abhishek

Humanitarian Aid International (HAI) is constantly assessing the situation through its local member Cosmic Community Centre in Kerala. The current situation is summarised below:

The current situation

Kerala is witnessing high-intensity floods due to the incessant rains over the past few days. Residents are cut off in parts of the coastal state of Kerala as the rain started to intensify from late Friday, 15th October 2021. As per the authorities, the worst-affected areas are Kottayam and Idukki, which received 164.5 millimetres and 305.5 mm of rainfall, respectively, since Saturday morning. The heavy rains triggered landslides and swelled many rivers across the state. Roads are swept away, houses are damaged and trees uprooted. Several villages in hilly areas are cut off. At least 26 people have died in landslides and floods triggered by heavy rains in south-western India. Five Children among are dead. There are fears that the death toll could rise further as many people are missing. Eleven bodies have been found so far in Idukki district and another fourteen in Kottayam district and thousands of people have been evacuated and at least 100 relief camps have been set up. Here is the video showing the flash flood barrelling into the town of Erattupetta in southern Kerala and another clip showing a house disappearing into a river that overflowed into its backyard shows widespread destruction in Kerala.

Government Response in the current situation in flood affected areas

• At least 26 people have died due to rain-related incidents in Kerala, according to news agency AFP. Some 11 bodies have been found so far in Idukki district and another 14 in Kottayam district, officials told AFP, after the areas were hit by landslides and flash floods.
• Authorities are working on the ground to assist the injured and affected.
• The Indian Air Force has inducted its medium-lift helicopters for flood relief efforts in the rain-hit districts of Kerala.
• Fishing boats are being used to evacuate survivors trapped in Kollam and other coastal towns as sections of road have been swept away and trees uprooted
• National Disaster Relief Force and the armed forces are rehabilitating 2,000 people and shifting them to different relief camps, one dedicated to Covid-19 positive patient
• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that the intense spell of rainfall activity over Kerala and Mahe, South Interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal likely to reduce from today (18^th October,2021)
• The Army, NDRF, police and the Fire Force along with the locals began rescue operations on Sunday morning at Koottickal in Kottayam district and Kokkayar in Idukki district, where over a dozen people have been reported missing due to landslides accompanied by heavy downpour. Search operations are underway for the missing persons in the debris.

HAI’s plan to save lives and restore normalcy with support from its local member partner (Prioritizing the unmet needs)

• Distribution of dry ration kits to at least 5000 families targeting women headed households, marginal and landless farmers and families with disabled members in Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam districts
• Distribution of hygiene kits along with Covid-19 safety kits including sanitary napkins for women and adolescent girls, sanitizers, masks, gloves, toothpastes, soaps etc.
• Distribution of non-food items (NFIs) to 5,000 families including bed sheets, blankets, lunges for men etc.
• Early recovery plan based on assessment

Humanitarian Aid International (HAI) is constantly assessing the situation through its local member Dr. Ambedkar Sheti Vikas Va Sanshodhan Sanstha (ASVSS). The current situation is summarised below.

Background

Heavy Monsoon rainfall in western India has caused widespread damage and triggered flash floods and several landslides in parts of Maharashtra state.

Incessant rain over the last 24 hours has led to devastating floods in parts of Maharashtra, with three districts flooded and two districts facing a flood-like situation. This is the heaviest spell of rain in the state in July in 40 years. The Navy has been roped in for rescue and evacuation. Several teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) too have been deployed for rescue operations in the Konkan region. While Ratnagiri, Raigad, Kolhapur districts are flooded, Sangli and Amravati are facing a flood-like situation.

A total of 100 bodies have been retrieved from the debris till now from landslides
in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Satara districts, 22 persons remain missing and 35 injured persons are under treatment.

More than 50 per cent area of the coastal town of Chiplun in Ratnagiri, around 250 km from Mumbai and having a population of over 70,000 has got submerged in flood waters.

