Report from Nikunj from AID-Delhi

BIHAR RELIEF WORK REPORT TILL 20 ,OCT,2008

Written on 20 oct 2008

***************Pictures may be missing due to technical reasons***********

This is my first day in saharsa district of bihar. This place is changed in offices of NGOs working for flood relief work . The day I reached sahrsa station I saw lots of banners here and there signaling towards there relief work. Flood affected zone starts towards east of saharsa. There are four districts affected by flood here where our work is going on.

Aprox. Lakhs of people are affected and according to local people they tell that nearby lacks are dead too.

Ok lets get back to the details of my first day. I am putting it in order according to my understanding of situation and surrounding. In night I told Dharmendra Ji that I really I want to do real work and I don’t have any problem with inner visit. Well this was the day 18 oct 2008 when I reached here in AID India office around 2:30 pm and met dharmendra ji.

When I reached here I was quite desperate to meet dharmendra ji because I have already heard allot about dharmendra ji and his work in eureka. And after his huge effort in bihar flood relief work it was some urgency in me willing to meet him. I found that dharmendra ji was of same image what I had thought. Like a nobel person with such a calm face and smile.

Well I greeted him and entered in AID India ’s office in bihar for relief work. He asked me if I want to have bath or want to go for some work. Well talking frankly to you guys I wasn’t feeling fresh due to not having bath from last one day. I had my bath and left for AID’s store house of clothes. This was my first day. I went inside cloth store and saw lots of pople separating clothes and discussing things. This day I just talked to AID volunteers from patna and local volunteers engaged from last one month in relief work. They all were really good than me about their knowledge of flood situation. Talking to them really gave me better picture of situation. They told me that the place where this flood has devastated everything is not flood affected zone actually and these people are seeing such thing first time in their life. They told that almost everyone has lost one or more member of their family.

19,0CT,2008

i waked up early than my usual time in city. I don’t know why but my biological clock becomes accurate in villages and in my home town , I do every thing on time. Some time I wish if we could have balance of life in cities between nature and development. I did morning routines and sat next to dharmendraji. He is seriously different person till this time I have understood that how much dharmendra jij is dealing with. He is managing every thing here and such a big drive of relief work perfectly.

Well today we had planes of distributing clothes in affected areas. We had list of areas and their panchayats. Panchayats made their list of needy peoples for clothes in their village. We were suppose to go there and distribute clothes according to the list. So this day we had 6 list of panchayats where clothes were supposed to get distributed.

First place where we were suppose to go was known as senate village. Below is image of a temple where relief camp was running

This place was once a shelter for all people from nearby villages. We were here to distribute clothes but as Mukhiya of Panchayat was not there I thought of taking pictures around. So I started roaming with one man in village and started taking pictures. As I went out on road I saw this scene and took a picture.

couldn’t believe that this was once a agriculture field. Than a question raised that their present crop is all gone in flood water . And also they can’t proceed for their further irrigation for next season as their fields are in flood water and this flood has also destroyed fertility of their fields.
Below is picture of a road

This road which is only link to villages was also in water. I followed this road and entered in village.

These were the scene which arisen in front of me when I started entering in village. All this house and situation were like as if some tornado hit them with full throttle. Then it was told to me that this entire village was half submerged in water. As I kept walking with villagers looking at me with awe , I started discovering broken houses and muddy floor , few left cattles of villagers.

People thought of me as some special person as I had camera. They requested me to visit inside situation village. I went inside and saw dump water here and there. This could become cause of lots of diseases I thought.

This is picture of destroyed houses. And clogged water around them.

this is photo of completely destroyed house.

Above is picture of left parts of destructed house.

Some villagers said that they want to show some other broken houses but they were other side Of water. So I sat on boat and went there. There I saw more broken houses and people. Every where situation was same. I took some more pictures and left to return back on site of clothes distribution. But there I learned that our team has left us behind to move nearby another site of clothes distribution. On this site the clothe distribution was postponed as head of village was taking long to get the list.

I and my companion moved for next site by walking. I noticed destroyed fields of rice crops.

Then I finally reached place where our team was distributing clothes among people. It was really hurting to see actual situation of india. Such poor people with such limited means of life! And our government says that our country is developing with fast pace. Any country can never develop with leaving their countrymen behind and specially those who r filling stomach of entire nation. Looking at their faces could easily tell their misery of life they are facing. Those who give food to entire country now don’t have food for them selves. Not only food for every basic requirements of life they are struggling.

