FLOOD RELIEF REPORT: ASEEM FOUNDATION In the month of September, Kashmir valley faced a severe natural calamity. The devastating floods that followed torrential rains affected the capital Srinagar the worst along with many villages in the valley region. The administration as well as the people were ill-prepared for this unanticipated calamity. They had immediate and practicable help. Since for an NGO as small as Aseem Foundation it was impossible to provide help to each and every person in distress. So Aseem Foundation decided to adopt two villages and made a vow to help them get back on track. This is a brief report of Aseem's work so far in this regard.

Relief Work by Aseem Foundation during Kashmir Floods Aseem adopted two villages, (1) Samthan, Pulwama and (2) Reshipora, Budgam both of which were worst affected by the floods. Comparatively within the two, Samthan was worst affected while Reshipora moderately. Immediate need was to provide for basic requirements of food, protection from cold and spreading awareness about post-flood health threats. So Aseem Foundation decided to carry out relief work in three stage and the first stage took off immediately. The situation in Samthan was studied closely. Village Profile: Village- Semthan Block- Bijbehara Population: 5000 (3500 males)

Grampanchayat- Semthan District- Anantnag Households: 375

The floods had led to severe damage to houses and social infrastructures in many villages in the district. Schools, shops and other social points of interest in these villages were closed during flood as it was submerged in the flood water. Most households had their agricultural land affected severely due to flood water and residues, the only source of income they had. Along with houses, cattle sheds and grain store have been severely destroyed. Both the government school have been damaged due to flood water including toilets for children’s and staffs. There have been no rescue and relief operation carried out by government, military or local administration during and after flood in the village. Water had clogged in low areas for many days and was proving to be a health risk. Even after pursuing the local administration continuously for help no help could be provided. So this work was needed to be done on priority.

Water clogged in low areas for many days Removal of this flood water from many water inundated areas using fire engines was done by Aseem foundation with the help of local volunteers. 3 generators and 3 PVC pipes were in operation for 10 days. The basic village functioning also needed to start as soon as possible, which would mean the village needed at least one solid structure. Thus village school was the focus of next study. School profile: The two Government schools in Semthan have classes from Junior KG to 8th Standard. Each school has nearly 200 students and 15 staff. These students are basically from middle or lower middle class families of the nearby villages. The school has a few classrooms and one library room where academic books were kept for student to learn in case they lack money for purchasing. Being a government school the students are provided free books and the fees are waived off. The teacher to student ratio is 1:15, so teachers have enough time to give attention to every individual. Even though there are two government schools functioning, people of the villages have an impression that the quality of the education provided to the students at government school is not up to standard. There have been a lot of discontinuing students from government school and they have taken admission to the only private school in the region.

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Damage to school during floods: The unprecedented rains during the month of September 2014 in Kashmir had led the flood water reaching height of 4-5 feet in the school area which damaged the floors and walls of many classrooms. Cracks on the walls and floors were observed and required urgent attention for repair. White boards also were damaged and rendered useless. With rising water levels, the wooden shelves in the library have been damaged severely and all the books were also drenched. Children had lost their school books and study material. This called for immediate attention to repair and restoration of the school.

Stage I Relief material donated by various organizations and individuals at low or free of cost was transported to Srinagar by air cargo and the local Aseem volunteers helped distribute those to the people in the two villages as and and when the help arrived. The following material was sent in multiple batches. Solar lanterns Home medical kits Kambals   

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1000 500 140

Water Purifiers PHC units

265 3

Due to lack of electricity, activities after sunset were made possible through use of solar lanterns. Flexboards and billboards in Urdu and English promoting health related awareness in the aftermath of floods were displayed throughout the villages. Making pure drinking water available was a priority, thus Bisleri bottles in significant quantities were provided initially. Immediately followed by these water purifiers were provided. These were shared one in two households and also in community centres. One medical kit per home was supplied which included basic medicines and mediclore bottles. Public Health Centre (PHC) units were started to enable treating people from low risk as well as high risk patients. The medicines (even for cancer patients) were made available through direct supervision of qualified doctors. Aseem went extra mile and provided few important cancer medicines to the patients in the town of Bandipora.

A supply of ration continued throughout the first stage the initial weeks of second stage as well. 500 households were supported with 5kg rice, 0.5kg turmeric, 2kg salt, 2kg sugar, 2kg each of moong and tur dals, miscellaneous spices. These were also sent by air cargo in batches. Ready to use tea/ cofee sachets were also provided in some of the batches.

Stage II Once the basic needs were tended to the more important requirement in order to make these villages self-sustaining was to rebuild/repair the infrastructure in the two villages. Initially we concentrated on schools.

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School floors were wetted and soil loosened. Aseem helped repair the flooring and provided flooring mat material. Books, uniforms and other educational materials were distributed to those in need. Schools in nearby areas who were worst affected were also helped during this stage. Work was done in 4 different schools (2 in Semthan, 1 in Bandina and one more from Bijbehara). Repairs also included construction/repair of toilets and provision of water in schools. Stress relieving activities for kids: One volunteer from Mercedez Benz school conducted workshops in the school in Bandina and explained the children importance of pillar homes instead of sand through games. These activities were later replicated in other schools as well.

School in the village after floods

Aseem Foundation www.aseemfoundation.org

Aseem Foundation www.aseemfoundation.org

We also helped restart the village panchayats in schools where the villagers could come together and discuss issues of immediate need.

Stage III is in progress and will concentrate on connecting with the villagers from these two villages and rehabilitating those in need. Communication center has already been setup and villagers are coming together, planning economical activities under Aseem's guidance. These activities will be aimed to reflect unique representation of the village community.

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Relief work led by Aseem Foundation was rewarded by a rare occasion of a pat on the back through announcement from the village mosque.

Volunteers directly involved in relief work so far are from:        

Aseem Foundation Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai KPIT Technologies, Pune Be an Angel, Symphony Teleca India (Pvt.) Ltd., Pune Chanakya Mandal, Pune MMCOE, Pune Persistent Foundation Bitwise

While, we received overwhelmingly positive and quick support from individuals all over the country to our request, MMCOE was the unique. With hard work and enthusiasm they collected significant amount of donation for these activities. Chanakya Mandal volunteers helped in packaging and transporting the relief packages to air cargo terminals in Pune and Mumbai. KPIT, Persistent, Bitwise and STC provided huge support through donations and individual volunteer work on and off site. Individuals and volunteers from TISS visited the villages where relief work was on and helped facilitate it.

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Photographs:

Preparing packages at Pune

Basic Medicines

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The first shipment of water purifiers and solar lanterns arrives

Distributing water purifiers to a village community centre

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Distributing water purifiers to families

Explaining the usage of water purifier

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Distributing home medical kits

Village council members with volunteers

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