<Flood Relief>About considering Alampur as BosF area of work!!

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

Friends,

 

Greetings.

 

Starting a new thread to discuss about this initiative.

 

As part of our (DST Worldwide Services, the company where I work) Social Services initiative, some of my colleagues and I visited some remote streets in Alampur (as suggested by the Tahsildar Prem Kumar) and guided by Sri Anjaneya Sarma Dt. Incharge for Relief, Mehboob Nagar.
 
The devastation that we saw there was so pathetic that I cannot explain and pictures can speak for themselves.
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/prasanthi.uppalapati/DSTWorldwideServices_VisitToAlampur(I will post in this URL)
 
Because of time constraint, I cannot say much and you can look at the pictures. I am almost (90%) convinced to take three to four remote streets in Alampur (Chinna Dargah lane, Pakkal street, Kattela Street, Santa street -- I may not spell these names properly but I can take you there.) All together there would be 200 families in these four streets. If we can adopt these four streets where in there are the following: Zilla Parishad School, Temple and other govt. offices.
 
What is the plan!! Let us not take anything initially. They are so accustomed to coupon procedure too that it is too difficult to handle them and we cannot blame for the situation they are in. To stick to our ideal of giving hope and courage to them and also to motivate them to work for themselves, let us go there as a team who are studying the extent of devastation created by the floods and we will TRY to help them in getting their requirements provided they start working for which we can guide them.
 
This way we can visit all the families of the four streets and understand their problems in detail.
 
Immediate Action:
 
1. Let us plan to visit these streets this Sunday, 25th October.
 
2. Just talk to them and as everyone gets an idea, let us finalize if we can take these streets.
 
3. Let us decide on what all we can do to start with (a small term action plan and a long term one).
 
4. Form a core committee and continue to work in this place for another six months.
 
Observations:
 
1. Almost all those families got Rs. 8000 given by govt.
2. They are getting 5 litres of Kerosene
3. They have some provisions to sustain for few days but are not sure of a long term relief
4 No proper water supply other than occasional tankers
5. Intermittant power supply
6. Doctors visited them and did give some medicines
 
Requirements:
 
1. House to stay (it is very hard to even believe or digest the fact that people stay in such houses. Not just dilapidaed but stinking with foul smell and full of silt/slush). Most of them are interested to move to any distant place and some of them want to stay there only as they feel their mother (Goddess Jogulamba) will look after them no matter what. For them life and death is their native.
 
2. Provisions (our only concern is to get proper food for our children)
 
3. Stove (This is our immediate and most helpful requirement)
 
4. Clothes/Blankets/Mats etc.,
 
Friends, literally they lost everything. Why these four streets? According to the officials and the people, these are remote, badly devastated and are very near to the river and so no one are visiting them.
 
Reasons to select this place:
 
1. Utmost loss of property
2. Comparatively near among the worstly affected places
3. An ideal place for all of us to work as a group and bring some positive change
4. Montessary school near by (at a distance of one to two kilometers from these streets) is a good place for us (volunteers) to stay and continue our work. If we plan to be there on weekends, we can start early morning on Saturdays, stay in the school on Saturday night and return on Sunday evening. (We can talk to the Mgmt. and get the required permission)
5. Officials also seem to be cooperative
(Placed the Arogya Water Filter of Wardha in the Mehboob Nagar Collectorate. Also told them about the low cost housing and sanitation provided by CSV. They are very intereted and hopefully things will move.)
 
Please let me know on how many of you are ready to visit Alampur the coming Sunday, 25th October. Some of us, TMAD members, will visit.

 

As of now, 7 members are confirmed.

Prasanthi, Satyakrishna, Ravishankar - TMAD

Chaitanya Kalyan, Kalyan and two of their friends - AMIGOs

I request active participation from all groups. At least one volunteer from each group would do. This way you can weigh the options of taking this place or not for the flood relief activity.

 

Please confirm your participation to Satyakrishna: 99666-85666.
--
Thank you.

with regards,
PRASANTHI.
http://groups.google.com/group/birdsofsamefeathers
----
When you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

In a gentle way you can shake the world.  The world may be big, but there are no small things. Everything matters.  Believe that you can and will make a difference. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

To be the change you want to see in the world, you don't have to be loud. You don't have to be eloquent. You don't have to be elected. You don't even have to be particularly smart or well educated. You do, however, have to be committed. If you're clear on what you want to change and why you want to change it, the how will come.


Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger and we will make not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large.

[Prasanthi]

Friends,

This is the final reminder. Please let us know if anyone of you are
interested to visit Alampur this Sunday. We have to work out the
logistics depending on the number of volunteers.

We will wait till 3 pm tomorrow (24th October) for your confirmation.
We will start early in the morning on 25th and return by 9 pm on the
same day. Only when you visit and talk to the residents, we can decide
on taking this up as a BosF project.

One good break is that Giri Kolanupaka's uncle is from Kattela Street
of Alampur, which is one among the four that I mentioned. He is very
much interested to take an active role in rehabilitating those
residents.

Seeking support from all of you. If one person's wish can influence
the Universe to help in fulfillment, I wonder what if many souls pray
for a same cause!! Stand up guys.... do come forward!!

Thank you.

with regards,
Prasanthi.

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

By the way, the idea is to do a comprehensive survey. Talk to each family, note down the list of family members, a group photo of them, their loss and requirements. (This does not mean we address all those needs. Just for information, we do this exercise. If not for anything, we can distribute family kits with the most important needs within our budget).

 

FYI:

http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/slideshow/22945

http://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/08/stories/2009100856160400.htm

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/oct/11/floods-wipe-out-historic-temple-town-in-andhra.htm

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/new-alampur-high-ground-646#

http://24dunia.com/english-news/search/Alampur-%c2%a0.html

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

Friends,

 

This is a brief update of our visit to Alampur last Sunday, 25th October.

 

Participants: 10 members  

• Prasanthi, Ravi Shankar, Satyakrishna, Dr. Sundar Raj, Chandana Potluri - TMAD
• Giri Kolanupaka - ASHA
• Nitin  - ITMD
• Kalyan (Friend of Raghuvineel of TMAD/RAYS/AMIGOs) 
• Pavan (Friend of Kalyan) 
• Uday Bhaskar (Lending Hands)

First we went to Govt. Boys High School and spoke with the Headmaster. Later we divided into three teams and covered Chinna Dargah Veedhi, Pakkal Veedhi, Santa Veedhi and Kattela Veedhi. Later we went to Brahmana Veedhi. Noted down the no. of families that are in the surrounding streets of Brahmana Veedhi.

 

Major demand being migration and provision of land at higher altitude.

 

There are seven govt. schools: Three primary schools and Four high schools. Other than these there are few convent schools too.

 

1. Govt. Boys High School (which is behind Gandhi's statue) is badly damaged with respect to infrastructure. There is not much of a loss to the building. This is the only school which comes under Panchayat. Panchayat has given Rs. 15000 to clean the premises and make it ready for the children to attend classes.

 

Established in the year: 1950

Teaching Staff: 10

Non-Teaching Staff: 4

Classes: 7 classes (6th to 10th TM; 6th and 7th EM)

No. of students: 180

 

Loss:

• Loss of records and furniture in Headmaster room
• Damage to benches and teacher chair/table in class rooms
• Science lab equipment was lost completely
• Ten computers got drowned and the educational CDs too got damaged
• Library room is not yet opened so cannot estimate the damage

Headmaster Mr. Abdul Haq (93916-25462) mentioned that it would be good if we can provide benches for students, chair/table for teachers in all classrooms (7) and furniture in Headmaster room. Apart from that Science lab equipment, computers, library books and books for children would help.

