced their belief in humanity. Various reasons for the dam breach were also discussed and accusations were made but major stress was on moving beyond the current problematic state and providing all possible help to some of the neediest people who were having tough time anyway.
Local poet Shri Dharmendra Verma described the pain of people in Kosi region in his usual powerful style of Maithili poetry “Kona ke tutalai sakhiya, Kushha ke baandh, kona ujarali sakhiya mulk jahan..” asked the most important question of how dam in Kushha was breached which essentially destroyed the world for many people in Kosi region. A “two-minute” nukkad natak piece performed by local group of Shri KK Rathore relived and reminded people of the pain, fear, and agony of people who are suffering dramatically under flood stress.
Role of media
It was also realized in this meeting that media in particular large national and international media houses have complete failed in their self assumed responsibility of becoming the fourth pillar of society. May be its supposedly inferior status of people of Bihar or lack of communication, media and transportation infra-structure, coverage of such a calamity in such proportion was minimal and often cursory. International media houses were certainly busy covering other stuff while people dying on daily basis in flood zone.
Government’s fuzzed figures
Meeting was also informed of various fuzzed figures by many different government agencies. According to our coordinator Rajeshji just in Supaul district 746 deaths were recorded by the administration while more than 26 thousand people died in the same area due to flood and related reasons. In 27 villages of 8 Panchayat’s of Beldaur Block (Beldaur block has 13 affcted Panchayats out of 16 Panchayats) which are not even listed in official flood zone and where our team has been working, more than 330 homes were complete and thoroughly washed out, 8 people were reported dead immediately and more than 25000 acres of land is underwater.
Some of the shared experience and testimonies are;
1. Shri Kamaleshwariji ( Alam Nagar)
· Witnessed many dead human bodies and cattles.
· Organized medical camp with the help of AID-India.
· Appreciated relief work, since it reached to many people including some of the poorest communities like Mushhars in an organized and peaceful manner.

2. Enthusiastic voluneteers like Nitish Kumar from Saharsa, AID volunteer Suneel who heads Madhepura office, Chandrasekar (who runs his own group in Saharsa), Anil Varma (Saharsa) who are with the people on field for past four months also shared and expressed their feelings. These volunteers had sense of satisfaction during their service to some of the most unfortunate victims of flood. In fact, they form strong base of volunteers who can work tirelessly at the grass roots and they have managed to get a lot of things done.

3. Jagat Yadav (Kumarkhand)
Witnessed many dead bodies been floating during flood.
Expressed heartfelt thanks to AID-India, because it was the only organization which reached with relief materials and conducted medical camp in their village before the government.
Demand: He kept a big demands during this meeting to construct a big community hall in their village so that in future people can take shelter during such disaster.

4. Dharmender (Poet)
He expressed his deep poetic feelings for the sufferings of people in flood zone and also blamed the administration in his poetic style.

5. Pavan Kumar (Madhepura district coordinator- AID-Bihar)
Expressed his grief on the disaster and continued his talk with emotion.
Overwhelmed with anger on state government relief work condemned government for announcing this flood as natural disaster rather accepting it as man made disaster and failure of his administration in Bihar.
Made appeal to participant to know the reality and fight back for their rights.
Expressed his interest to work with AID-India in long run especially to enlighten people towards education.

6. Raman (Murliganj, Madhepura)
A senior citizen and social activist helped AID-India in distributing relief material in their village.
Expressed heartfelt thanks to AID-India for providing blankets to victims of their village timely where no one has done much relief work especially for winter.
Interested to work with AID-India for children and youth with regard to education.

7. Akshudev (Madhepura, Kranti Club)
A young person hailing from Madhepura came forward to share his house to use as store house and office for relief work at Madhepura district.

8. Seema (Madhepura)
A girl belonging to Madhepura district talked about her experience of how her family members helped out in relief action.

