Category: Disaster Relief
disaster relief efforts of MAM
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Amrita Chikitsalaya
23 Oct 2008, Supaul After arriving in Supaul the medical team started visiting one camp after another in Tribeni Ganj area of Supaul district. Along the narrow banks of the Kosi River there were thousands of small temporary huts which housed many thousands of flood affected families. Since there was no place yet to set up regular camps, the doctors moved from hut to hut seeing and treating patients. Soon after the Lahraniya relief camp was inaugurated the medical team also set up an out patient clinic in the Durga Madhya Vidyalaya, opposite the camp. Since the newspapers have been…
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And it was inaugurated
Around 10 AM on the day of the inauguration, (read the previous post) i.e. 3rd Oct, I had called up the brahmachari in charge of the construction and asked him about the progress on the erection of the stage and pandal and he confirmed that everything was done and the stage was ready. Taking him on his word, I concentrated on the arrangement of other aspects of the inauguration, like alerting the media, inviting other guests, getting the bilingual press report ready, etc (we had neither power supply nor printing facility nearby the camp). By the time I reached the…
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Canceling the inaugural program
Though I have been trying hard to write about the progress in Bihar for the past two weeks, time has kept on eluding me. The medical team along with the ambulances reached Supaul district on the wee hours of the morning of 26th September A new chapter in the medical services of the team started since the number of affected people here were many more than in the earlier district. Things were also much more difficult here. In Purnia district we had sufficient local help but here it was not so, and we ha to work harder to make ourselves…
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Back to Bihar
Was back in Amritapuri for some days, but now it seems that Bihar is calling again. I had thought that as the water is receding and people have started returning to their homes that our activity in Bihar would have stabilized. But in many areas, when people return home to their village – they are returning to nothing for there is neither a house nor are there any crops left. Almost nothing can be salvaged from the debris. We may be moving into the villages as the people return and try to help them there, as per their need. A…
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Really great to be a part
29 Sep 2008, Amritapuri This year for AMMA’s Birthday we, the students organized a stall for collecting funds towards Bihar flood relief. It was a really wonderful experience. We had to do everything from making the stalls to going around and selling things. We organized four stalls one had food items, one had tea, coffee lime juice, one with garments and one with handicraft products. It was a very good experience for us. We really felt good. Above all we really enjoyed it. It was really great to be a part of the celebrations. – Abhilash
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Why so much suffering in this world?
23 Sep 2008, Bihar It has been days since a post. There has been no time – we have been moving from place to place getting a direct idea of how things really are. And we did not have any inernet connection. The places are small – almost villages, not very developed. We are in Supaul district – one of the most affected districts. On the way for many kilometers you see rows of small plastic covered bamboo shelters on both sides of the road. The people have nowhere else to go as on both sides of the road, which…
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A miracle in front of our eyes
16 Sep 2008, Bowanipur, Bihar A miracle took place today. So many take place very day – the sun rises, it gives us warmth; there is air to breathe; birds fly and trees grow drawing sustenance from the earth and the sun and the air and we live. I feel the coolness of the breeze as it blows in my face. I can feel. I live. It is a miracle. And within a five days shelters have risen up housing some of the poorest of those displaced – about 500 of them. Today we inaugurated the first shelters built by…
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First camp to be inaugurated
15 Sep 2008, Bowanipur, Bihar The last two days were quite hectic as the temporary shelters along with a kitchen, toilets, etc were nearing completion and we were planning to have a small inaugural function before the camp was started, to create awareness and also inspire others to take up similar such activities. The camp with a capacity to accommodate around 500 people would be inaugurated at 4.30 pm on 16th September 2008. Yesterday, Bri Rasamrita, who was entrusted the responsibility of managing the Kitchen, arrived in Purnea after procuring all the vessels, etc that would be needed for cooking…
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First shelters are ready
13 Sep 2008, Bowanipur, Bihar The past two days we were busy getting the temporary shelters in place, and being a totally new place it took some time to get familiarized with the local working style, speed etc. Two shelters of around 4000sqft have been completed. Work is going on to get the kitchen and the toilets completed. Work has also started on a third shelter. During the day there were heavy showers and so the work had to be stopped for some time. As far as we know ours is the first organization to put up such temporary shelters…