Government Response in the current situation in flood affected areas

• On civil authorities’ request, 7 Naval Flood Rescue Teams from Mumbai deployed to Ratnagiri & Raigad districts. One Seaking 42C Helicopter from Mumbai deployed for aerial reconnaissance at Poladpur/Raigad
• NRDF teams are engaged in rescue and relief operations in flood-affected Kolhapur
• NDRF team is carrying out rescue, relief operations in flood-affected Maharashtra’s Chiplun. Four additional NDRF teams are expected to arrive to Kolhapur
• Village Disaster Management Plan Committee (VDMC) has been given the task of displacement process and ensure regular check-up of COVID patients, depending on the severity of the symptoms, special arrangements shall me made
• People to evacuate themselves to safer places within 12 hours from the areas which are marked as red zones

HAI’s immediate plans to save lives and restore normalcy (Prioritizing the unmet needs)

• Establish at least three community kitchens serving cooked food to the displaced population
• Provide at least a week’s dry ration kit to the returnee population
• Hygiene kits along with Covid-19 safety kits including sanitary napkins for women and adolescent girls, sanitizers, masks, gloves, toothpastes, soaps etc
• Deployment of volunteers to ensure adherence with Covid Appropriate Behaviour among IDPS, within and outside relief camps
• Arranging feed and fodder for surviving cattle and small livestock (goats and sheep)
• Arranging drinking water and installing water filters in the existing handpumps to ensure safe drinking water
• Disinfecting using bleaching powder and sanitizing flood affected areas after the flood water recedes to avoid water borne diseases ASVSS trained trainer supporting flood affected people in Akiwat, Shirol Dist. Kolhapur, Maharashtra
• Setting up temporary isolation centres for people showing signs of Covid19
• Medicines for COVID-19 positive patients required which includes balm, steamer, Itchguard cream etc. for two weeks’ in 21 villages
• Providing interim shelter and NFI support to IDPs not getting shelter in relief camps with focus on nomadic population
• Carrying out drone-based post-disaster damage & loss assessment

Long term plans

• Livelihood restoration support to farmers and the families having lost their family members
• Community based disaster preparedness

Budget required for initial relief activities: INR 30 lakhs

You may make a contribution to the below account to support the relief activities:

Name: Humanitarian Aid International
Account No. 084301005007 Account Type: Saving
IFSC Code: ICIC0000843
Address: ICICI Bank Ltd. Plot No. 5&6, LSC-3
Dwarka, Sector 6
New Delhi – 110075

Seventy-five Pak-Hindu refugee families reside in the new Signature Bridge refugee camp. They are living in the deplorable condition on the banks of Yamuna, lacking almost all basic amenities, including water, toilets and electricity. This camp is located in a forest, which makes them unsafe even during the daytime.

Since there are no toilets, everyone is compelled to go to the forest to relieve themselves. Women and children especially are exposed to personal safety risks and open defecation takes a toll on their health and the environment.

We have three main objectives to improve the situation for the refugee families:

• To install at least three water filtration units to ensure access to safe water for drinking and other purposes
• Construction of self-sustaining, eco-friendly nine ECOSAN toilets in the camp to ensure basic human dignity and reduce open-defecation and related health and hygiene risks
• To ensure dignified access to sufficient and safe WASH services

Your donation will help these refugee families live with dignity.

Lack of toilets put women folks at risk

Sonia ji shares “it’s very difficult and uncomfortable for the women and young girls of the camp to go to the forest area for open defecation. It is very scary since animals like snakes and insects are very common at the place where we live. Moreover, lack of privacy is another major concern. We would be relieved if separate toilets and bathing structures for the women in the camp can be constructed.”

Naina is a 14-year-old girl who shares that her experience of using a toilet, is not always easy.

“It is tough to look for safe spaces to relive ourselves. Sometimes men or young boys of the camp hamper our privacy. The most difficult times are during our menses. Lack of clean of water and safe spaces makes life difficult. We are in desperate needs of separate toilets and bathrooms for men and women.”

Lack of clean drinking water is causing health issues

Another major problem is the access to drinking water. There are only three functional hand pumps in the camp and this water is contaminated. Camp residents are compelled to use water from the hand pumps due to the lack of other options. Due to using the contaminated water, health and skin conditions are rampant especially among women and children. Skin diseases including scabies and kidney stones have become common health issues due to the poor quality of water.

Reshma shares that “There are a lot of problems for water and toilets. The water turns yellow but we still drink it like poison, we are helpless. We ourselves have to drink the yellow water and feed it to our children as well. Whatever help you want to give, just help us to get clean drinking water and proper toilets.”

Nirma’s husband had recently undergone an operation for kidney stones and fears that his health issues will become worse due to the poor water quality.

She shares that “The handpump water we drink is very dirty but we have to drink it out of helplessness. In five minutes, the water turns very yellow. My husband has had an operation for kidney stones but we only have this water to give him. I am scared that this could cause more kidney stone problems. There is no toilet here also. We have to go to the jungle instead. Three-four of us women gather and go together to relive ourselves. We get scared but what can we do? There are men, strangers around and it is a jungle area. We are helpless.”

