Update from Dharmendrajee

Dear friends

13 oct ki rat Bhawana (U S) ne phone kiya aur puchha ki aab sab kuchh normal hai na? mai pareshan ho gaya bcz ye bat sunane me aata tha ki is disaster ki situation ke bare me bahar me logo ko pata nahi chal raha hai. Bhawana se bat karane par mujhe saf ho gaya. Meri pida badh gayi.

Afsos ki yaha ki situation mai directly nahi likh pa raha tha.. Saharsa me cyber 2 hai aur network and power problem jyada hai. Mera laptop corrupt ho gaya tha. Iss bat ka andaja isi se laga sakte hai ki oliver (Chennai) mere pas karib one month se hai. Suru me unhone data and report update karane ki koshish ki. Vivek presad (delhi) ne ek system develop kiya, par last 18 days se kuchh bhi kam aage nahi badha. Bcz laptop corrupt and there was no other way. Wo laptop selba delhi le gaye hai repair ke liye aur kal oliver patna se dusara laptop purchase karke laye hai. ( laptop repair ki kahani selba se janiye, bas 5 minute ka kam hai. Ham to 5 mahine se pareshan the. Greg, oliver, selba,Nikhil,rachit sabka yogdan hai).

Oliver ne bahut mehnat karke ek report taiyar kiya jisme our activities and situation ke bare me bahut kuchh tha. Use bhejane me yaha pareshani hui aur ultimately 30 sept ko 4 part me report and 4 part me annexure (as attachments) priya ranjan and balaji ko bheja. 3 oct ko balaji ke nam again forward kiya gaya. Par ab tak web par update nahi ho saka. Aaj maine mail khola to dekha. Ki balaji ke report ke bad koi update nahi hai. Priya ranjan bole ki in sabko ek page par karke bhej dijiye, par yaha yah sambhav nahi hai. Us jaisa hi tech nahi hai nay yaha. aur Chennai aur us me aap logo ke liye yah kam aasan hai.

Iss bich rajesh narayan (UK), vivek Prasad (Delhi), greg (Delhi), sanjiv (Delhi) ka visit hua. Par inka report nahi dikha. Abhi 4 din pahale Sonia, selba, rachit, Nikhil visit kar wapas gaye hai. Unka report shayad jald aayega bcz wo phone par contact me hai.

SITUATION

It was not disaster as earthquake or tsunami. It was not as flood too. It is different and you can give another name like mahakaal or mahapralay of water. That is different thing that it was natural disaster or manmade. We shall see it later. But this time it is like a giant who is eating a lot of groups of people. Try to understand that if is was flood then water spread out Side River and gradually it came back into river. But this disaster due to break of baandh came in a different manner. So it built a new path that is not like even a new river but like a sea situation too. And it is flowing continuously. So you can understand flood has come and not gone but it is growing and becoming young somewhere too. Where water has less it is difficult to reach there bcz there is no transportation except boat and it is even difficult to boat due to less water. And it is also difficult to walk on foot due to muddy soil. Where there is dry soil people are returning back and raod is constructing very rapidly. People are returning their home. We have visited so many villages. Its ok they are returning. But it is not fact absolutely. Their home are near to destroy. Hamne ghar dekha jo bahar se bahut achha laga par pichhali diwar khisak gayi hai aur kabhi bhi gir sakata hai. Ground floor ki mitti dhas (niche baith) gayi hai. Floor me kai hole hai jisme se snake rah rahe hai. so people are in their home but they are not sleeping in their houses. They are living on the bank of canal and road. You can imagine that they feel safe in open field (ghar se bahar) and they feel risk in their own home. They are living in their home in day and they live out side their own home at night. It is compulsion to live in their home bcz there are preparing family list by govt and if they will not in their home they may suffer. You can imagine they are in open field and cold started. People who are living in their home there is also damp floor and they are habitual to sleep on ground floor bcz there is no way for them. So we are afraid that jo disaster me bach gaye wo cold se na mar jaye. From starting disease is a main problem like second disaster. Drinking water is polluted and you can imagine its impact. Epidemic sarted from beginning and people are dying like insects. Sonia and Nikhil can present it better bcz they have seen live cast. Greg also saw it. I am not daring to write it. bcz I am very weak from my heart.

Govt are proving 100 kg grain like 50 kg rice and 50 kg wheat and rs. 2250/- it is very good step. But there are so many problems in this. Firstly list is not very transparent and it is not covering all families.. Secondly there is also a lot of chances of corruption but it is not recorded. When I talk to people they argued me not to raise this issue. (very complex situation). Thirdly people are compelled to come on road after travelling 6-7 km too by boat or foot to receive relief. Bcz govt are distributing on road side. People are in debt so they are selling their grain. They feel difficulties also to carry this. It is not general scenario but it is not less situation. So some people are coming to receive relief and they returned with Rs. 3000/- (selling grain at rs.800/-). I don’t know govt plan regarding winter kits. They are not started rehabilitation prog properly.

So many ngos and political parties were working but most of them have gone. Some ngos are working exceptionally. Some are working on human rights also. Parivantan is also working on this issue and our somu and swati are also working with them. (They are at delhi this time and you can know briefly to talk them directly). We are here working with goonj for relief work.