 

2. Chinnadargah Veedhi

 

We have taken the details of around 30 families here.

 

Loss:

Most of the houses got collapsed and are yet to be cleaned. Most of them lost everything....... utensils, clothes, books, the provisions that they saved (it is usual for them to buy in large quantities from Kurnool and store) etc.,

 

Occupation:

Sale of provisions in village market

Two of them sell the provisions (specially the spices) in the village markets.

 

Labourers:

Either construction workers or agriculture labourers or workers at polish shops (may be marble polish) (they say paalish pani) or Beedi rolling (specially women who can't go out or work in fields)

 

Tailors:

Nearly 7 to 10 members mentioned that they are tailors. They lost the machine and also the other accessories.

 

Snacks Vendor:

One family head used to sell snacks in a shop. The cart, stove, cylinder, big water container, kerosene -- everything was lost.

 

Cooldrink Vendors:

Three to four families sell cool drinks in rented premises. The machinery was lost.

 

Clothes and Chappal Vendor:

Elder brother used to sell clothes and the younger one (both are old in fact) sell chappals.

 

Coconut Vendor, Glass Fitting person, Electric contract work, electrical equipment shop, computer job work etc.,

 

All the residents in this street agreed to take used clothes in good condition.

 

Status of the street:

• Cleaning is not yet completed. Still the slush is wet and stinky on the streets.
• Pigs are having a good time and they are in very unhygienic condition.
• Only some houses were cleaned. Some are beyond repair and it takes time to clean.

Requirements:

They requested: provisions, utensils, stove, clothes, sleeping mat and books.

They said that they will use the water filter.

Some of them got the stoves.

 

My idea: To give each family one sleeping mat and water filter. If possible, books for children.

Though everyone requested for provisions, no need to provide.

 

If we can it is better to show employment opportunity by buying them any good quality second hand sewing machines and also items for sale in village market (A minimum budget of Rs. 6000)

 

As we visited each household, we were convinced about some of them that they are not greedy and request only the items that they require to get on in life.  

 

3. Brahmana Veedhi

30 brahmin families are residing here. We spoke with the Pujari of Jogulamba temple, Dasaratha Rao garu (98854-82973). More than their requirements he suggested to help the families in Telugu Veedhi, Mangala Veedhi etc., for whom no help reached.

 

He didn't show interest on water filter saying we are not getting enough water and so no use of keeping a filter. Instead we require stoves so that we can cook whatever the provisions that we receive from the donors or the govt.

 

For Brahmana veedhi (30 families), we can give the following:

1. A sleeping mat

2. Blanket

3. Clothes

4. Stove

 

4. Other streets

• Telugu Veedhi: 100 families - Pullanna (97035-80835)
• Mangali Veedhi: 60 families - Nagaraju (94402-61206), Anji (97056-76733)
• Netaji Nagar: 60 families - Santha (Anganwadi teacher) - 96423-38700
• Lakshmi Nagar (old hospital lane): 25 families - Mohd. Muktiyar - 99662-42548
• Narasimha Swamy temple lane: 60 families

Whatever we mentioned for Brahmana Veedhi, we can distribute the same in all these streets.

 

We have to actually verify and cross check this count by talking to any official. Mr. Khaja Moinuddin (94405-59010), an official in Panchayat Raj was with us (the team who did survey in Chinna Dargah veedhi and Pakkal veedhi). He spotted us when we were talking to the HeadMaster and requested us to visit Brahmana Veedhi and near by streets as no one visited them. As those streets were not in our original plan, we told him that depending on time we will visit. He came with us and helped us in getting the data. Our other teams had lunch at his home only (food is ours though:) ) He vacated the house and is staying in a near by village where he is working. He says that anyone who visits these streets can use his house as a resting place.

 

Strategy for distribution:

If we decide to give family kit to the families in all these streets (as we visited them and created a hope), we have to follow a strategy. There is no way that we can go with goods into the streets. People literally jump on our vehicles and grab whatever they can.

• We will cross check and zero in on number of families in each street.
• Buy those many kits and station ourselves at the place beside Montessary school.
• Give a call to the heads of each street and let them meet us.
• We will distribute coupons based on the number of families in their streets.
• These people will distribute them confidentially and one or two members from each family will come and collect their kit.
• The coupons would be printed in order with a serial (say CD01 for Chinna Dargah veedhi coupons, PV01 - Pakkal Veedhi, SV01 - Santaveedhi, KV - Kattela Veedhi etc.,)
• Four volunteers would be at each desk(one line for each street). One volunteer to make the people stand in line, one to verify the coupon and update the record, one to give the kit and another one is to supervise the activity.
• Identifying each person would be through Ration Card or else an assurance from a neighbour that they are the ones who they claim to be.

5. For Santa Street and Kattela Street, details will be shared by respective team members.

 

To be contd.........!!

 

 

[shiv@infosys]

Hi all,
Nitin and I from ITMD will be visiting this place on Friday and after
taking note we are considering buying the required things and
distribute among the affected families. We will keep you updated.

Regards,
Shivanand
ITMD

On Oct 23, 8:19 am, Prasanthi Uppalapati

<prasanthi.uppalap...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Friends,
>
> Greetings.
>
> Starting a new thread to discuss about this initiative.
>
> As part of our (DST Worldwide Services, the company where I work) Social
> Services initiative, some of my colleagues and I visited some remote streets
> in Alampur (as suggested by the Tahsildar Prem Kumar) and guided by Sri
> Anjaneya Sarma Dt. Incharge for Relief, Mehboob Nagar.
>
> The devastation that we saw there was so pathetic that I cannot explain and

> pictures can speak for themselves.http://picasaweb.google.co.in/prasanthi.uppalapati/DSTWorldwideServic...

> PRASANTHI.http://groups.google.com/group/birdsofsamefeathers

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

When returning from the place, we had a discussion about our experiences and opinion.

 

Opinion:

 

1. Most of them (except Giri Kolanupaka) thought that there would only be 250 families (but the reality was Kattela Veedhi itself has 250 families).

 

2. People are not interested enough to clean their surroundings and their homes as well so as to gain sympathy and get more provisions and items from donors.

 

3. They have no clue on how they can stand on their own feet and get on in life.

 

Ideas/Suggestions:

 

1. The top most priority should be given to cleaning the place as early as possible. Already two chicken gunya cases were noticed.

2. To motivate and make the people work, it is better to give them money to clean their surroundings and houses. This way it would be like providing them work and also cleaning the premises. Also to find out if govt. can provide them work under NREGS.

3. Vaccinate pigs or anything of that sort so that there would not be any health hazards either to pigs or to humans. Bluecross to be consulted.

4. People are not doing any work or concentrating on cleaning because they are not sure who will come when and distribute items. It is better to request govt./local authorities to clearly fix certain timings for distribution so that people can concentrate on their work.

5. Offer help to all the families that are identified as modest enough and not greedy.

a. Specially one physically challenged girl used to stitch clothes and feed her family which is entirely dependant on her. She lost the machine and the material. Everyone in that street requested us to help her. One sewing machine, stitching material and a tricycle would be of great help to her.

b. A person works on contract in govt. office to do computer work. He requested for a computer so that he can set up his own shop and do the job work so that he can easily earn Rs. 3000 to Rs. 3500 a month. He knows DTP and MS-Office.

c. A tailor family (elder and younger brother both are tailors) needs two stitching machines and one overlap machine.

d. A person who requested us to provide initial investment of Rs. 6000 to buy spices so that he can start his business and earn for his family

e. A cart and initial investment for snacks vendor would help his family.

f. There is a family where mother and father does not do anything and three girls are there. All of them work as agriculture labourers. The youngest is very interested to study. Her eyes literally glowed and there was a hope in her face when we asked her if she is interested to pursue her studies if we help. But all the neighbours came and mentioned that their parents are useless and these girls need not require any studies but they are to be married off and any help in that regard would be of great support and relief. Literally the helplessness and unexpressed anger on the face of the youngest and the younger one is so heartrending.  I asked the youngest girl if she is interested to stay in a hostel and pursue studies but she insisted on staying with parents. We need to help her at any cost.

g. Most of the children who are studying there want to become Urdu teachers.

h. One woman who is preparing for DSC lost all her books and guides.

i. Three to four families did not get Rs. 8000 relief amount from the govt. as they couldn't show their ration cards. What an irony. They are the real losers because they couldn't even retrieve their cards. They literally lost everything. But still they didn't receive money from the govt. Again everyone in the street confessed that those families didn't receive any help from the govt.