For any farmer their land and their animals are their asset, that’s what are their saving and in this disaster they have lost both. No work nothing. Question of their future is in front of them. Now once independent are now totally dependent on others help.

We distributed clothes there according to the list of most needy ones and promised to those who were not given clothes as they were not in the list to make second list of left people.

We then left for our next site on our jeep. The road was really bad as it was destructed due to flood. And we were getting lift up in air inside jeep. I was feeling as if I am on some roller coaster ride. We reached there and I only noticed broken houses and water around huts similarly like it was before in other places. We left soon from there as no. of people there was less or less were left. For our next place of clothes distribution we first went to the place with same crap road and after it we took boat for reaching to the other shore where the village was. I was a bit nervous because first current of water was strong and river was deep second I could not swim and third that the boy handling the boat was even much smaller than me. Well we reached there and distributed clothes. But every where I felt that there was shortage of our stock and need was bigger. Here also the demand was bigger. And I think it will increase as winter is approaching. And people out here don’t have clothes and blankets for winter. And we usually here even in common situations that coldness is causing death in Bihar and UP. So imaging the coming situation in this scenario is really serious.

On my return trip on boat I was comfortable now.

We did two more visit of distribution site and after the process we returned back to our office. It was quite late in our office. We went in a hotel to have our dinner and then went back. I dozed off as soon as I went on bed. And this is how my day ended which will be unforgettable for me. I know that coming days we will have more unforgettable moments. What I am looking forward to is seeing the actual problems in here and I think that I am lucky to feel the sorrow of people. It was seriously unacceptable that people do live in such conditions too , that life could be difficult and to this extent and every time. I was comparing comfy life in our metros we live and between the life similarly equal citizen is forced to live here.

20,oct,2008

I woke up late and quit my exercise session as it was late to do it. .

Today we planned to move to the highly affected place known as Madhepura. Situations in madhepura has still not changed because water is still on the same level. This situation is affecting relief work in madhepura. Madhepura is most affected and I think is getting least relief work and help. So we Aid india is going to strengthen its relief work in madhepura . it was planned that I will be staying there for settlement with other members. Three new volunteers were supposed to join us and we were waiting for them as they were coming from Patna. But due to some circumstances they missed their train and came very late so we gave up our plan of to our entire team visit of Madhepura. From morning only work was going on in our all stores. We planned to leave on next day for Madhepura.

In aid office all medicine cartons were opened and we were sorting out and listing out all medicines. This was for our coming work planes as we will be leaving for madhepura . in other stores of aid , pratham and goonj sorting – packaging of clothes was going on. All head man from Panchayats were here telling their actual need of clothes according to no. and type of people in their village. After doing some of the work I planned to sit down with laptop and make report of details. It was tough for me as I wanted to describe each and every situation and photo. It took me half day to complete my report as there were fluctuations in electricity and in evening you can’t sit with laptop first because of mosquitoes

And second because of grass hopper kind of insects which doesn’t let you sit as they bombard themselves on you if you are in front of light. Now every one is waiting for me to stand up as we are going to have dinner. Lets see what next day brings.

Nikunj

Aid Delhi

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

Visit to Saharsa by Vivek Prasad

From: Vivek Prasad <vipras@gmail.com>
Subject: my report
To: eureka_bihar@yahoo.com
Cc: dharmendrakumar.aid@gmail..com
Date: Wednesday, 15 October, 2008, 9:50 AM

Dear Dharmendra Ji,

The attached file contains my report. I am reproducing the same below.

Visit to Saharsa

 

I was jolted out of my inertia when I stepped out of the Saharsa railway station on 22^nd of September. A lot of people had taken shelter just outside the railway station and I observed that a few organisations were offering food to the people, who were effected by flood. The gravity of the situation hit me hard. My discussion with the state coordinator of AID, Mr Dharmendra Kumar & his team made me realise that the problem was much bigger than I had imagined. And it grew bigger in my mind with each passing day. I visited areas, which were approachable by small boats only. The receding water posed challenges to mobilise relief work as big boats could go in limited areas.

 

The solace was that organisations like AID, Goonj and others were present in full force. In many instances, they were supporting the govt efforts but in most of the cases, they were working in areas where govt machinery was not active or chose not to go. In any case, the effort put together by all agencies including govt was not enough to fully satisfy the needs of the flood-effected people.

