Informative videos on Chargheri 4th trip

Please find in this post some youtube video links of the 4th Chargheri visit videos uploaded on youtube (chronologically sequenced below - links given in red font).

Many of these videos are 'annotated'. In other words, texts explaining specifics now appear in the video at relevant points, and automatic pauses have been also provided in the videos as suitable so as to let you read the information on offer. The annotation has been done with the aim of explaining the contents of these videos better, as well as to try and take the viewer close to the scene of action.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxiWYa4QAQo

(En route videos showing that high tide water level in Sunderbans area generally exceeds ground level inside the dykes)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8mpRdEENds

(Our boat is poised to enter, through a breached dyke of Chargheri, into an area that used to be agricultural land till 28th May)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiHPq66ieXQ

(Our boat sails through earstwhile Chargheri farmland that is now lost to the river due to dyke breach during Aila)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1esm5GEhTs

(View of Broken dykes)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PCx4KF2pRw

(Another video of land areas lost to the river)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inFZdsLGV6s

(Dewatering pumps on dyke)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTrQ_1L0m4Y

(Location of lowtide access to Chargheri from the river bed - now inundated due to hightide)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYG9IEtMBTM

(New dyke under construction)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2XhDW1PJVY

(Implementation of distribution through cards)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hH7zCNIrXw

(Saptarshi on the job)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws2kYxcGtCI

(Interview with local old woman)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4sSoexsFJs

(Dipankar pushing injection - and apathy of some local people to cleanliness)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwPuiEecni0

(Return to the boat in heavy rain - and a remote view of banks of Chargheri at dusk as we walk deep into river bed in the lowtide to get back to boat)

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These links were already provided in the previous blog posts on 4th visit. However the annotations added to these videos over the past few days will hopefully serve to speak out on the situation at Chargheri as we see it, and on the distribution process that we have implemented. We believe you will find these video more informative after the annotations.

It will be gratifying if supporters of Sunderban cyclone relief activities (of any kind - HSI or otherwise) and other interested netizens can have a look at these videos. Request our friends to forward this post / these links to any other persons / organisations you know who may be interested in supporting cyclone affected people in Sunderbans.

4th visit in Pix and Videos: part 2

Chargheri Trip 4 dated 25-07-2009, Part 2 of 2:

[The relevant picture or video is followed by the description]

...continued from part 1

13_rice_bags@dist_pt

The rice bags are stacked at distribution point, ready to be served to the people queuing up

14_books_for_good_students

The local volunteers request us to explore providing books & school dresses to the better students, as the village school is re-opening. This will need further discussion. Is it a primary need under the prevailing conditions? How many students are in a position to attend school within next few months?

16_some_teammembers

Some of the team members of PAKT who made the 4th trip to Chargheri

17_other_group_and_routing_people

This video shows the distribution point just ahead of the start of distribution. The other corporate group to arrive on the same day is seen here with our group, merging their distribution of food material into our card based issue system.

In the 2nd part of this video, the routing of queue and after distribution point is also indicated.

The card we used

This picture shows the format of the card we used (the script is in Bangla). Notice the dates indicated, which we tick during the check process. The card number (unique) and name are identifiers used during distribution. As this week’s distribution was for 2 weeks, we were ticking off 2 consecutive dates (25th July & 1st August).

18_Kaustuv_explaining_card_check

Kaustuv briefs the group on the check system for the cards ahead of the issue


19_implementing_dist_thru_cards

The process of issue of rice through the cards, including the checking, is shown in this video.


Distribution in progress

The distribution starts off slowly and then picks up pace.

The queue kept building up…

...faster than we could clear it. To complete our work before dusk, we had to open up a 2nd distribution point at the closing stages.


Lady queueing up with her card ready

We traversed the length of the queue in order to clarify to people that issue will be made against cards (which they seemed to be aware of), that they can queue up irrespective of serial numbers, that we would issue rice for 2 weeks (we will not come next week), that they need not come and stand in the sun from 10 am on the visit days as we are never going to arrive that early. A megaphone will do just fine next time for the announcement purpose!

We also told people that they should not change head count on the cards of their own even if they think the headcount needs redressal (they would not get more than what our register shows in any case). Unauthorised correction was observed in a few cards. They need to register their issue with the volunteers for address during the next time.

With more time, we expect to get in closer touch with the people, but coming from so far for an afternoon there can be only so much progress per week! This week we were already controlling the distribution entirely by ourselves, with the volunteers mainly controlling the crowd.