 

 

I spoke with Sri Anjaneya Sarma (Social Welfare officer and Relief Incharge for Mehboob Nagar Dt.) on Monday itself. This time he sounded different though he says that he will help.

 

Bottomline of his conversation is that:

• No need to dwell deep into administrative aspects of the problems.
• Govt. and the respective departments will do their work.
• People are too greedy and they never acknowledge the help they receive and they always crave for more and more help.
• As a social welfare officer, he assured the Chakali folks (washerman) an amount of 10,000 rs. for each family but they are demanding donkeys also. He exclaims that from where can he bring the donkeys!!
• If we are so keen to help decide on one or two items that they requested say stoves or clothes or mats etc., and distribute to the identified families based on our budget.  Whatever help he can do from his end he is ready to do and if possible, he will also accompany us.
• Even for stoves he wondered from where can they get kerosene.
• About sewing machines he denied saying that how can they manage their business if all of them are tailors!! It is only to stitch and repair their clothes they are asking us sewing machines and not all of them are tailors by profession.
• Even for school he didn't accept that there is the requirement of benches though I mentioned that we have seen that the benches are not in good condition.
• He suggested that if we are so serious to work for the village or for the people we should stay for few days and sort things out. When I mentioned that we did have that thought also in mind and are considering staying in Montessory school, he said that there is a govt. guest house (not sure if it is social welfare department's or collectorate related) and he can give that for two to three days.
• Coming to NREGS scheme, he said that there are stipulated guidelines and it is very difficult to measure the work (cleaning the slush and all) and give money. Cleaning the streets and repairing the homes do not satisfy the rules and guidelines of the scheme.

Regarding water filter, Collector didn't show any interest it seems and he placed that in the social welfare office and asked the employees to start using it and give their feedback. He is saying that the size is too small to consider giving an order for all the residential hostels under his control.

 

This is all from my end. I feel that we can distribute family kits to all those families (stove, mat, clothes, mosquito net) and provide material support to the selected families.

 

Coming to taking leave and spending time in villages, there is no chance for me now. I cannot think of leave till this year end as I got some important work with a strict deadline at office. I am open to visiting villages during alternate weekends.

 

(Though the universe conspires in fulfilling our wishes, god is above and beyond anything. Somehow HE always disposes our proposals :( We cannot question HIM for HE doesn't do anything without a reason. Only thing is we can never understand that reason for our life time!!)

[Prasanthi]

Reply from Sri Sastry:

Prashanti gaaru, this is a very comprehensive and succinct narration
of the situation at Alampur. Also pleased to see your analysis of the
situation. Yes these folks lost whatever they had for all these
days. That place was once a flourishing nice village when i was
growing. The local heads thought differently when the proposal was
made to shift the temples from the banks to further up. It was so
wealthy place once, it provided Benishan, the king mango to the
world. It had supplied rice, ground nut to the state. The down fall
started with the wall on the banks of Thungabhadra. As you have
noticed. no one really cared those families and the historic wealth of
the place. They are certainly looking at the officials to provide
them place away from this river bank and it is clear why they are
behaving that way.

Nonetheless, living up to the current needs of the place is
important. I agree with your plans and also some thoughts what
Mr.Sarma has provoked. My visit is scheduled to this December and
soon after arriving there, we are planning to visit alampur and
distribute the funds i collected from here. I will be very happy to
meet you guys and discuss the plan of action for these funds
distribution. Thank you.
Sastry

[Giri Kolanupaka]

Thank you Prashanthi garu for the comprehensive report.

I think its better if we make some kind of database (probably in Excel) with all the details (answers to your questionnaire, photo of family if taken and any other relevant data). I will make such database soon once I assimilate everything from our team.

Here are the major feedback from our team (me, Satya, and Ravi) after visiting Kattela peta:

• Most of the families are daily wage labors and men get Rs. 100 per day and women and children get Rs.50. There are event some 8 years old kids who even go as daily wage labors. There were only two land owners (2 to 3 acres) out of 200+ families we visited.
  
• Most of them lost their jobs (daily wages) since all the crops/fields and businesses are washed off in the floods. So, I personally think instead of giving material (which may also help, but only in short term and for immediate help), we should make them start working either by providing or creating some kind of daily labor. To start with, this could be cleaning their own houses, and premises. They can then do cleaning of public property like schools, hospitals etc. I think we can even try to get this worked out with NREGS (we can try to make them some exceptions if possible), or we can raise funds for ourselves and monitor the work (if we have enough time).
• There are few families, who lost lives, either during floods or after. There was one family, where the son died while cleaning his house and the wall collapsed on him. We were there at their house on his death ceremony!
• Most of the families lost bags of rice, dal, and other groceries, which they usually get from the land lords where they usually work.
• Some of them lost few cattle. Most of the cattle that they lost were goats, except couple of families that we talked to lost one or two buffaloes.Few of them were able to get their cattle along with them during the floods to montessory school and some of the cattle were found after floods.
  
• Most of the families now can survive only for the next 15 to 30 days, with the amount of relief that they have received, which includes Rs. 8000 and rice from govt and relief material from other NGOs. So, what after that? I do not think NGOs and govt can do this for ever and this is definitely not a solution.
  
• There are still some unreachable houses in the street because of the uncleared debris from the floods. There is lot of mud and accumulation, which has to be cleaned. Lot of foul smell. This is definitely a health hazard! I am totally worried about this. Luckily we did not notice many pigs in Kattela peta, but on our way to Kattela peta, there were many. There were few monkeys though, which are also dangerous, especially at this time, which will carry diseases along with them.
  
• A very few of them were business families, and the maximum profit that they make ranges from Rs. 10,000 to 30,000 per year. One family, which makes coa sweets from milk, says that she lost all her material (stoves, vessels, wood) and there is no milk to continue her business. She needs these material, which will make her life to be restored. Couple of families make "mirchi bajji", one vegetable vendor, one kirana shop etc. One muslim priest, 2 to 3 butchers. One is owner of liquor (kallu), one painter.
  
• Some families who have cattle, also requested for fodder and cattle feed.
  
• As per my observations about 75% children in families go to school and the rest were dropouts. Most of the school going children lost their books and it seems govt is providing them books to make them come back to school. There is one NGO, which is also providing books to children going to private school.
  
• Most of the families were not able to receive flood relief material supplied by NGOs since they were busy cleaning their homes. Only those who do not deserve to be given were only getting those material. There are lot of old people and helpless, who are not even able to go that far (they have to go to montessory school, about 1 km) to get the relief material.
  
• There were quite a few women in families who make 'beedis' and earn Rs. 20 per day by rolling beedis.
  
• There was one person (Gadige Buchanna), who claims to be a doctor (but a 10th pass), is also in a helpless situation. Sale Nagaiah lost his maggam and looms and he makes towels.
  
• There were couple of families who are tailors and earn up to 3000 per month.
  