9. Dr. Shivkanth (Pratapganj, Supaul)
Very much satisfied to work in medical camp organized by Aid-India.

10. Priya Ranjan (Maryland, US)
Priya Ranjan talked about responsibilities of scientific and technical communities in informing people about such calamities before they happen and putting alarms in right places so that lives and livelihoods can be saved. He also talked about such human calamities in the context of India declaring itself economic and IT superpower when some of its most vulnerable citizens are suffering under severe financial distress.
As a whole meeting was a huge success, 200 people came to show their gratitude to AID-India. This essentially puts more responsibility and raised expectations on AID India, Goonj, Paratham and supporting corporate groups to serve the people it claims to work for.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Meeting with flood zone heroes in Madhepura 0n 18th Dec 2008

Meeting with flood victims
Activist meet
Date: 18/12/08
Venue: Law College, Madhepura
Time: 11:30am to 4pm
Total no. of participant: 200+

Meeting was chaired by Mr.Sanjay Kumar who is our local collaborator in Khagaria. Also present were Dharmendarjee, Shankarjee from Indus creative vision and Priya Ranjan from USA.



Rajesh Kumar from Supaul addressing flood relief meeting. His heroic efforts have save many lives.

This meeting was organized to discuss the feedback on north Bihar flood relief work led by Dharmendarjee and his collaborators. People from Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa, Khagaria districts participated in this meeting in large numbers due to active local support.

This meeting was organized after exactly 4 months from the day the Kosi breached in Bihar, i.e., on 18/8/08.

The meeting started with inspiring poem in Maithili language by Shree Dharmendra Verma (who is a well known poet in Madhepura). People came forward to share their experience and give testimony on flood relief action and joint efforts of AID-India, Indus creative vision, Goonj etc.

Some of the shared experience and testimonies are;

1. Shri Kamaleshwari ( Alam Nagar)
• Witnessed many dead human bodies and cattles.
• Organized medical camp with the help of AID-India.
• Appreciated relief work, since it reached to many people including some of the poorest communities like Mushhars in an organized and peaceful manner.

2. Enthusiastic voluneteers like Nitish Kumar from Saharsa, AID volunteer Suneel who heads Madhepura office, Chandrasekar (who runs his own group in Saharsa), Anil Varma (Saharsa) who are with the people on field for past four months also shared and expressed their feelings. These volunteers had sense of satisfaction during their service to some of the most unfortunate victims of flood. In fact, they form strong base of volunteers who can work tirelessly at the grass roots and they have managed to get a lot of things done.

3. Jagat Yadav (Kumarkhand)
• Witnessed many dead bodies been floating during flood.
• Expressed heartfelt thanks to AID-India, because it was the only organization which reached with relief materials and conducted medical camp in their village before the government.
• Demand: He kept a big demands during this meeting to construct a big community hall in their village so that in future people can take shelter during such disaster.

4. Dharmender (Poet)
He expressed his deep poetic feelings for the sufferings of people in flood zone and also blamed the administration in his poetic style.

5. Pavan Kumar (Madhepura district coordinator- AID-Bihar)
• Expressed his grief on the disaster and continued his talk with emotion.
• Overwhelmed with anger on state government relief work condemned government for announcing this flood as natural disaster rather accepting it as man made disaster and failure of his administration in Bihar.
• Made appeal to participant to know the reality and fight back for their rights.
• Expressed his interest to work with AID-India in long run especially to enlighten people towards education.

6. Raman (Murliganj, Madhepura)
• A senior citizen and social activist helped AID-India in distributing relief material in their village.
• Expressed heartfelt thanks to AID-India for providing blankets to victims of their village timely where no one has done much relief work especially for winter.
• Interested to work with AID-India for children and youth with regard to education.

7. Akshudev (Madhepura, Kranti Club)
• A young person hailing from Madhepura came forward to share his house to use as store house and office for relief work at Madhepura district.

8. Seema (Madhepura)
• A girl belonging to Madhepura district talked about her experience of how her family members helped out in relief action.

9. Dr. Shivkanth (Pratapganj, Supaul)
• Very much satisfied to work in medical camp organized by Aid-India.

10. Priya Ranjan (AID - US)
Priya Ranjan talked about responsibilities of scientific and technical communities in informing people about such calamities before they happen and putting alarms in right places so that lives and livelihoods can be saved. He also talked about such human calamities in the context of India declaring itself economic and IT superpower when some of its most vulnerable citizens are suffering under severe financial distress.


As a whole meeting was a huge success, 200 people came to show their gratitude to AID-India. This essentially puts more responsibility and raised expectations on AID India to serve the people it claims to work for.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Accounting update from Vivek Bhai from India.