Our efforts

I donot know what has we done. A friends asked me, aapne kitne ka relief diya. He ased me about relief regarding money. I have not finalized our accounts. But on the basis of day to day exp and materials purchasing, I think that lagbhag 7 lack ka material purchase kiya hoga aur goonj and dusare source se bhi liya hai so 10 lack ke karib hoga. Then I ased to my friend sanjay who is working with me from beginning, dost maine kuchh jyada to nahi bol diya. Sanjay think for a sometime and he laughed loudly. He told me hamne 40 lack ka relief logo ko diya hai. Ab mai hasa. Kyo neta jaisa bolte ho? He hold pen and write our distribution record through our memory and we surprised that we in fact gave relief of rs. 33 lacks ( ye anuman hai aur sirf memory se hai)ka with our coordination. Actually it will reach to 40 lacks bcz he had not include medicines and other items. There are so many things that cannot be calculated as money. We cannot calculate value of used cloths.

I am not saying full expances. I am telling only materials cost. Can we calculate efforts of human power like volunteers, doctors and other persons as money. People are helping in so many ways. When we started our base came, pratham team, sunai team, our team, our people from out side are living together in 3 rooms flat and at a time we 48 persons sleep here. Our house lord gave support. It is also a great support for us specially that time when there was no any place to live people at Saharsa.

One guy ased me, aap kitne village tak pahuche? Maine jhat bola karib 28 villages. But when I was taking a review meeting at beldaur blok yesterday, then they told our reach out at this block only is 23 villages.. I have given relief to 23 villages/tolas in one block. And we have worked in saur, pattargat, triveniganj, pratpganj blocks also. We have worked in madhepra dist HQ also. So I am especting that our reach out is more than 60 villages. (I shall send these in another mail after 2 days. Bcz in 2 days I shall work with oliver and collect all datas and record them properly).

One asked how many volunteers are working there. It is very difficult to say. In the definition of AID volunteer means different thing than we use here. Actually 10-12 people from eureka team are working here continuously. Some members of our team have returned to Arwal and Dehari and they are doing eureka activities there. So they are working here in two shifts. One at here and one at their dists. But we believe to work with local people. So in all 5 blocks there are a team of 10-15 people who are working directly and indirectly but actively. With the help of these teams we identified 2-3 persons in villages where we are going and working. So a series of volunteers are working here and we cannot say whose role is less and whose important. As you know when we decide to send relief to a village, first we go to that village and organize a meeting. In meeting we finalize the families accordingly to our sources and then identify 5 volunteers for pocketing food materials or sorting cloths etc. they come on schedule and do work, then with the help of them we send materials and they distribute among villagers according to list in the presence of our team or providers.

At this time we have bind up our first phase. It means we are not concentrated more to provide food materials. Now we are concentrating on cloths. We have started distribution of used cloths. And we are exploring for warm cloths, after that we shall plan for something new. We shall also start educational activities in coming 3-4 weeks. We are planning to provide occupational tools also with the help of goonj.

Greg has come here and he is working on solar project. So we can also think about solar distribution.

2 days before we had a meeting at madhepura. Situation is more better and people are reaching at HQ. one person has come from alamnagar block after crossing 7 cuts and use 7 boats. But ultimately he reached. So we have taken a contact office there also. Now we shall concentrate at madhepura also. As you know madhepura is also most effected dist and its 11 blocks are affected. Dist HQ is also cut off from all links. We have supported there for khichari, chura and others. (see previous report). We just started medical camps here with the help of local RMPs. They will organize their medical camps in their villages and nearer villages. We shall support them medicines. We have made a mechanism for distributing cloths for villages of madhepura also.

In this context people need endless support here. So who asks me that what kind of support I can do, I replied to him if possible come here, see the situation, decide yourself and give help. Otherwise you can help anything according to your interest. Scale and quantity is not barrier.

We need here

Volunteers (skilled and non skilled)

Doctors

Media man

Water purification tablets

Medicines (List is on another mail)

Cloths (Keep in mind for Indian women and children also)

Warm cloths (sweater, shirts, trousers etc.)

Blankets

Carpet

Flex (thick tarpaulin)

Milk powder

Money

Anything who can use a human being like utensils, sleepers etc.

But mind it before supporting, they are also a man. They are sufferer not begger. (begger is not appropriate word bcz they are also citizen of our country but I am using this word for understanding in different manner)

Lastly I argued that if possible before dispatching materials plz contact at my phone, so that I can give you better option.

For details you can directly talk to Balaji, Priya Ranjan, and selba.

Lastly I am complaining to bhawana who provoke me to write this mail and she commited me to send mail to balaji and copied to me but I did not got. Also complain to Abhishek bhai who was talking to me and gave updates regularly to blog but he stopped. But this is friendly complained. Don’t take it otherwise.

Selba, I am giving reminder what has gave commitments to me. Oliver’ report, rajesh narayan report, greg’s report, Sonia, rachit and nikhil’ reports, your report and vivek’s report have to load on flood blogs.

Sorry, I am not attaching photos. Bcz my all thousands photos are with selba this time with my laptop.

Mere dosto ne bataya ki gmail me ID create kar lijiye to talk bhi kar sakate hai. Rachit ne mera Id create bhi kar diya hai. So ham gmail par bhi available hai. My ID is dharmendrakumar.aid@gmail.com

With thanks

Dharmendra