• There were 2 to 3 families who live only on pension coming from elderly people and there is no other income. One of such family (Pinjari Khaja Bee), where all the 6 children are going to school lost all their books. 
• There were also few locked houses, since they have moved out of the town to a different village or town to their relatives. 
• Most of families we visited needs clothes (old are also OK) and bed sheets. Most of them have stoves for cooking. Distribution water filters may work out here, since there is some water being supplied by govt authorities here.
  

Pictures from my mobile camera: http://picasaweb.google.com/kolanupaka/Alampur# (yet to complete comments).

Photos from Satya: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/tmad.krishhh/AlampurKattelaPeta#

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzkjV8AXwPo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxSBRmsyB6o

Also updated: http://kolanupaka.net/?page_id=40 with this visit along with my previous visits.

After lunch, we took some information from families of Brahmana veedhi and Telugu veedhi. One thing that I liked about Alampur is that there are few streets like these where they are specifically for Brahmins (priests of temples and others pujaris) in Brahmana veedhi, street for fishermen (Telugu street). Both these streets have completely devastated than Kattela peta, since these are very close to temple and Tungabhadra river. Fishermen in Telugu street even are complaining that they are still not allowed to start fishing since they are warned by police not to get inside the river as there could be still more back waters from Krishna river coming in. Lot of houses collapsed and loss of property in Telugu and Brahmana street.

Thank you.

Regards,

Giri

--
http://kolanupaka.net

[Prasanthi]

Friends,

Giri garu and I discussed this evening and decided to take this up. We
will initially distribute family kit to each family (an estimate of
700 families max.)

Only these items will be included in the kit:
A sleeping mat - 65 rs.
A mosquito net - 90 rs.
Eco-friendly stove (the URL I posted) - 70 rs. to 100 rs.
Blanket - 105 rs.
Clothes - 500 rs.
Approximately 1000 rs. (we can make it 1000 rs. by procuring any other
useful article) for each family.

Tentatively 7 lakhs is our budget and may be another 10,000 rs. for
transport of kits and volunteers.

We will meet this weekend to talk to Mr. Khaja Moinuddin. We will ask
him to send the list of all families from the identified streets with
this data:
Street Name, Family Head, Ration Card xerox copy

This helps us in getting the exact count of families in all these
streets and we can get to know how many of them are without ration
cards. Coupons - we will print with matching data. While distributing,
we will update our records based on the ration card (any member from
the ration card photo is allowed to collect the kit on behalf of the
family).

Target date is Nov. 14th weekend. We decided to stay there for two
days. On the first day, we will distribute the kits and on the second
day, we will do another round of survey in kattela street alone, with
a more elaborate questionnaire to help Sastry garu in deciding the
exact needs and the kind of help required.

We also are interested to visit other govt. schools and prepare a
report on each school and its requirement. We may need at least 10 to
15 volunteers on 14th and 15th.

If we can raise more money, we will provide the livelihood material to
the families, which we find are modest and are not greedy.

[Prasanthi]

Friends,

For some obvious reasons (of raising fund and also to decide the most
useful items), we are not able to visit Alampur on 14th and 15th as
planned. We will definitely go on 21st and 22nd of this month.

Work is going on. We are exploring all the possible options. Will keep
you posted.

This is the update so far:

****Kalyan (AMIGOs team) promised that they would give Rs. 50,000 to
buy the portable stoves (@70 rs. each) for all the 700 families.

****RAYS group promised to provide school kits for the 10th class
students of the Boys High School that we visited in Alampur.

*****Hope for the Needy group came forward to provide all the material
that is remained with them after distributing and also to support 10
families

*****We can get the material from ISB volunteers as well

TMAD raised around 3 1/2 lakhs so far.

We need support from other groups to reach the 7 lakh figure as we are
trying to help the 700 families.

[harish reddy]

@prashanthi,

Whatever you people do, please do it carefully...   Amount is crossed 4 lakhs right.
I have gone through what you have mentioned to donate. Utilize in a efficient way as part of rehabilitation.

No hurries :)


Regards,
Harish
SAHASRA

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Thanks,
Harish
Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done,it's always your choice.

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

Yes, Harish. That is why we are taking this much time. We do not want to give for giving sake. We will thoroughly examine the situation and only then will take a decision. At the same time, we do not want to prolong too.

 

 

 

[Prasanthi]

Friends,

This is the update.

We are not able to get proper response from the community with the
minimal amount (Rs. 1000) that we are planning to contribute.

So we want to go ahead with the regular sleeping mats (2), one blanket
(as we find there are many members in each family and the coming
season being winter, it would be of use) and the cooking stove (if we
can find a proper place to make it).

Coming to agriculture labourers, we want to provide the tools that
they use in their day-to-day work. If anyone can give any info. on
these tools, how much they cost etc., that would be of great help.

Regarding Livelihood options, as we surveyed each household in
particular streets, we want to address some of them initially with the
fund that we have. We want to buy around 15 to 20 sewing machines.

We will mainly concentrate on lifting their spirits and provide them
hope and confidence to move on

Our Plan:

Livelihood Opportunities: We want to visit Alampur regularly
(alternate weekends) and be in regular touch with them. We identified
some youth who discontinued their education because of their financial
position. Some of them are not interested in studies and are mostly
going for this polish work. Want to gather the youth, encourage them
and join them in the SRTRI, Pochampally or Gandhi Institute as they
provide livelihood trainings.

Medical Camp: Want to approach ArogyaBharathi volunteers to conduct a
medical camp here (actually they did one in the initial days of
flood).

We are planning to go this Saturday itself. Will keep you all posted.

Thank you.

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

Friends,

 

Greetings!!

 

This is a quick update.

 

Instead of planned 7 lakhs, we could raise only Rs. 4,50,000. Out of which one lakh rupees is from Sastry garu and Rs. 50,000 is from AMIGOs.

 

Santosh of Hope for the Needy has given some material to us. Similarly Saayam Cheddam also will be sending some of their collection. K S Rao garu of Satyam Foundation collected few used clothes. Phaneendra of TMAD would be giving his used computer. (Not sure if he can arrange that for this trip)

 

We are set to go to Alampur tomorrow. We bought utensils set (2 cooking pots with lids, 2 eating plates, one lattle, one cooking spoon, 2 glasses, one big tumbler (chinna bimde)) one sleeping mat (4*6) and one mosquito net (4 *6).

 

For families in Brahmana Veedhi, we bought a cot (navaaru mancham) and mosquito net.

 

We are starting from Satya's house in Malakpet. We will be reaching there tonight. We require many volunteers tomorrow. So far we got confirmation from only 7 of them. We need your support. We need at least 20 volunteers. Please do come forward.

 

We are planning to start as early as 5 am so that we can return as early as possible. We are distributing to 700 families so large volunteer pool is required.

 

This is Satya's address: MC-277, Govt. Quarters, Malakpet, Hyd. Near Mumtaz College.

 

Pl. contact Satyakrishna: 99666-85666 or Giri Kolanupaka:99494-74871

 

WE NEED ANOTHER 10 TO 13 VOLUNTEERS. PLEASE DO COME FORWARD. 

 

Note: Volunteers need not spend for their travel and food.

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

Friends,

 

This is a quick update. We completed this exercise with 65% success.

 

I want to share lot of my thoughts in this regard. Will send a detailed mail in a day or two once I am back in Hyderabad.

 

Many thanks to all the volunteers who extended their helping hand and special appreciation goes to Satyakrishna and Giri Kolanupaka garu for making this happen.

