Status Update - September 8th

Status Update - September 08th.

This update is based upon the telephonic conversation between Dharmendraji and Nishank.

While giving the update, Dharmendraji was on the move on National Highway 107. The area is still flooded with water, with all 4 wheels of his vehicle submerged in water, and a boat was passing nearby.

Few of the key points:

-- He hasn't been able to send a report on Madhepura yet, but would be doing that soon. Madhepura was all covered with water, and now slowly the water has started receding which has made it more accessible to make it possible to begin relief work . There is a camp of about 400 people and the relief material has reached there. There are also Govt. camps in Singheswar and Madhepura area.

-- They are sending the food material through boats to different panchayats. There have been few instances where the people there have tried to loot the relief material. However, they have not faced any such situation so far. In the areas, where they are distributing the relief material on their own, they are first taking the local people into confidence to ensure smooth operations. They are trying to ensure that the most needy people get the help first!

-- They are running 2 mobile hospitals in Saharsa. One mobile hospital returned from the Kahra Block in Saharsa. A lot of medical relief is needed there on an urgent basis. There are currently no doctors to run the medical camp as the doctors have been sent to other places. There is an urgent need for doctors to help in the medical relief there.

-- They also had a meeting with their partner PRATHAM yesterday and they are coming up with a new strategy. The main center for coordination would be in Patna. AID would be having camp center in Saharsa which would cover the regions Saharsa, Madhepura, Supaul and Khagaria. The team from PRATHAM would be having a center in Purnea and they would be covering the regions Purnea, Kathiar and Araria.

-- From their old team of 4 people, 3 have returned back to Patna to handle the relief supplies coming from different places and to coordinate from there. At the same time, 10 new people have been added to the field team who would be involved in the relief work on the ground. These volunteers are from the Eureka/Sambhav team.


-- Dharmendra also said that, for the time being they have sufficient food supplies and now they would be spending more time in educating the people in the camps to be more self sufficient. This would involve interacting with them, teaching them how to run the camp on their own, including making food and distributing to others, about health and hygeine etc.

-- They would be establishing a center in Saharsa soon. They have got the place for it and the work would be starting soon.

More updates would be coming soon.

Thanks and regards,
Nishank
onlynishank@gmail.com