 

It came as a shock to me that almost after one month of the deluge, the district administration held a meeting with NGOs and other agencies involved in the relief work. I could feel that the concept of Mega camps was ok but it catered to about 20-25 % of the effected population. People would not move far away from their marooned homes and would take shelter at the nearest possible location. This segment was catered to by the NGOs in general. I worked as a volunteer with AID, which had a very effective network to reach out people at the ground level. Volunteers from amongst the villagers were selected for identifying people/families needing the help most. Apart from distributing relief material collected on its own, it also acted as the distribution arm of Goonj. In fact, they were quite happy to assist a group of businessmen from Mumbai in distributing relief material.       

 

We are at a stage where medical help is critical to prevent various diseases from taking the shape of epidemic. Cases of water borne diseases, cholera etc have been reported and its expected to go up in number. AID was instrumental in bring a team of doctors from Lions club Chennai. The docs with adequate medicines were taken to areas where the medical relief had not reached yet. There was another child specialist from Chennai, who spend close to 10 days in the field with medicines and attended to needy kids. The medicines are also in shortage. The govt has enough stock and it has asked NGOs to take medicines from the Govt stock when ever required but its easier said than done.        

 

Talking of kids, Pratham is playing a stellar role in organising learning environment for kids in camps and else where. It was eye opener for me that people are working with dedication to educate people at the grass root level.

 

The relief work seems to be a long drawn process and we need to be prepared for the same. The winter is not far off and blankets would be required soon. And the true recovery shall be when the farmers can start living on their own. We have a long way to go.

 

I must congratulate all the NGOs and especially AID, who accepted me as a volunteer, for the good work done.

-- 
regards/Vivek
Cell: +91 98106 77081

Latest from Bihar

Freinds

We have lot of compiled reports with us right now. The problem is our system has a lot of virus and we are trying to rectify it since last week of september. Once its done we will send reports of Greg a volunteer from California, report from AID Delhi volunteers and also Oliver's. We still could't find Oliver's earlier report at the blog. Please look into it and make it available. Selva's earlier visit report is also not available at the blog yet. There is a lot of work going on here at the ground. The work in the field is going on at a good pace. Oliver is also involved in field work.

There is only two internet center at Saharsa and whenever we go there, we either face network problem or power failure because of which we are not able to send the report.

Our immediate need is

1. Doctor's team

2. Water Purification tablets.

3. Winter Kit [Blanket, carpet, sweaters]

4. Milk powder

5. Biscut

6. Tarpolin [flex type]

We'll be soon sending all the reports once our system gets rectified.

Best Regards,

Update on Flood Relief Work since August 25, 2008 Kamayani and Ashish

Update on Flood Relief Work since August 25, 2008

On August 23^rd, 2008 Ashish and I had come back to Araria, after a short stint in Patna (which has been our base since our shift to Bihar in February this year). The Jan Jagaran Abhiyan, Araria (JJA)¹ had planned the NREGA training scheduled for the 1^st week of September. We were not sure the training would happen, there were stories about the flood and it sounded really bad but we were not sure. Floods in Araria and its neighboring districts are recurrent and annual phenomena (The recent translation of phaniswar nath renu’s story will give you some idea of what this recurrent flood ritual entails). However by the next day, after our first visit to the flood affected Sursur G.P of Narpatganj block, we were sure that this was a different situation and we decided to do whatever we could in this crisis situation.

The need of the hour was rescuing people who were stranded in areas where the Kosi had inundated over 900 villages. The SDO (sub divisional officer, araria) clearly needed boats. Abhiyan members approached G.B Pant institute’s NREGA team to find boats. With Sunil, Siddharth and Jean’s exemplary support the boats were arranged. Meanwhile Ashish arranged for a motorboat in Patna and the Abhiyan found a country boat in the neighboring block of Joki Haat. It was an expensive proposition for us to move the boats to the rescue point in Araria but a simple letter from the administration stating that boats were needed would have allowed the movement of boats free of cost. However the letter did not come. We feel that the administration could have used the support of groups like ours to add boats to their fleet but they preferred not to!

