We need you

Aila is a tropical cyclonic storm, formed due to severe depression over the Bay of Bengal, near coastal Bengal. It hit West Bengal and Orissa as well as Bangladesh on 25th May, 2009. The severe storm with tidal waves, caused by winds of speed up to 110 kilometers per hour, continued to play havoc till the evening of 26th, from coastal Sunderbans to the Hills in the Darjeeling, causing widespread damage to human life and property and left millions of people homeless.

According to Government sources the total loss is 1300 crores of Rs. and assessment report of damage is as follows:

Affected people : 67 lakhs
Loss of life : 137
Most affected area : North and South 24 Parganas, specially in the Sunderbans
Houses destroyed: : Almost 9 lakh semi permanent
houses. Till middle of June, 3.78 laks of people were in shelters of 765 relief camps
Severe damages : 500 kms of earthen dyke in the Sunderbans breached and saline water inundated the villages, poisoned the agricultural lands (2.89 milion ha), rendering them useless for around next two seasons, 100% loss of standing crops and substantial amount of stored crops.

The Sunderbans bore most of Aila’s wrath. Being remotely located and poorly connected with land part, many of the island villages here had received very little sustained assistance from Government or other non Government sources. Chargheri village in Satjelia Island is one such worst affected village. It takes 3.5 hours by boat to reach this place from the last land point (Gatkhali) connected to Kolkata city by Road.

After Aila, Purbasha, an Eco-tourism organisation by local village people sent SOS to everyone they know in Kolkata. Immediate response came from a Chandannagar based club and subsequently the baton was passed to a combined initiative of PAKT, a team comprising Pather Katha (an Orkut based community), ATMA (a benevolent organization of Jadavpur University Students of Civil Engineering, 1995 batch) and Khela Ghar (a Garia based club). None of these organizations are NGOs.

The members took part in the relief at Chagheri as individuals on 28th June, 2009 and after seeing the conditions decided to joined hand together to continue assisting the people there with food and medicine.

So far during 4 weekly visits (fourth visit is about to start while writing this) PAKT has been able to distribute 5700 kg of rice, medicine worth more than 25,000 Rs., Mushuri Dal 100 kg, Mosquito net - 35 pieces, soyabean Chunks - 60 kg, 4 big bundle of clothes, 350 packets of ORS, 250 packets of biscuits, 200 Candle Sticks, 200 Match Boxes. The distribution mechanism formed by the local people, (mainly by the people of Purbasha) under our supervision are performing effectively in ensuring distribution in an unbiased manner. Presently, the concentration is mainly on providing rice (@ 500 gram per head per week for 2800 villagers from Chargheri and nearby 4 villages Santigachhi, Parashmani, Lahiripur and Bidhan Colony) and medicine.

The cost of weekly assistance provided by us is around 30,000 Rs. including transportation cost from Kolkata to Gatkhali and cost of mechanised boat. We are determined to continue this assistance for at least another two months by which time local people are expected to rebuild their houses, receive Government assistance and find out alternative livelihoods. However, our aim is to continue for four months as the Government sponsored permanent dyke repair work will start by that time and people may have a steady source of income.

With the available funds of the participating groups of PAKT we cannot continue for another two weeks. So we request for assistance from all people. ATMA has a bank account to which all the contributions can be made.
Will you kindly extend your support to us??