Respected Friend,

By chance i was visiting blogs of AID on Flood-2008 at http://love4bihar.blogspot.com/.

After seeing recent posts on it. I thought i should provide information on Rs 4,00,000 of AID.

In our organization, till now we do not pay salary or honourarium type financial supports to our team members thus we do not pay these also on Flood Relief works.
Till now, we do not have paid volunteers in our team.

Our team used my personal family money, my personal friends' money and local contributions (including team members and community) for transport, travel, accommodation, food, communication and other running expenses.

approximate estimate of expenditures of about Rs 4,00,000 are given below

CHOORAA- Rs. 1,53,180 (10480 Kg) (rate- 14/14.50/15/17 Rs per Kg)

GUD- Rs. 47,900 (2500 Kg) (rate- 18/19/20/22 Rs per Kg)

MOORI- Rs. 6000 (300 Kg) (rate- 20 Rs per Kg)

MOMBATTI- Rs. 33450 (4000 packets) (rate- 8/9.50 Rs per packet)

MATCH BOX- Rs. 3300 (80 Kg, rate- 16/16.50 Rs per Kg) (2000 units, rate- Rs 0.40/ unit) (300 packets, rate- Rs 4/ packet)

GRAM-
Rs. 5600 (200 Kg) (rate- 28 Rs per Kg)

Biscuits- Rs. 21600 (7200 packets) (rate- Rs 3 per packets)

SAAREE-
Rs. 33760 (240 units) (rate- 118/125/140/150/155 Rs per unit)

DHOOTEE-
Rs. 24325 (275 units) (rate- 75/80/100/125 Rs per unit)

CHAADAR-
Rs. 14600 (170 units) (rate- 80/90 Rs per unit)

BALTEE-
Rs. 18000 (300 units) (rate- 60 Rs per unit)

MUG-
Rs. 4500 (300 units) (rate- 15 Rs per unit)

THALEE-
Rs. 12000 (300 units) (rate- 40 Rs per unit)

KATORAA-
Rs. 4500 (300 units) (rate- 15 Rs per unit)

GLASS-
Rs. 4500 (300 units) (rate- 15 Rs per unit)

KNIFE-
Rs. 3740 (300 units) (rate- 10/15/16 Rs per unit)

SALT-
Rs. 1500 (300 packets) (rate- 5 Rs per packet)

TOTAL-
Rs. 3,99,705

Approximate estimate of expenditure for Transportation for above Relief i.e.- Tractor Rent, Labour Charges, Minimum rent for Boats (Fuel, Payments for drivers/ helpers and nominal rent for boat).

Tractor and small vehicle transport Charges- Rs. 45000 (17 Trips)
Labour Charges- Rs. 12000
Boat Rents (including fuel)- Rs. 21000 (5 Trips)
Boat Drivers- Rs. 5000
Food expenses for Labourers- Rs. 5000
Food expenses for Volunteers- Rs. 10000
Miscellaneous- Rs. 5000

TOTAL-
Rs. 1,03,000
These expenses were arranged by personal family money of Vivek Umrao, personal money of friends/ volunteers and public contributions.

GRAND TOTAL-
Rs. 5,02,705

Scan copy of Audit Report will be sent later. I hope up to end of December 2008, we will be able to send Audit Report and report on overall expenses in Flood by all sources.

Thanks,
love,
vivek

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Latest on medical relief

flood1

Bitter cold makes life in flood affected regions impossible.


We have conducted meeting on 25/11/08 at our base camp office Saharsa in which 2-3 key persons maheshwar and aamir from beldaur (Khagariya), Chandra shekhar, anil verma, Nitish from Saharsa, pawan, pintu from madhepura and rajesh and Bhola from supaul attend from all 4 dist. Pintu, prakash, prabhat, and vikash from our aid team and all 3 members of coordination group Sanjay, Shankar and myself were in this meeting.  We have consolidated data of our work and final figure was more than our imagination. We have expected less bcz it was scattered.

