Dear friends,
Kindly take this mail as a token
of appreciation for the overwhelming support people have given to GOONJ's
''RAHAT FLOODS' campaign in Bihar.
It's been more than 4 weeks that
I've been traveling in the remote affected areas, with the help of boats,
motorcycles or tractors. I can only tell you this is something unimaginable. It's
probably not right to call what's happened in Bihar,
as floods. It's basically a large scale displacement where hundreds of villages
now fall in the new path of the river Kosi. It's not like normal floods where
the excess water of the river creates problems rather it's a disaster where
hundreds of villages, thousands of houses are submerged in water and thousands
of people and cattle have lost their lives. The scale, the suffering and
the kind of devastation is mind boggling; countless villages have been wiped
out completely while even after a month, thousands are still stuck inside
villages still submerged in water.
Imagine if Ganga stops flowing
through Varanasi and changes its course to flow
through Lucknow…
what will happen to the land and the people of this new route???
I have to confess that even after
witnessing and working in many disasters in the last ten years I've never seen
such scale, such tough terrain to work in. There is a sea of suffering with no
end to the tunnel because these are not just victims of this disaster but most
have been victims of extreme poverty for the last many decades…
The reality is that for many
months the situation will remain grim. A state which hardly had electricity or pakka houses in
the villages, a state which is a synonym of bad governance and minimal
infrastructure, where in many parts women barely manage with a torn saree,
where millions have not seen a doctor in their entire life; in short even
before this disaster, life for many was already much below the normal living
standard in Bihar. Now there are over 20 lakh people homeless, on the
roads, with the cloth on their back as their only possession.
GOONJ is not UNICEF or OXFAM, it's
a small bunch of dedicated souls & a large number of dedicated volunteers,
working 24x7 to do our best.. The way people took up our campaign and trusted our work
has been heartening and extremely touching. We don't believe in putting up big
banners and working on the easily available aspects/areas. In Bihar
also people/organizations know us for our focus on reaching places where no one
has reached so far.
My appeal to you right now is to
keep your patience with us; whether it's getting your receipts or getting
acknowledgements for material given. Be assured that with our limited resources
we are on the job… We assure you that every single person/organization will get
a due acknowledgement/credit/receipt. I do appreciate and salute the corporate
houses that have done tremendous proactive work to support our relief campaign.
Many organizations have even motivated their employees to give one day's salary
to GOONJ. Thanks for all your sincere efforts; we assure you that every bit of
your trust, material and money will reach the deserving people.
But I would certainly like to send
out a word to a few CSR people who call up our office and ask questions like-
"how far is Kosi river from Saharsa” and if they don't get the exact no of
kilometers they threaten to report my colleagues to me. Or the wife of a CMD of
a public sector company who gave us some ration and clothes at a function with
a lot of fanfare; three cameras, a speech delivered thrice to get the right
flavor; resulting in wastage of precious time of a GOONJ team member. Or
arguments on why a truck can't be unloaded at 2.00 am in the night? Please do
understand that our team is working round the clock under tremendous pressure
and with very limited resources. They are also human beings and without any
logical reasoning it's not right to make uncalled demands on them. (The truck
would anyway be allowed to move out in the morning only). A person from a
reputed organization told us that they would give us their contribution at a
special function organized for the purpose for which someone from Goonj would
need to be present. When we said that we didn't have an office in that city the
person wanted someone to travel out or else threatened to give the money to
some other NGO. My humble submission to such demands; kindly go ahead… My humble appeal is not to use this as the only
opportunity to show how concerned we are. Good work always shows and one
doesn't need banners all around for that. The need of the hour is to spend our
time and resources in the most effective manner.
We anyway never ask for money and
we certainly don't see a disaster as an opportunity for raising money for
GOONJ?
Besides, money alone can't solve
this problem. We need people on the ground to do something..
Many people have asked us for
volunteer need in this campaign. Right now is the time for you to visit our
stores to see the work and to help in sorting etc or visit the affected areas
to take part first hand in the distribution and see how this operates.. The
fact is 5000 kgs of rice may be a big quantity here in the city but when we
give it in the affected areas; this is just a one-day meal for 10,000 people.
Now imagine, we are talking about millions and their survival for a few months.
This is just the beginning- a
possible outbreak of an epidemic and the approaching winters are going to be
much bigger disaster in this region.. And even when the media attention is over
GOONJ will remain in Bihar for a few months.
We have already initiated an additional campaign for the flood affected in
Orissa and the demand might grow further..
Keep a track of us therefore and
do continue your support..
Do refer www.goonj.info for first person reports from me and my
colleagues and to know more about our ongoing activities & plans.
With best
anshu
Anshu Gupta (Ashoka Fellow)
Founder Director
GOONJ
Tel.- 011-26972351, 41401216
Add- J-93, Sarita Vihar, New
Delhi-76
Email- anshugoonj24@gmail.com
Website-www.goonj.info
Report on Rahat floods- September'08
Report on Rahat floods- December'08
Photo gallery
Appeal for Rahat floods -August'08
