Our plan of action

On 1st July I had sent an email communication to my friends for two purposes:

a) Updating them about the plight of the people in Sunderbans (via links to this blogpost and uploaded snaps on Picasa), and

b) Explaining the course of action we have taken to first decide what (and how much) we can do and then to frame up how to do it.

Sandeepan advises me to share that email communication on this website. I see no harm in sharing the same with people visiting this blog. Doing the needful below.

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My college mate Sandeepan and I joined a group of acquaintances to participate in a visit to Sunderbans to distribute relief to cyclone Aila affected villagers in a remote part of the Sunderbans named Satjelia.

I have tried to put up an account of the experience we had on that day in this blogpost. Request you to go through it now if time permits. I am almost inclined to say that I am willing to call up and explain the experience to you in person. I would love to do so, but I am going through a phase when I can hardly manage that kind of time. Hence that post. Hope you do not miss out to go through the picture and video links for (i) the journey to Satjelia and (ii) visit to Aila affected village Chargheri (Chargheri is a village in Satjelia no. 10 area)

After that visit, some of us want to seriously be responsible to take up a particular affected area of Suderbans on an extended basis. It will all depend on the resources we can pull in. Right now we are trying to assess our capability on five aspects:

1) To identify an affected place which is remote, which is not receiving essential help and where we can manage to sustain the operation through an apolitical setup facilitating the relief ditribution (could well be Chargheri which fits the bill, or some other)

2) Ensuring one of us can take turns to visit the place to keep a control on the distribution process

3) To have a control on the distribution process which will involve some other concerns like polarisation of local people & mass flocking from 'non adopted' villages,

4) Establish a way of stock-taking to ensure that target people are receiving the relief and that relief stocks are not getting misplaced / misappropriated, and

5) The funds that we can pull in over this extended period, so that we can assess exactly how many people we can aim to support with bare necessities (rice, essential medicine, used clothes, mosquito nets, etc) for that period of time.

[This post tries to summarise the approximate expenses per head per year - the figure is not too much per person but the smallest unit we can adopt is a village. If funds permit, we can possibly go for a small cluster of 3-4 villages]

When we are through with this exercise, I may come back to you to ask for help. If we do ask, we are likely to ask for a commitment from you as to what amount (if any) you think you can contribute to this cause. We may also ask whether you have any problem if we want you to give us the option to decide when to request you for it.

This is because we are not opening any fund account; instead every time we need funds we plan to ask for the commited amount from a different set of people, raising just enough to ensure that supplies we send in that instalment are adequate. Please be absolutely clear that after committing you will be asked only once - it is only that we may request that the time of asking be left to us.

As I said, we are first assessing our capabilities and resources to see this effort through. The last thing we want is is to adopt some people and then say to them one fine day "hey folks - this is the final time as we can't do this anymore - best of luck" and never return.

If we think we can manage the above issues and last the distance, we come back to you.
I know you well and long enough to expect a frank answer from you.

Thanks for the patient hearing.

Angshuman

Note: Even if we do not come back to you, I request you to look for ways to contribute in your own way towards helping his people out of misery. Maybe you already have.

And do spread the message that people in this area may need more help over a period of time than is now forthcoming.

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