HAI needs your support to help refugees access clean drinking water and hygienic sewage systems

Access to clean drinking water and a hygienic sewage system are human rights and basic human needs. The lack of functioning toilets and inadequate hygiene pose a major health risk especially for an already vulnerable population.

In order to address these problems, HAI is constructing nine, self-sustaining Ecosan toilets and installing three water filters to ensure basic human dignity and reduce health risks. Water filters will reduce the risk of water-borne diseases and allow for adequate clean water for consumption, cooking and hygiene requirements.

Objectives:

1. To install at least three water filtration units to ensure access to safe water for drinking and other purposes
2. Construction of self-sustaining, eco-friendly nine ECOSAN toilets in the camp to ensure basic human dignity and reduce open-defecation and related health and hygiene risks
3. To ensure dignified access to sufficient and safe WASH services

For more details on the WASH situation in the Signature Bridge refugee camps, please see HAI’s WASH Factsheet 2021 here.

At a time when many people are working from home to avoid exposure to the COVID-19 virus, there are frontline workers and caregivers from the government and non-government organisations, who have to be on duty to ensure our well-being. It is, therefore, our societal responsibility to ensure that their risk is minimised while performing their duties at such critical time.

These workers continue providing essential services such as immunization, supplementary nutrition, growth monitoring, information dissemination about the risk of COVID-19, the vaccination schedule, scanning the potential cases and so on. HAI will reach out to remote and highly susceptible rural, tribal, urban slums, hilly and urban parts of the country.

It is experienced from the ground that often these workers had to conduct surveillance and tracking duty to curb the spread of COVID-19 without enough personal protective equipment which adds to psychological stress and fear of being exposed to high levels of infection risk, hence providing frontline workers with Covid care kits are some of the simple solutions that can potentially alleviate them from higher risk of exposure to the infection and provide much better service to their constituents.

While the COVID-19 preventive, mitigation and vaccination programmes are progressing across the country, India also faced back to back cyclones within a week’s time in the eastern and western coastal regions of the country. Immediately after the cyclone Tauktae causing devastation in the Western coastal states of India, cyclone Yaas devastated the Eastern coastal states of India. These situations are a looming humanitarian crisis in the region, especially in Kerala, which was impacted by heavy rainfalls and winds. The summer rains which intermittently started in March are unusually continuing and heavy damages have occurred to buildings and agricultural fields. While the entire population is affected on various scales, the worst affected by these hazards are the middle and lower-middle-class people, the petty shop owners and daily-wage laborers.

In Odisha, gusty winds, heavy rainfalls and the cyclone storm left behind trails of devastation and destruction at different parts of the states. Trees and electric poles were uprooted, low lying areas inundated while kutcha houses were badly damaged in costal districts of Balasore and Bhadrak. The devastation has made it even more difficult for frontline workers like ASHA workers, Anganwadi Workers, ANM and Gaon Kalyan Samiti Members to extend door-to-door COVID services due to communication and travel disruptions in the region.

With this purpose, HAI is launching this campaign to cover at least 1,000 such frontline workers across various states. These frontline workers will be provided with Covid Care Kits, consisting of a box of surgical grade masks, one box of surgical grade gloves, two bottles (500 ml) of approved sanitizer, two face shields, one high quality oximeter and one infrared thermometer to screen the suspect cases and refer them to appropriate level of care.

With a contribution of Rs 3,300, you can also ensure protecting one such humanitarian worker.

In addition to that, 1,000 absolute poor and displaced families will also be provided with dry ration, personal hygiene material and unconditional cash transfer support.

BUDGET:

You can donate to this campaign by filling the form below:

HAI’s WORK DONE SO FAR IN COVID-19 RESPONSE:

In the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020, we supported 937 ASHA and frontline health care workers in Bangalore and 781 sanitation workers and waste collectors in Delhi with PPA kits.

Commenced three-days training programme for community-level workers on Psycho-social first aid in collaboration with NIMHANS.

Set up oxygen banks in Delhi, Solapur, Maharashtra and Bengaluru with donation support of 20 oxygen concentrators from Mr Manish Mundra and supported 14 number of patients through these oxygen banks till date.

Distributed dry ration and hygiene kits to 201 refugee families, tarpaulin and ground sheets to 79 refugee families for temporary shelter support and, 142 mosquito nets to 71 families with support from Oxfam India.

Facilitating the refugees to get registered on Cowin platform for vaccination. Currently 22 refugees have been facilitated with first shot.