[Prasanthi Uppalapati]

Friends,

This is about our visit to Alampur: Though it seems a very big mail to you, I didn't pen what all I wanted to share about my experience and thoughts. It happens. If we do not share immediately, we end up losing track and we get busy and will not have enough strength and time to share. (This is true in my case). As it is getting delayed to give an update, I decided to close this today at any cost.

In a nut shell, I can say that Relief (monetary or material support) does not serve any purpose. It neither offers any hope nor serves their needs.

Lessons Learnt

1. If you want to offer any help, offer to the entire village (place) but not to few families. Even if it is just a spoon or mug, that is fine. Never think of offering enough help only to selected families.

2. The place from where you distribute should be completely enclosed, there should not be any way open for others to throng.

We could distribute only 450 to 475 kits as planned. Remaining 225 were grabbed. So everyone of us were completely disappointed. We know that 100% perfection can never be achieved but still we were very much depressed for various reasons.

Execution

The reason why we decided on Alampur was that it was completely devastated and we thought we could do something there and to them. Why we thought of extending help to so many families was that we visited and spoken to them and it created some hope. We want to offer our help and there by gain their confidence and then work on providing livelihood opportunities and other stuff.

As distributing coupons going to each house would take time, we got the details through mail (ration card list) and then prepared coupons for each street. We gave a call to the representative of each street, asked them to distribute to the dwellers of their street and also suggested them to come in specified time.

Meanwhile we requested the Montessory school Headmaster to provide us an enclosure so that people cannot encircle us. We got a very good place wherein there are two gates and we have our volunteers at both the gates. Based on the Headmaster's suggestion, we even requested police to come in (was not interested though personally). Two to three constables came. Everything was going on as planned though the Brahmana veedhi dwellers were late and the delay did impact to a certain extent.

The only loophole was that there was no gate on the third side and people (specially of Akbarpet) came and began to make noise. These people blocked the place and there was no option for the actual coupon holders to come and collect the kits. The Akbarpet dwellers did not budge no matter how well we convinced them. Even the Principal/Correspondent came and tried to control to some extent. I tried Gandhigiri also (many of our volunteers didn't like it and were angry on me). I wanted to see if this works. It was like 50-50. They listened to only one statement of my request but not the other one which was crucial.

At last people boarded the van and grabbed the material. We could save some material that was there in another van.

Observations

1. Literally everyone requested for help saying that they too lost everything and are not getting any help.

a. School workers (even the Headmaster asked if we are interested to help them. Around 23 workers are there) and watchman

b. Police constables who came to help us in distribution

c. The doctor who works in the govt. hospital also sent a person to ask for help for her staff. I spoke to her over phone and she said that even she too has lost her property.

2. I was shocked by the nature of the people as I really didn't expect it from them.

a. They are fine even if we go back without distributing to anyone. Give to all of us or go. We do not mind. Even if it is a spoon, give to everyone.

3. Not every person was so.......!!

a. Many people heeded to my request and they understood when I explained. I told them we are not from government nor we from any big trust. Within our limits we are doing and we will keep coming to Alampur regularly and visit them too.

4. Miscreants

I feel the people who did the mischief came there for mischief only. They also would have suffered no doubt in that. Almost every person and family in that village got affected but not everyone behaves so.

5. Greediness

After the exercise, some of us went to meet the Correspondent to thank him for the support. He reiterated that we have to give to everyone otherwise give to PDS (Public Distribution System). When it comes to greediness he stated that the people who are rich grab lands and yearn to earn more and more and when compared to them these people who have lost everything were not greedy at all.

6. Less scope for livelihood

According to the correspondent, the people here have very less scope for livelihood. Most of them are agricultural labourers and petty shop owners.

What Next?

To be frank, I have no clue. Being discouraged and depressed enough by the fact that Rs. 4,50,000 and the entire effort has gone waste, I do not have a clear cut idea as of now on what to do next. I want to do something concrete to them directly or proxy as I promised help. (I also want to express my thanks to all the volunteers who supported. In fact, I feel very proud of their attitude. Everyone wanted to keep their promise. Though I know Kiran Anumalasetty since May this year, never get an opportunity to discuss with him. The discussion we had while writing coupons made me understand what he is. Till then I didn't know that he has such a depth and authority on life, philosophy, education etc., I felt very happy for the interaction. We have such wonderful people around and if we do not optimally utilize our strengths, we would definitely be culprits. We are not exploring and utilizing our collective strength in required manner.)

(This is not to boast but only to weigh the return of investment, Satya and I kept leave on Thursday to purchase the items. Giri garu joined us in the evening. On Friday, Satya and Giri garu purchased the items. Eleven of us were awake all through the night to pack, to write coupons etc., We planned very well and executed well too. Only thing is we didn't care about the worst case scenario though being warned by some of the localites and volunteers. I had so much of trust that I want to see it for myself if they really grab when we go with such a good plan and convince them of our motive.)

Anyway, if this exercise goes well probably I would never learn the lesson that I learnt now. I am never going to participate in any relief effort with monetary support. All the effort should go into rehabilitation and motivating the people there and if possible, offer enough guidance. We didn't aim this exercise for relief but as the first step of rehabilitation.

Advantages

1. The support from Montessory school Principal and Headmaster. They mentioned that if we inform them before hand they are ready to give their place to us for any livelihood initiative.

(As I understand if not on Sunday, other days it would disturb the children)

2. Members of many streets know about us now and it would not be like starting from scratch. They very well know that what they did was wrong.

(Kiran Anumalasetty spoke with some of the villagers there. I felt very amused (as I didn't know what to feel also) by their response. We hate our attitude but can't help. We only look for external help. Though we know that what we are doing is wrong, we wish to do. If we do not come and pick, it is only that we do not have enough strength to grab. We cannot sit idle if someone comes and distribute the kits)

3. Good rapport with authorities

One senior journalist, Usha, volunteered to introduce us to Damayanti garu, collector of Mehboob Nagar, as she has good rapport with her. Once we chalk out a plan or come up with any ideas, may be we can meet her and take her advice and support. Anjaneya Sarma garu is also cooperative.

Challenges

1. Gaining their confidence and convincing them to stand on their own.

2. The place being far and we could go only on alternate weekends. We do not have enough volunteers to distribute the task and see to that some of us visit Alampur every weekend.

[harish reddy]

Prashanthi,

 

I sincerely appreciate each and everyone who co-ordinated this herculean task

I request to stop this flood relief and would rather concentrate on something else.

 

What ever happened till now was your sincere efforts to help them. But it went in to most of wrong hands( why i mentioned wrong hands because-> people in these flood affected areas have lost hope in faith,truth,honesty). I don't want to make a discussion on this topic.

Your efforts were sincere. But i request you to work on something which can be handled perfectly at this time. I am submitting a deserving cause,which can be managed in a efficient manner.

 

Divine school(Free education) near by Uppal Ring Road has been waiting for a helping hand from a year.School is a well constructed building and holds 150 to 200 students. But no teachers to teach them.School consists a proper infrastructure.These students were joined by volunteers from Arrow and Abhilasha 1 year back by picking up from near by livelihoods. And this school was supported by provding some useful things by Abhilasha,Hope,Reddy Charity and Sahasra groups.Manikanth(Arrow group) is trying to take care of this school along with the old man who have donated this school building for kids education. This old man is a very spiritual person and never request for any funds. He even don't know how to ask for funds.

 

Current situation is there is no one coming forward to pay salary by appointing teachers.

School has everything but no teachers.

 

[we would like to sponsor this school but unable to do so as our complete monetary help is laid on our projects running in the rural areas of Mahboobnagar and Warangal. Still we need lot of funds for many things which are pending from our side. Similarly some of groups who helped previously in some way to this school might be in same situation.]