Unable to be of use on this front but still committed to help in the crisis we turned our attention to those already in relief camps. At the same time we requested AID community to float a petition to pressurize the government to step us the rescue operations manifolds (http://petitions.aidindia.org/Bihar_Flood08/)

So Far …

Distribution of Relief Materials

Over the next few weeks JJA volunteers distributed relief materials to people staying in various governmental and non-governmental camps. Our first experience was purchase and packaging 1000 Kg of Choora, Mudhi (puffed rice) and mixture. Volunteers spent a day making 2000 packets of ½ kg each and then distributed them amongst flood affected people in Raniganj block. Volunteers waded through three feet deep water to reach people who had refused to move to camps but were nonetheless surrounded by floodwater. These affected people were not ready to leave behind their cattle and belongings. By 30^th September when JJA consciously decided to stop direct relief distribution we had reached out to 16 relief camps with support from local volunteers and teams from Patna, M.P and Bangalore.²

So high was the commitment and energy of the volunteers to reach cut off areas with relief materials that when a truck of materials arrived from Patna on 7th Sep, volunteers headed out from Araria at 8 am on 8th sep to return only at 4 am the next day (9th) and were ready to head out at 10 am the very same day. Materials distributed included dry food items (sattu, choora, moodhi, biscuits), plastic sheets for shelter, clothes (bed sheets, gamcha, and old clothes) and other miscellaneous items (candles, match boxes, soap, hair oil, tooth powder). One round of distribution of cloth sanitary napkins was done at the Subhash stadium relief camp in Araria city. This was a very useful but much ignored item that we were able to provide to women, thanks to the goonj supply. We were lucky to have Parijat from MAYA who was able to communicate in Bengali (language spoken by many women in the camp) greatly facilitating the distribution of sanitary napkins. We still have some stock of napkins that we hope to distribute with a team of women volunteers. (JJA has only a very few women volunteers).

The visit of NAPM and NBA activists further energized our group. Medha Patkar gave new direction to work when she crossed the dangerously flowing flood waters, which had cut off Bhargama block, on a boat. She galvanized the group to continue with its relief work. After Raniganj, Bhargama block, neighboring Supaul district (one of the worst affected districts) became the focus of our direct relief work.

One month of direct relief work was a very fulfilling experience and a good learning for a new group. For one it is clear that just collecting and leaving relief materials with camp in-charges is not enough. At many camps materials are dumped in one place and there is not enough motivation or ability to distribute these materials. One clear example of this was when our paths crossed with relief materials collected by CII (Confederation of Indian Industries). On the day MAYA and JJA volunteers were distributing relief materials at the Araria College Mega Camp, CII had come with 4 trucks of materials, but with few volunteers and complete dependence on Government functionaries it was clear that the distribution would not go very far. In fact our team had some small items (soaps, hair oil, gamcha) as against the CII blankets, sheets, saris but having the system of a coupon and putting things together in one packet definitely made distribution easier, something the CII team had not thought of. At times JJA went out in teams of over 30 volunteers so that distribution amongst thousands of people could be done without any mishap and no case of undue duress and fights were reported by the team, while many such cases did happen around.

Survey and Interaction with local administration

The first focused survey by the JJA team was done on 1^st September to take stock of the situation around us on a regular basis. Our survey showed that 3000 flood-affected people were living in relief camps set up across Araria city. The Government supported none of these camps, but NGOs and citizen’s groups were running all these camps. Today there are 4 Government run camps in the city.

From 20^th September the JJA along with relief distribution focused on intensive surveys of relief camps with two broad aims:

1. Need Assessment
2. Giving feedback to the Government so as to strengthen Government functioning

Based on the intensive surveys, letters giving feedback to the local administration were given to the administration on 22^nd and 25^th of September and also 3^rd October. A representative group was also able to meet the District Magistrate (DM), Araria on the 4^th of October. This meeting was rather fruitful as we found the extremely receptive to our suggestion about having transparency at the camps to alley anxiety amongst camp residents. Infact the DM instructed to have such orders issued on within minutes of our meeting with him. We see this openness and acceptance as a good sign and hope that orders of the district administration will be openly posted on notice boards in each camp.

Medical Relief

Around 16^th of September Darshan’s medical relief team came to Patna. Thanks to Anand Mazgaonkar and Swati Desai, Darshan had been in touch with us. The JJA decided after it’s interaction with the Civil Surgeon (CS) and ACMO, in Araria, that the more affected district of Madhepura would benefit more from the medical team. Now we are trying to tie up with Dr. Shakeel at CHARM, Patna to do a one-week medical camp in Araria (focusing on areas of Narpatganj and also Chatapur and Triveniganj blocks of Supoul, which are cut off from their block headquarters and are being provided for by the Araria administration). Earlier, in the last week of August, we had requested CHARM to provide a list of medicines required to set up medical camps. With their help we were able to send appeal for medicines. Jaya Jha from Bangalore and Subojini from Warangal were some of those who noticed the appeal from AID and promptly dispatched medicines worth 70000 Rs (we are trying to trace one consignment at Patna jn). With these medicines in hand we were able to support medical relief provided by IDPD (Indian doctors for peace and development) in Saharsa.