Data at a glance

Medical camps

Duration

District

Total Camps

Total Patients

22 – 19 Nov,08

Madhupura

163

6604

5 - 28 Sep,08

Saharsa

27

4662

21 – 22 Sep,08

Supaul

2

828

 

Total

192

12094

 

Relief distribution among families

4 september – 19 November

District

Block

Total Villages

Total Families

Khagaria

Beldaur

26

7589

Saharsa

Saur Bazar

18

2762

 

Pattarghat

12

2267

 

SonBarsa Raj

2

239

Supaul

Triveniganj

28

10027

 

Chhatapur

6

499

 

Prtapganj

3

70

 

Basantpur

5

105

 

Pipra

1

67

Madhepura

Madhepura

8

1724

 

Murliganj

5

1124

 

Kumarkhand

4

1026

 

Alamnagar

5

1032

 

Gwalpada

3

828

 

Shankarpur

3

765

 

Total

129

31024

 

It was happened due to your moral, technical and monitory support and our team’s efforts, dedication and commitment. It is continue also and at last December,08 we shall give you a new picture of our situation  bcz this month a big group from chennai is coming to me. Dr. urvi and priya are also coming here. Meanwhile a lot of our friends from aid india and outside also have come here and they gave a lot of supports in different kind. Balji sampath (Our secretary), Selva, Rachit, Sonia, Nikhil, Nikunj (aid delhi), Oliver, kotishwaran (Aid TN), Maharana (Aid Orissa), sanjeev, rajesh narayan, vivek Prasad, Greg bentoly (all from Delhi), Dr. sai laxmi from soija, Chennai, a taem of lions club Chennai in which Dr. Dr. R. Subramaniya Bharathiyar, Dr. Ram Babbu, Dr. Arul Kumar, Dr. Gopalakrishnan, Dr. K. C. Ramalingam, Dr. Guna Nithi, J. Rajakumar, N. Suresh kumar, M. Bakiayaraj, K. Velu are member, a team from American School of Bombay in which Matt Duffy, Russell Bell, Lisa Alsch are members are came here from out of our state. Within state Sanjay kumar state coordinator, Pratham, Arvind kumar from Pratham, Manish kumar from Pratham, sanjeev from Pratham, a team of Sunai group, a jambo jet group of Pratham are with us from beginning and support each other. Mr. Anshu gupta and reena from Goonj were in our deep association. They support a lot at different kinds. This data is result of them.

As you know I have come here alone first with only my 2 friend from Patna. Whole planning is based on this friend circle team and now we have a network from dist to tola where we have done some work. We are proud of our team bcz we have some specialties. So we can go village without any problem. First time when material distribution was being snatched somewhere, that time we are going to villages by boat without fear and people keep us on their own hands. When reports are coming from somewhere that used cloths are not excepted by people and supaul administration gave direction not to distribute used cloths,  at that time we are distributing worst cloths also and people are accepted it bcz it is need of remote villages and few people want to go there.

In this time so many events also happened. So many boat accidents happened. Our team leader of Supaul Rajesh also accident one time and he saved himself by swimming. People carry their motorcycle by boat also. I saw some accident in which motorcycle also submerged in water. Some relatives of our activists are dead also by submerging in water.

I have visited villages a lot. I have seen situation from kusaha to beldaur. In the way different parts of supaul, madhepura and saharsa have been visited by me also. It is impossible to describe all things that I have feel personally. I feel, each person is a separate story in himself and each village is separate history in itself.

We got deep affection, regards and honor from villagers and public. But we feel some pain full experiences also.

  • Some group understand beggar to people and behave like this.
  • Somebody understand beggar to us also and he supplies me materials as their attitude.
  • I saw a lot of cheating, corruption and inhuman behavior with sufferer people.
  • Some groups want to robber dignity and self honor of sufferer people.
  • Some people can play politics on dead body.

But this scale is less. I saw a chain of people who are in queue to support sufferers with full humanity, emotion, sentiment and honor. This scale is very high.

In last we are compelled to praise of patience and daring of sufferer people. Their house is cutting by water and he is viewing by standing on the bank of this cutting. Everything is snatching and he is mute. More than lacks people are killed in this occurrence and nobody is asking who is responsible for this event. Nature? Leader? Officers? Public? ……………………………………………….