20_rice_filling_in_bags

Rice is getting filled into the bags of recipients during distribution


21_interview

Interviewing a local old woman


22_Saptarshi_checking_list

Saptarshi is seen here doing the card checking duties….


23_exchanging_duties

…and Saptarshi is equally adept at distributing rice at lightning speed!! He does that in his very first visit. What a guy to have in your team!

As I said, he was good at it.

Another picture of Saptarshi distributing rice.

Bag filling

Gopal and Trinath helped with the bags (need strong arms for that - some of those were filled with 7-8 kgs of rice for the entire family). Amar was checking the cards with Kaustuv and returning to the holders.


24_medicap_camp_Dipankar_tablets

Dipankar issues tablets, strips and tonics for common ailments for common ailments


25_Dipankar_injection_part1

He can also push a dose of tetvac to people having wounds and injuries (see next video)…


26_Dipankar_injection_part2

…and the recipient is seen here complaining that he did not have any pain!


I was there too

During the latter stages I was with Dipankar in the medical camp (makeshift – what else). 94 people attended the camp on the 4th visit.

Snapshot of the medical register

I tried to note down the common problems, and also the medicines that were not in stock. There were no serious problems mentioned by anyone this time. The above snapshot shows the listing of missing medicines, as well as common ailments (in my own inimitable Bengali handwriting, of course).

Many of the adults were complaining of stomach related problems. The children were mainly affected by stomach issues as well as cough / cold / fever. I asked about the water quality, but they appeared to be satisfied with the water they get from the unaffected tubewell.

27_returning_to_boat_in_downpour

When the skies opened up, we were almost through with the rice distribution. The medical camp had already served 94 people. The common ailments were noted down, and the medical stock requirements were also noted. We hope to have a doctor accompanying us sometime very soon.

Waiting for the boat to turn up from the haze of downpour

Thus ended our 4th trip to Chargheri. It was low tide again, and we waded back to the mud and the waters to go back to our boat. We were thoroughly drenched by the end of it. But we felt that this visit gave us additional confidence. Firstly that 2 weeks stuff CAN be distributed in one afternoon, and that the people are generally happy (you can’t please everyone, but we truly did not hear any serious complaints) with the process we have adopted.

We could distribute to almost all the recipients (686+ out of 721 families) in our presence. Minor grievances (like head counts in families) were also noted and can be addressed before next visit.

We are planning to improve the cards. We had issued plain papers, and some of them may already have been destroyed as the people returned home in today’s downpour. Reissuing the piece of paper is not much of a problem but repeated distribution can be a problem, leading to grievances. More on that later.

Adieu to Chargheri from the bed of River Garal

4th visit in pix & videos - PART 1

Chargheri Trip 4 dated 25-07-2009, Part 1 of 2:
[The relevant picture or video is followed by the description]

Explaining HSI to Saptarshi
The history of Help Sunderbans Initiative (HSI) till date is explained to Saptarshi

01 hightide water level outside dykes

This sight is common to almost all areas of Sunderbans during the high tide. The inhabited land inside is lower than the high tide level and protected by earthen dykes. Hundreds of kilometres of these dykes were breached by furious Aila on 25th May 2009.

02 Boat enters Changheri through breached dyke

Our boat leaves Garal River and enters Chargheri territory, into an area which used to be a farmland.



03 Area lost to river

In this video, the boat enters an estuarine part of the village that used to be a farmland before Aila happened. Now this is an extension of the river. The new dyke is getting built a few hundred metres inside the old damaged dyke.

This entry of boat through dyke and straight sailing to the distribution area is possible only during high tide. The high tide was already receding when we reached. The boat had to be unloaded quickly and navigated to deeper waters of Garal to ensure we did not get stranded till the next high tide.


04 broken dykes of Chargheri

This video shows the remnants of the old dyke of Chargheri on Garal river. It was destroyed by Aila.


05 Another video of the area lost to river

This is another video where Kaustuv shows to Saptarshi the areas outside the new dyke, of Chargheri, all of which was farmland. Saptarshi is our friend from IBM. He was visiting first time.


06 Pumps operating on new dyke

This video shows the land inside dykes being emptied by pumps operating on them. This is done with the purpose of emptying accumulated water from farmland inside the dyke. It is the first step towards getting the land back to cultivability.

This is the first step towards of landmark of desalination. Pumping is being done by the dyke repairing contractor employed by administration.