Transit Camp at Araria Court Railway Station

When the railways decided to setup camps across railway stations in affected areas, our volunteers chose to support one such camp at Araria Court Railway station. Our prior experience in direct relief work and knowledge of the local people and area was useful in efficient working of the camp. The camp has been working like a transit camp for the flood-affected people who are heading to different relief camps. Initially our volunteers were physically present at the camp but now we have withdrawn from the camp and provide support depending upon the request from the railway authorities.

The sections below are sketchy and I hope we will flesh them out as the ideas sketched out in them grow.

Some Issues at large …

There are many issues associated with the floods that need to be addressed that we have not focused on but we need to grapple with:

1. Life on islands: On 21^st Sep 4 volunteers went to Chunni (Supaul District, neighboring Bhargama block, Araria district), from there we visited mega camps setup in Supaul district. Here we met one local resident Munnaji who suggested we actually see some of the villages which are engulfed in flood waters, so we stayed the night in a nearby village and went next morning on a boat to the GPs of Rampur, Jakkhargarh, Tilathi and Chatapur. The area is fully submerged in floodwaters. Only Rampur GP is partially affected and we were really concerned about the situation of people who have decided to stay back in this GP. Rampur is an island, but people do not want to move to camps, to take care of the few belongings they have managed to save from the floods. What is to be done for these people living on islands? This issue has been raised by Somu and Swati in Supaul district and reading there press release will give some idea of the conditions prevailing in areas of submergence.

2. Mega camps vs. camps: Also there is the issue of mega camps. Araria district has 10 mega camps and many other relief camps. The number of other camps has fluctuated from over 70 to about 30 (as of 29.09.08). The administration plans to shut down all these other camps, but is it a good idea? For one, many people affected by floods are not ready to move to mega camps, as they are far away from their villages and they will be unable to visit their villages and keep an eye on the happenings there. Secondly mega camps are becoming high-density places and will have problems of concentration of population and limited resources, which might be dealt with better if there are smaller camps. But, at the same time mega camps promise much more to residents like an Anganwadi center, school, PHC etc which can’t be done at smaller camps. This then becomes an issue that needs a better understanding.

Future Plan…

1. NREGA and Flood Management and Rehabilitation: People in flood-affected areas can work under NREGA in rebuilding their lives. What kind of works can they do? An attempt to plan this out is being made by a team of people from GB Pant Institute’s NREGA team, local activists on flood issues from Bihar and Jayashankar ji (knowledgeable in water management and harnessing). The tentative plan is for this team to travel in the flood affected areas from 20^th to the 26^th of October. Will keep you updated on the travels and suggestions of this group.

2. Spreading Awareness about entitlements: The Kosi Navnirman Abhiyan initiated by NBA and NAPM volunteers along with local people from the flood affected areas has already printed a detailed brochure on the entitlements of those affected by floods, whether living in camps or otherwise. We would like to reach out to as many people as possible making them aware of these entitlements. Alongside we are also trying to interact with the administration and find a way that they would agree to publishing a pamphlet not only stating the entitlements but also associated with entitlements two other things:

1. The procedure for getting these entitlements and
2. In case a person is unable to get his/her entitlements, what is the grievance redressal mechanism they can turn to.

3. Thrift Stores: During relief work we found that many people and groups were ready to mobilize old clothes. At many times distributing old stitched clothes was a very difficult task, as sizes had to be matched with people and there preferences in clothing taken into account. But this is a very challenging task in a camp. Also at some places people do not want old clothes. Given this situation and the fact that we are still expecting some more old clothes packages to reach us, our group has been thinking of the idea of running thrift stores. Maybe some of you in US who have seen such stores run by Salvation Army would know the lines on which we are thinking.

Paxcel Technologies Pvt. Ltd, donates to Bihar Relief

Paxcel Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon donated Rs. 25000/- for relief work at Bihar

Help through American Organization for the Development of Bihar (AODB)

American Organization for the Development of Bihar

AODB 1468 Hardy Place Fremont, CA 94536

www.aodb.org Tax Exempt ID # 94-315357