Attended 8 distress calls through Twitter/mail since 1st May 2021 and provided necessary support such as dry ration, milk, medicines, LPG refill etc.

Successfully filed petitions with NHRC to make refugees entitled for Covid19 vaccination, dry ration support and basic entitlements.

Supported a refugee child’s surgery by directly paying Rs 175,000 to the hospital.

Supported a family facing financial crisis due to COVID-19 hospitalisation by contributing Rs 210,000 towards medical expenses.

Distributed 50 weighing machines in collaboration with the Government of Orrisa to 50 blind people for their livelihood restoration. Each of them also received masks, gloves and sanitizer to protect them from Covid-19.

Mr Rajat Singh* and his family are facing precarious situation.

Rajat Ji was infected with COVID and had developed further complications. The family tried a lot for a couple of days to get a Hospital bed in Delhi where they stay, but when they couldn’t, they moved to Mohali to have him hospitalised.

After a lot of efforts, he got a bed in Cheema Medical Complex, Mohali on 30th April. While undergoing treatment for COVID, Rajat Ji developed Mucor Mycosis and there was a sudden loss of vision in his both eyes.

He is currently in ICU.

Rajat Ji is a small-time stationary supplier in school, and his business is almost non-existent since last year due to schools being closed due to COVID. His younger brother is a wedding photographer whose profession has also taken a hit due to COVID.

These two are the bread earners for the family and both of them have had no earning practically since the last 14-15 months. The family has already spent Approx 8-10 Lacs on the treatment as it’s been 13 days already that he is in ICU. Now the family has exhausted its savings as well as other means of borrowing from family & friends as well.

Due to the loss of vision in both his eyes, the doctors have prescribed “Liposomin Amphotericin – B” injections to treat the same. The treatment is for 4 Injections every day which are to be given for 21 days along with continuous hospitalisation till the treatment is over.

The family needs support of 5 lacs to tide over this situation. Request you to kindly come forward and help.

*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the patient.

We thank all our donors in helping Mr. Singh’s family.

1,43,997 is the last amount raised via our website here and we raised around 70,000 more for him on GiveIndia platform. The campaign is now closed.

Humanitarian Aid International is a non-profit organization that works towards providing support to Pakistani refugees from the Hindu minority community living in Delhi through its Refugee Programme.

Launched in 2018, the programme aims to provide humanitarian, developmental and integration assistance to these refugees. HAI operates in two camps in Delhi, namely Majnu ka Tilla and Signature Bridge, and has been covering approximately 230 families through various interventions focused on health, education, livelihood, legal assistance, and access to basic amenities and essential services using a rights-based and participatory approach.

Under its Scholarship Programme, HAI believes every child has the right to education worldwide and in every circumstance. The Scholarship Programme aims to lessen the financial burden of schooling for the families of Pakistani refugees residing in Majnu Ka Tila and Signature Bridge Camps, encouraging children to pursue secondary school, which is vital for ensuring they have the skills and knowledge necessary for a university degree. This program aims to help refugee children complete their secondary education, ease the financial burden of education on refugee families, and increase family understanding of the significance of their children’s education. The scholarship is awarded to children who meet specific criteria, including being a Pakistani refugee residing at Majnu Ka Tilla or Signature Bridge Camp, being enrolled in a formal schooling system and HAI’s education centre, and being in class IX, X, XI or XII. Students in classes IX and X receive Rs. 500 monthly, while students in classes XI and XII receive Rs. 1000 monthly.

The Shelter Project is another program by HAI that aims to provide a healthy living environment with privacy and dignity for the families and children at Signature Bridge Refugee Camp. It is critical to ensure the existence of safe and secure infrastructures to protect refugees from a range of risks, including insect bite/animal attacks, unhygienic living conditions, etc. 50 families at SBC have been chosen as beneficiaries based on vulnerability. These temporary shelters are engineered based on context-specific structural and performance requirements following the Sphere standards. The objective of the Shelter Project is to provide a safe and secure living environment for refugee families at Signature Bridge Camp and to ensure kids have access to well-protected structures at the camp. The shelter design requires 12*18ft per shelter and costs Rs. 72,578. The shelter is provided free of cost to the party, and HAI invests one time in the shelter. The party will pay for any fee for repair and maintenance.

Overall, HAI’s Refugee Programme, Scholarship Programme and Shelter Project aim to assist and support Pakistani refugees living in Delhi, focusing on health, education, livelihood, legal assistance, and access to basic amenities and essential services. These programs aim to improve the lives of refugees and help them build a better future.