 

I strongly recommend this cause to the groups here(who can adjust funds for this cause as adjusted 4,50,000 for the flood relief)

 

Imagine the plight of those 150 students who are from near by slums, labour livelihoods. They are sitting idle in the class rooms without teachers. They are the future of our nation. Please support this cause.

 

Prashanthi please think of it, from day one Manikanth  has been requesting support from all of us for this cause). Why don't we support our internal activities and strengthen them. So that your idea of bringing co-ordination in all groups may happen.

 

Please think you have identified an activity for December related to old age homes, orphanage homes where some support is provided in a continuous manner.Why don't u consider this school where students are not receiving education.At least persons who are putting active efforts in searching the information can spend some time in this school and teach some subjects for some hours free of cost.

 

How ever you plan on the name of bosf,etc or on the concerned donor group, we will appreciate it.Manikanth will be ready to give you all the current details and can be held accountable for each rupee spent in terms of salary. Please support funds and identify a good teachers for those school at least for a year. So that 150 students will get a good education through BOSF.

 

You will see a considerable change and some achievement in purpose of starting this group.

 

Please think........

 

 

Regards,
Harish
SAHASRA Foundation
http://sahasraa.webs.com

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[panasaram krishna]

Hello Prashanthi

I am a member of ITMD. On the same activity ( Flood relief ) We visited Sunkesala village near to Kurnool and almost 100% i can see the same picture.

We( All ) tought to extend our support by the maximum what we can do, but they wanted to pull us down instead of coming up with the support we gave. Really our team felt very much disappointed at the situation some what like you.

I knew there is not much to tell you, there is one sector of people who are effected and the other who are not effected. Due to the other sector of people our support is not reaching into the right hands. Many say this is common ,may be , but we should ensure the percentage to the least. And which you have done to your max. The rest is out of our control. We also faced a similar situation.

 

We planned for 100 Kits ( 13 items ) disturbution and planned to shift the goods by small auto. On the way to Sunkesala village the auto driver stopped at a police outpost to check for the route and we have to loose one blanket ( one items out of the 13 from one kit ) , sorry it is not lost, i should say it as " THE POLICE STOLE  ".

Again after reaching we distributed the tokens and till then it was fine.And while distribution we met another police constable where we need his help and in turn demanded for 10 kits. Again to sort out we have to convince him for 200 Rupees which has to be given from our pockets. But to explain this situation i felt very upset.

So finally one thing we realize we have to change the system first as we planned and should not step into Social welfare activities. And we are going with our usual plans of Social awareness. 

May be i cannot convince all of you ,We ( ITMDians ) believe that system should be corrected and by default all these things get fixed up. We are giving our try. 

And to take this privilege i wanted to convey another news, We ( ITMD ) is one year old by Yesterday Dec-4 and entering to our second year. Hoping we archive the things we planned , a small step to change the system.

Panasaram007

[sriram rahi]

   Dear All,

              Let me take this opportunity to appreciate all the team members in making the trip partially successful as per the plan you all made, anyway every experience is a lesson to us. We should keep our legs in their shoes and think their situation, it is only my suggestion. We also distributed in Seripalli to all the families they required and ex sarpanch, one Mr.Ashok Reddy and one more enough guy who is Village Administrative Officer, they co-ordinated with the people who are doing relief activities in their village and also arranged a group of people for helping in the distribution part. Everything went fine there. We also recommended other NGO's to distribute other requisites to that village apart from what we did. It is a wondeful experience to all the groups worked( like Sphoorty, Viswa Jananee Seva Samithi, V-Care, HARD, SARVODAYA MANDAL, HMTV, FAPCCI, A.P ELECTRONIC GOVERNACE, TRUE INDIA, ESI DIRECTORATE. We have conducted a Medical Camp with ESI Doctors around 6 Members headed by Dr.Jonathan, Director ESI and Dr.Kranti Gau. They have checked all the villagers and given the medicines for minor diseases and also advised some of the villagers in advance to take precautionary measures in handling the diseases. We have distributed Vessels required for Primary School and Anganvadi School for Afternoon Meals. It went well there, but we couldn't keep our word only to supply feed for the animals. 
 
                           When it comes to Divine School case, kindly give me some details like, Number of Teachers required and Minimum Salary for them. I hope we can doing some serious work on that and try to give maximum inputs for successful running of the school in the coming days.


Best Regards,

Sriram Rahi          

[harish reddy]

Hi Sriram,

Recently we had a flood relief activity in yapthapur(mahboobngar) along with other groups vridhi,arrow,sathkruthi. We could distribute utensils set for each family. Distribution process went well as we had a help from few villagers. But we faced some disturbance.Over all it went weell.But we did not get much satisfaction as like in other projects which we are handling on a regular basis.

Concerned to divine school..Thanks for the response. Few others have also responded promptly.

Divine School is established by a retired govt. employee of Survey of India, with an intention to provide free education to the poor and needy students. He was supported by his friends and colleagues in the initial stages. but as years passed by, all of them left one after other and only the main founder is running the school from the past TEN years with his pension money. He was providing education to about 50 students until last year, june 2008.

Present status :

At present, the teacher left the job and we need to appoint suitable teachers for teaching the 100 students. The ayah is cleaning the school premises in the morning & evening everyday and is being paid by ARROW team.

Future prospects :

The school can serve as a hub for education and development in and around Uppal. It can be purposeful to provide education to many slum children and youth.

Challenges ahead :

Teachers are to be appointed in order to provide quality education to the students. Even the ayah has to stay for full time to clean and look after the children during the school hours (9.00 am to 4.00 pm). She is asking around Rs.1500 per month.

Minimum 2 teachers to max 5 teachers are required. They may ask 4000 to 6000 rs per month.  If we can raise funds for atleast 6 months or 1 year, students will receive a proper education.

School Address

DIVINE SCHOOL,Behind Sai baba temple,

The school is in Dharmapuri colony, Uppal, Hyderbad

At present Manikanth(Arrow Team)is looking into the devolopment and future planning aspects of Divine school,you can reach Manikanth on 9704184306.

 

Regards,
Harish
SAHASRA Foundation
http://sahasraa.webs.com

[Srivyal Vuyyuri]

Can we have some pictures of the school and the details of the building, infrastructure like built-up area, number of floors, number of class rooms, and other details.

Regards
Srivyal

Please write a review about your experience with Sphoorti: visit http://greatnonprofits.org/nonprofits/invite/1530601

[harish reddy]

Manikanth please share the details with everyone here!

[ManiKanth - ARROW]

I thank all the active members of BoSF for ur prompt involvement in
the issue of Divine School.
The school has 3 floors ( Ground + 2) There are 6 rooms on each floor.
Out of the 3, one floor will be needed for the residence of the
founder (principal) and office, visitors room and for keeping other
equipment etc. The other 2 floors can be used for classrooms. This 12
classes will be sufficient to allot one room for each class from LKG
to Class 7th. ( School is recognised by Govt of ap from KG to Class
7). Each class can take up a maximum of 40 to 50 students. So, the
capacity of the school to educate the slum children is upto 500
students conveniently.

If sufficient teachers are employed and if we are in a position to
sponsor or pay them, we can provide education to around 500 slum
children. At present there are around 100 students. If there is a
scope for appointing required number of teachers, we are ready to do
the ground work in and around the slum areas of that locality and join
more poor / orphan/ semi orphan children. At present 3 to 4 teachers
are required for the present 100 students. When we can pay more
teachers, we can pool in more children in summer for coming academic
year (june 2010).

By supporting this school, we can provide education to such students
who otherwise would suffer in the society or become victims at present
level and a threat to society in future. Its in the hands of society
(us) to see whether they become an asset to the civilized society or a
threat. Plz feel free to ask for any more required details. Iam
willing to my best for the promotion of education to this needy and
underprivileged children. Thank you.