Our some friends who returned from here are doing a lot. Oliver, selva, rachit, Sonia are helping our team in different manner. Matt, Russel and lissa from ASB are also doing better efforts for here. Apoorva from delhi is also supporting heartly. Our friends from US are in my touch directly and they are standing near us in this sorrow time. Priya Ranjan -team, Nirveek, Aisa, Avnit, from Seattle team, Rashmi etc (sorry friends, it is difficult to recognize all friend from here. Plz donot mind) are in regular contact. Dr Mohan Bhagat is also blessing me regularly.

Rajeev Ranjan from Hong Kong (Priya Ranjan’s friend) also supported and Bhawna from Australia always ask our Hal- Chal. Aruna Rodrigues from chhatisgarh also supported us ( Priya Ranjan’s initiation).

Now we are working on some issues like

  • Winter kits distribution specially blankets
  • Medical camps
  • General cloths distribution
  • Some needy household kits according to most demand
  • Coordination with some groups
  • Helping some groups who are coming here with their own objective
  • Children food materials like biscuit and milk powder distribution

We needed something also

  • 1-2 skilled people who can document our efforts. Oliver has done a lot and we are trying our best here also.
  • Other sector skilled persons.
  • Materials for needy person.
  • Fund support

For fund support and managements and technical questions, it will be better to talk with Balaji directly.

In our last meeting, we are thinking to work on 2 more things

  • Rickshaw distribution : we are identifying 15 blocks and thinking if any group supports us, we can distribute 3-4 Hand rickshaw or thela (luggage carrier rickshaw) to each block. It means in first phase 45-60 rickshaws to 60 people for their employment.  Cost of each rickshaw may be Rs. 5000/-. So Money required Rs 225000/- to 300000/- (3 lacks + 25-30 thousands for coordination, carriage and misc exp). So if you are agree with me and want to support for this, you can support.
  • We are thinking to work on solar distribution also. But we have not exercised now. But we can initiate this.

It is also demanding from ground to work on educational activities in this area.

So plz think and reply me and our team.

With Warm Regards

Dharmendra 

 

Friday, November 28, 2008

Statistical reports from Bihar Flood Relief


dear friends
i am sending 3 data that reflects our relief efforts.
our work is in progress but i faced very difficulty to send report regularly due to network and electricity problems. from last two days i want to write some more report and article but i am so many problems.
  • actually yesterday our four vehicle has accident. now it is ok.
  • my laptop didnot open. i donot know why? today i send it begusaray for repair
  • an activists niranjan of Arwal and he is working at Madhepura has badly cold effected and his body became swelled. now he is ok
  • Our 2 activists Prakash and Prabhat (both from dehari and working with us in fllod area) are going to their home permanantly. they are good worker and our strength became less.
now we have rush of our prog. winter kits distribution is going on in villages. meeting in villages is also continue.
some vist prog is as below:
 
  • 1-6 dec Dr. urvi from US is camping in some medical camps at saharsa, madhepura and supaul.
  • 1-8 dec 27 IIT students from chennai is coming with school and village activities for above 3 dists.
  • 16-22 dec Priya ranjan from US is visiting these area.
  • Jan first week some high school students from mumbai are coming to visit these areas.
cold in this area is very high. just imagine how people are living in villages. i live in rooms at dist headquaters.
rest later
with thanks
dharmendra
 Data at a glance

 

Medical camps

Duration

District

Total Camps

Total Patients

22 – 19 Nov,08

Madhupura

163

6604

5 - 28 Sep,08

Saharsa

27

4662

21 – 22 Sep,08

Supaul

2

828

 

 

Total

12094

 

Relief distribution among families

4 september – 19 November

District

Block

Total Villages

Total Families

Khagaria

Beldaur

26

7589

Saharsa

Saur Bazar

18

2762

 

Pattarghat

12

2267

 

SonBarsa Raj

2

239

Supaul

Triveniganj

28

10027

 

Chhatapur

6

499

 

Prtapganj

3

70

 

Basantpur

5

105

 

Pipra

1

67

Madhepura

Madhepura

8

1724

 

Murliganj

5

1124

 

Kumarkhand

4

1026

 

Alamnagar

5

1032

 

Gwalpada

3

828

 

Shankarpur

3

765

 

 

Total

31024