The following is a quick report from Timbaktu Collective , an established NGO working in Anantapur Dt. of Andhra Pradesh. They make a good point that most of the relief materials will go to the urban areas and remoter rural areas will be badly neglected.
Please visit Timbaktu.org for contact information in case you would like to contribute to their efforts:
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As you all have already heard, Kurnool, Mahabub Nagar and Vijaywada
districts have been inundated. Some of the dams near Kurnool have
breached and its a real mess. Atleast in Vijayawada area the both the
people and the govt have some experience with disaster management and
have got their act together fast enough. Here in Rayalaseema and
Telangana, floods being unheard off, the situation is rather grim.
Mary and 6 others have gone to the area on a reconnaissance mission to
find out what is the damage and what can be done from here. The rest
of the 90 odd team members have started a fund and food collection
campaign in all the 140 villages we are working in. Quite a bit of
relief is already flowing into the towns and cities affected but
barely anything has even begun in the villages. Our idea is take up an
one village that is so remote that nobody will go there and do what we
can.
I have just received a call from Mary. They are in a village called
Sherupalli in Mahaboob Nagar, next to the river Krishna, near the
famous Alampur town. There are 270 houses. The whole village was
inundated. The people managed to get to safety but seem to have lost
most of there belongings including animals. The people have just begun
to return, there are still low lying patches where water has not
receded. Thousands of sacks of rice and other food grains can be seen
washed to distances or broken and spread all over. Quite useless for
eating. Potable water is not yet secured. Mary says that she can see
many weavers who have put all the yarn and stuff out to dry. Most of
the looms are still in place but many are quite badly damaged. Much of
the utensils etc have been washed away.
Mary and the rest of the group are the first outsiders to have reached
and the people at first thinking that they were govt officials, were
quite irrate. Mary managed to convince them that they had come from
over 300 kms away and not officials... . Mary's immediate reaction is
that food is required and then ofcourse cotton dharis and blankets,
buckets, soap, candles, cooking utensils.... But we are not clear as
yet what. They are making a sort of inventory.
Meanwhile, our teams here have managed to raise about 5 tonnes of
grains, especially rice, from the villages till now. We got into the
act rather late and both TDP and Congress workers have already been to
the villages to make collections. Unfortunately all this is either
going to the bigger towns and cities like Kurnool. They are also
reaching villages that are more accessible.
I am not yet sure what action we will take. We are waiting for the
next bulletin from Mary. Meanwhile if you and other friends decide to
pitch in and make collections then please do think about money first
and let us know how much you can contribute so that we can make an
estimation before we make any promises at Sherupalli. Please pass on
this information to others please.
More later
Bablu
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