On Dec 6, 1:49 am, harish reddy <harishchin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Manikanth please share the details with everyone here!
>

[Prasanthi]

From Alampur, this discussion got deviated to Divine school. Thanks to
Venkat who initiated another thread.

Let me share some more responses to my post before I reply with
further information.

From Kanthi Kannan:

1. I think that whatever we take up we should not leave it midway
through. Use the learnings from your visit and see if you and a few
others can actually do shram dan ( work with your hands) . Other ideas
of helping them are


A. Check if these weavers etc can get alternate livelihood. For
example can these people get to the NGERA scheme and get at least a
few days of work.
B. The government and several agencies had given a fair amount of
money to the displaced people, most of the money gets into the hands
of the politicians,so your team can help at least a few people file
the necessary papers and get the relief


I am sure that if more thought is given we can all come up with ideas
that would really help the flood victims.


2. In case you do not want to take up work that is so far, check out
something nearer but more than money use all your education and other
skills to plan and also help the people in that area ( not flood
victims/ but someone who requires help) but ensure that they are self
reliant and need not always depend on the charity of others.


The government is said to give a lot of aid to schools and other
institutions. Check these through the RTI and use your talent/ skill
to effectively help them.


I think that all of us make a number of mistakes but the person who
wins makes a learning from these mistakes and sees them as
opportunities and not regret them as blunders.


I think that in your mail you had outlined some of these points but I
thought that I would like to share my thoughts with you.

From Usha Turaga Revelli:


Thank you for mentioning me in the mail though I have contributed
virtually nothing to your major endeavour.

I am at the same time saddened and happy abt ur Alampur experience.
Happy because it shows there are people like you and your team mates
who have so much spirit and commitment to take up something on such a
huge scale. Don't be heartbroken because what you have achieved is not
a small thing.

Saddened because YOU are so disappointed with it. Let me be frank,
saddened but not surprised. I was in Alampur three days after the
flood and noted the heaps of clothes lining the highway, the roads to
Alampur and Rajoli and even in the relief centre. We then warned a lot
of ppl wanting to help not to send used clothes as the villagers do
not seem to care. I personally saw bags of rice bursting open and
falling to ground as those with muscle power snatched away bags,
trampling old ppl and helpless women and kids.

When I called Damayanti about a week after to tell her some of my
friends from Bangalore were coming with relief material, she had asked
me to ask them to wait because there were hooligans in the village who
were simply snatching away the material. Most of them did not even
belong to those villages. And even the villagers were in a state of
shock and were behaving erratically. That is probably the situation
that you guys faced too.

I have to admit that I am no expert at relief activities but, speaking
from personal experience here and at many other places, I have seen
that the district administration MUST be involved. And the involvement
should begin right at the top, collector and SP, so that the
instructions percolate down and the village is kept under strict
surveillance and order. And people will fall in line automatically as
they are used to that system. Even the low-rung officials can't do
anything.

My proposal that you should meet Damayanti BEFORE you went to Alampur
was just for this reason. So that she will ensure there is strict
control. But i did not want to push it too much as it would be rude of
me as I haven't even lifted my little finger to contribute to your
hard work. And had no right to offer free advice without knowing your
plans.

At the end of the day, I believe that you losing heart is much worse
than the loss of material. I am really sad about that.

Anyway, what is over is over. Let us forget the nasty part and think
ahead. I think you guys deserve appreciation and can justifiably pat
yourselves on the back. Enjoy your success, and it WAS a success as
far as you are concerned because, after all, you cannot help people's
greed and gross behaviour. I am sure all those in Alampur who got
genuine benefit out of your exercise appreciated it too, though we
could not get a feedback in the melee.

I promise to be with you in whatever you are planning next time and
contribute my own teeny-weeny, humble little.

cheers and congratulations. Forget the nightmares. :)

From Sastry Sirikonda:
This is Sastry from US. I have been copied on your mails by Prashanti
garu and Giri ( he is related to me) and thoroughly enjoyed the
association with you guys so far. When I heard your team planned to
visit Alampur from Giri about few weeks ago, I immeaditely requested
him to put me on alert of all activities pertinent to that place …why
Alampur? I am from that place originally. I knew that place in and
out and the nature of the people, ofcourse until I moved out here in
1992. My heart throbbed when I saw the entire place submerging under
water, and my brother and all the residents losing their homes,
belongings and other essentials in the floods. I felt it is my duty
to react to this situation and do something back there, and indeed was
able to contribute to the recent rehabilitation efforts by TMAD. I
was quite impressed by the response of all telugu people from the
state at that need hour providing their helpful hand to these
unfortunate victims in Kurnool and Mahaboobnagar. I had, however, all
along a question in my mind how honestly the funds and donations will
reach the victims. I was quite amazed by the distribution activity
undertaken by TV9 and read several other NGOs working tirelessly
providing a helping hand! I found yet another young and indefatigable
group, TMAD that focused on Alampur, thanks a ton to Giri.

Enough of this prologue, let me congratulate you all for the wonderful
efforts from all of you. As Usha garu justified, you deserve kudos
for the job well done. I see this providing you, if you all think it
was disappointing experience, an opportunity to adapt your way to
approach the issue, in particular for you all who are on the way “To
Make A Difference”. I would like you guys think the lessons learned
from this and then come up with invigorated energy to brush off and
push ahead towards your Goals. We were a great society, provided the
civilization to the mankind in the form of doctrines, philosophy and
technology. Yes, now we are told by others how to behave.. how to be
courteous….how to be successful and so on! Our kids do not hesitate a
second to lie… we are ready to sell our morals… ethics … for
anything! Who is responsible for this change in that greatest
society… amazingly we are all responsible for it. The spark I see in
you all that certainly is what I have been waiting to see in my Indian
society… you all have just the right power, attitude and courage “To
Make A Difference”. Please don’t be disappointed at the actions of
those who ravaged you… wake up… be stronger…. get going on the path of
the big change that our society well waited since the independence!
Your hard collected moneys (Rs4.5 lacs) is not a testimony what you
are. You have a greater job to do… do not get perturbed by this
incidence. Remember, Alampur is a statistical sample of what India is
today….eventhough it is n=1. Go back there… or anywhere but adopt a
school… adopt a child… please teach them the real education….make them
aware what we see today is not we are… we are much better than any on
the earth. Yes you are sacrificing…your time… money…time from your
families. But my friends…I cant see you all disappointed …we need you
there…for bettered India Tomorrow!

My two cents for the fiasco at Alampur:
I gave Giri a hint how the people are behaving as cautioned by my
brother. You would have had several volunteers with you. You should
have taken preliminary survey of your distribution center and planned
a good event management ahead of time…like securing the supplies…
locking the gates and such. I heard that the place has a sizable
number of SC families. You must have identified families from these
streets also as I was told the miscreants were from here. Finally, it
is like…dongalu padda aru nellaki… annatlu, I would have not provided
provisions or utensils after 45 days of the floods. My brother says,
all the families now have plenty of supplies. What you guys need to
provide them should be definitely different from this material
contribution. Select a school… select hundred female kids… provide
them continuing education and monitor progress etc. Hope to see you
guys rejuvenated and motivated. Good luck.

From Chaitanya Ganesh:

It was a great job by all those who have worked including the donors,
for the relief effort. It is not easy to manage such kind of efforts
when there is so much of devastation that happened.

In such a scenario 70% is a huge success, i know that we aim for the
highest 100% but practically in these situations achieving 70% is
tremendous effort. Without so much of ground work and planning it
wouldnt have reached even 50%.