07 Destination Chargheri draws near

The boat reaches Chargheri and we alight very close to the distribution point.


8 The lowtide access of Chargheri from Garal River, inundated in high tide

The area in the video here (first 5-6 secs) becomes subnerged in the river in high tide . This is what we see here. But when the tide wanes it becomes the access path from the Garal river (see next pic).


The same area outside dyke, but in low tide

This picture from 1st trip shows the same access area in low tide



09 Unloading at Distribution point

The distribution point, and unloading rice bags from boat to stack them up there


11 People waiting near the distribution point

They are waiting for unloading to finish and issue of their allocated quota of rice.

Another boat carrying another group

A corporate group arrives on the same day through Green Camp. They distribute a few things to the locals (polythenes, lamps, a small quantity of rice, biscuits etc). They distribute the food materials under the issue system employed by us and we have no problems in accomodating them. However due to lack of prior information the distribution for their non-food materials, done independently from us, goes a little haywire in the end. The first time is always difficult in these areas, and some information, detailing and planning is required to make the distribution equitable. It is not known to us if they wish to come back regularly or it is a one time effort. We will learn later. We only hope that more groups can come, as we know that we are not supplying not even nearly the full quota needed.

12 New dyke under construction

The first thing we notice is that the dyke has grown noticeably bigger than what it was during my first visit on June 28th (see next pic)

A comparative picture of the dyke work progress

The progress of dyke work is visible in the above comparative picture, where the dyke size as on June 28th (trip 1) can be compared with the dyke size on 25th July (trip 4).

[contunued in part 2]

Phase IV: C O M P L E T E D

Fourth Trip
Our team is almost an hour's distance from Kolkata and shortly PAKT will finish its 4th successful mission to Chargheri with a consignment of 2800 kgs of rice. This is supply for two weeks. As we told earlier that to save transport cost, henceforth we will try to visit fortnightly and disburse the supply of two weeks in one go.

Better Planning
Koustav (Pather Katha), Angshuman (ATMA), Biswajit-da (Khelaghar) with Gopal, Saheb and Trinath (other friends from Khelaghar) along with Saptarshi from IBM, reached Chargheri by 2 pm. So we could spend around 4 hours in Chargheri. Good planning paid benefit. This time 56 rice sacks were loaded in the boat at Basanti (near Sonakhali) by the time we reached there by car; courtesy Dipankar.The main objective was to spend more time in the village to supervise the distribution work and ensure all the listed people get there share. Dipankar Mandal is one of the leaders of the local group of volunteers from Chargheri village. Every week he is coming to Gatkhali/Sonakhali before we reach there, ensure loading of rice and plays a major role in the distribution of medicine (he can even give injections!!!).
Like Saptarshi this week and Abhijit last week, we always welcome friends from any organisation to accompany us, so that they can go back a more real situation to his friends and colleagues.Saptarshi was shocked to see a village with almost no "sheds", he expected the storms has at least spared a few shelters, for taking refuge during the rains.

The List Worked
As planned last week, we have provided the listed villagers (from Chargheri, Lahiripur, Bidhan Colony, Parashmani and Santigachhi) with an ID card, to ensure smooth distribution. I must mention again that this list was prepared by the local volunteers, with the criteria of providing rice supply to all families with monthly income of less than Rs 1200. The ID card was nothing special, just a piece of paper, carrying the name of the head of the family, number of family members. The list is constantly updated and as a result the number of families has gone up from 691 (2800 people) in last week, to 721 this week. The objective is very simple: to ensure that maximum number of villagers from these five villages, willing to avail our assistance and satisfying the above criteria, can get it. This idea of ID card concept worked quite well.

Before an evening storm with heavy downpour forced us to make a hasty retreat to our boat, we could finish distribution to 686 families. PAKT team is quite satisfied. 94 people were provided medicine. The PAKT team carried 20 tetanus with them. But we could not arrange any doctor also this week. This is something we are trying desperately but in vain. So the medicine department was left to the charge of Dipankar – our local hero. One good thing – the same patient never visit him twice!!!

Thank you but We Need More Well Wishers
At least six more weeks – we need to race against the time to collect resources. We thank all the well wishers of PAKT who has so far extended their hand to our Help Sunderban Initiative. We hope more people will join us, so that we can achieve our dream of continuing supply till the government assistance are regularised. We look forward to a Chargheri, which will welcome the tourists in the last human habitation of the Sunderbans – not wait for the boats carrying relief materials.