[STF Update] Chennai Disaster Relief

[Velu Raman]

Vanakkam Everyone,

Thanks to all of your contribution by thought, word and deeds. After many people reaching out to us wanting to support the flood victims in Chennai, we wanted to do something. STF has brought together a committee to oversee fundraising, find out the immediate needs of the flood victims, identify trusted on the ground resources that act immediately, and the optimized proper use of collected funds to reach the affected victims directly. We are currently working though multiple channels to properly utilize the collected money.

The Colaberry team has internally fundraised $1,500 and Colaberry is donating $2,000 in matching. The STF family has come together and raised $5,000 internally so far, and STF has matched $2,000. Currently, we have total committed funds of $10,500 to use directly for Chennai flood disaster relief. 

First $500 was sent to Chennai through Baskar Adaikkalam, our STF volunteer, he and his nephew got together with Actor Vishal's team who has a lot of manpower. They found out the immediate needs of people in North Chennai and distributed blankets, towels, milk powder for babies, medicines in general for babies and adults, preventative Siddha medicines and Sanitary napkins directly to support the flood victims. Then $100 was given to the same team though Baskar, and this time similar materials were sent to Cuddalore. 

A couple of hours back we spoke to Shankar, editor of Tamil.OneIndia.com, and found out the needs of the people around his area. He has manpower and good support system to join hands with him to help. $1,000 has been transferred to him to be used for direct support for flood victims. The plan is to buy 25 liters of drinking water for ₹50 each, and preventative medicines for ₹80 per family for areas around Pallikaranai, Madipakkam and other ares around Shankar's accessible vicinity. We have confirmation that he and his team has arranged and is in place to support over 100 families, distribution will start soon. After Mr. Shankar and his team and render support, he will analyse and let us know the needs once again. In the upcoming days, we plan to send him another $1,000 for relief use.

Udavum Karangal has also been affected by the flood and $2,000 has been mailed to Udavum Karangal of USA for disaster relief.

We talked to Mr. Samy Sakthivel, he is one of our past Tamil School parent who currently lives in Chennai. He works for a four star hotel in Guindy and is already distributing filtered water from the hotel. He mentioned that he will also drive through and analyse the situation where there's immediate food need and let us know and he agreed to help on our behalf. 

We are only sending money to trusted sources to ensure that we are able to do the most good with the resources we have. Our aim is to send steady support funds over the next few months. There is huge need in Chennai now and the following few weeks and months, we will do all that we can do to help as many people as possible for as long as possible. If you would like to help the Chennai flood victims, please contribute though the link below. We will update you as we get more information.

http://stfnonprofit.org/wepay.html

- Velu Raman