Great job guys, that was terrific. There is nothing to be sad about
not making it 100%, at the end of the day the material reached the
distressed, may be some of them are well off.. thats ok. We need to
give ourselves a bit of leverage here :).

Its good that we have certain lessons learnt and also we made
impression in the people over there. They would recognize those who
were their on the ground and associate certain credibility for our
efforts.

Now that we have made this much of effort, we need to see how to
elevate these people from being dependent to self sustained.
You said most of them were farmers and now do not have anything to do,
we need to check what resources are available nearby to this village
and how can we create opportunities out of it..

So lets focus our energies in such a kind of thought process and may
be collaborate with some of the small scale industries if required and
create revenue options, so that they can work from their homes and
earn some income.

I will start my research from mid december on this, for those who
cannot involve directly on ground we can support the members on the
field by researching on such options and digging our contacts and see
how we can make this a reality.

Success stories are not made by just dreaming, we need to make that
extra effort to make the dream a reality.

Hope to listen from you all on what options can we provide for these
people to be self sustained. Remember that we dont have to provide a
solution for all the villagers... we put forth all our ideas and see
how best we can utilise each of those. Definitely there would be a lot
of counseling required for these people to come out of their comfort
zone start something afresh.

We can make a huge difference in their lives, this is a great
opportunity for every one of us to make that difference. Especially
with such a great team on-field, we need to utilize all the efforts
they have made.

From Arun Eluru:
Good Job Indeed....

I could relive all those feelings as I read this mail. Not just teh
feelings of our volunteers but of the doctor and teh head master and
those people around. Theya re helpless and I dont think its 70%
success just bcoz we cud nt give it to the 30% of the families whom we
intented to give. Even those who got(grabbed rather) are in need. If
they got from soem one else already doesnt mean that they have got
sufficient for their life time.

I am impressed by teh reporter who explained this with comparision to
a land grabber who is still not satisfied and still wants more n
more..... may be its me and may be its you too in our own jobs,
promotions... we want to get the hike, promotion else would grab it if
given a chance... So need not blame those poor souls who had to
grab!!!!! Felt very bad....not just for them...but for teh condition I
am in!!!! Knowing all their apathy, I dint move out my home....... I
wanted to go there every time u all moved, I thought of coming.....
Hmmmmmm..

SOrry If I deviated from the thread....

Just wanted to say that its 100% Success and not Distinction or First
Class.

From Giri Kolanupaka:

I am totally disappointed and dissatisfied with the way things
happened in flood relief (I do not want to call this as rehabilitation
and it is not). I would not even give 0% success to our whole
exercise. The actual purpose of what we wanted was to have some kind
of rehabilitation to be done in 4 streets identified (initially) in
Alampur. But we ended up doing nothing other than relief work after
more than a month after floods, which many people (organizations and
others) have done just few days after floods. By that time villagers
(Alampur) have already got used to be getting so many such relief by
so many other organizations and got used to snatching whatever they
can while distributing the relief material. It was only the strong
people or the trouble makers who ended up getting the material
multiple times and the weak could not get what they are supposed to.
Even though we tried to minimize this, by giving them the tokens,
trying to stop the trouble makers by having gates (two of them) closed
and only allowing the people who have tokens in to the Montessori
school campus, they still could manage and break in after 70% of
distribution. With this, we still created a huge gap and there are
many people who deserved to get the relief material did not get! So
this way, we failed miserably even in distributing the material to
deserved. There were even reasons made for this (snatching) to happen
by some of us who went for this activity and by people there that we
should have distributed to all the people (3800 families) at once by a
small amount rather. There are people from other streets who thought
that they are not going to get anything, who got disappointed and
there are also few people who took two or more tokens (may be
genuinely for their neighbors or parents etc), but this looked as if
we have been partial to them since they got more than two sets. We are
also not sure if this is genuinely done or not. All of these could be
the reasons, but we never know even after all these the same thing
could have happened as the cheaters are always cheaters and will try
to cheat whatever the case is.

Our preparation:
We finally decided up on giving two sets of aluminum cooking utensils,
one steel water can, two steel glasses, two steel serving spoons, two
steel plates, one mosquito net, one sleeping mat in a nicely packed
bag. All of these whole set costed around Rs. 500 per set (Satya can
give exact figure). We planned to give this set for 670 families in 7
streets identified by us. We also took 30 navar iron foldable cots for
30 families in Brahmin street, which each costed Rs. 500 and
additional small items for each family.

We (Prasanthi garu, Satya and myself) had been to Begum bazar for
shopping of all these on Thursday evening. We did buy all of them or
rather booked and asked them to deliver the next day to Satya's house.
Myself and Satya also bought 30 cots in Nampally.

We (7 volunteers) started at 10 PM Friday (20th Nov) evening to pack
all the material and we still could not complete all of the packing by
the time the trucks came in the morning at 4AM. We had nice break and
performances by Naval (flute) and Ravi of CARPED (he made a musical
instrument by a hair comb and paper). By the time we completed all the
packing and shifted all the material in to two trucks, it was 6:30AM.
By the time we moved it was 7 AM.

When we actually started to think what kind of rehabilitation that we
could do for these 4 streets of Alampur identified, there were quite a
few ideas and good suggestions and none of them worked out. Mostly
because, there was no good cooperation from the mediators that we
identified like Maddilety, Khaja etc. I dont want to blame them either
for what happened because, what they thought sounded reasonable to us
and we just did what they suggested. For example, what Maddilety when
asked what we could to make their life come back to normal and asked
him to give suggestions on what tools we could give them to make them
get back to work etc. He only told us that it will not be a good idea
to give different things for different families and there will be no
limit in the families demands etc. He finally made us get what we took
with us.

My final thinking of what we could have done (or could not have done)
and could do further (if at all):

1. Never give any monetary or support in kind after few days of any
calamity. Give that kind of support only for immediate relief.

2. We could do things better only if we become part of the villagers
or local people. We should get well along with them, try and
understand their requirements, what they do, how they do, their daily
routine, life etc. Only then, we can make a decision on what can make
their life come back to normal. This can happen if we can spend full
time with them, which is highly impossible.

3. The other thing that we could do is identify any NGOs (non profit),
who are doing work locally (in any of the activities). Take their help
and coordinate with them to see how we could work with them. This will
help us do things better in terms of identifying the villagers
requirements etc. They since they have been associated with the
village, they know them very well and their suggestions could very
well be taken and will reduce our efforts much in doing
rehabilitation. We can then concentrate on just money raising and
monitoring. This is how Asha is working now in doing flood
rehabilitation. Unfortunately, we could not find any of these kind of
non-profit organizations in Alampur.

4. We could take up new vocational trainings to the villagers, like
the stove making (the idea from Dr. Sai Bhaskar's eco friendly
stoves). any other trainings that can be made using the local
material. Of course there needs to be lot of brainstorming etc that
needs to be done for this and needs some help from the villagers
themselves as what they like to do going further. This also needs a
lot of effort from us in making this happen.

These are just my opinions. Finally, it was really great effort from
all of us, especially Prasanthi garu, Kiran garu, for all your
efforts, Satya is the best of all, including nice hospitality in the
night and making us feel like at home with food being made for
breakfast and lunch during our trip made by her mom. Thanks to one and
all for making all these efforts. Its just that I felt that these
efforts could have been used in a better way! I really enjoyed the
trip, especially the talk that we had (myself with Kiran garu, Mahesh
from HOPE). We had nice talk about our economy, which has to be coming
from farmers and villages, and then talked about education system,
what it actually means and how we are treating it these days. I can
never forget this.

The photos uploaded at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tmad.krishhh/AlampurDistribution#

I will initiate another thread on Alampur explaining the background of
why we have chosen this and also the answers but some ifs and buts as
I introspect.