South India: ACT Food Programme Reaches 60,000
NEWS STORY: Sandra Cox UPDATED: October 16, 2009
PHOTO: CASA/ACT International
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — A major ACT International feeding programme in flood-hit southern India is providing meals for nearly 60,000 people but is struggling to generate financial support at a time of many recent typhoon and earthquake emergencies in the Asia region.
The worst floods to hit Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in a century killed 226 people and forced many others out of their homes and off their lands. The states are not prone to flooding, meaning many people were unprepared for the fury of the waters.
The India Government is reporting that 4300 villages were submerged by floodwaters, and 1720 camps set up providing temporary accommodation for 677,000 people. Half a million houses were damaged or destroyed. Thousands of cattle and other livestock were killed. Millions of dollars of damage has been done to standing crops, with fears that severe food shortages could result.
ACT International has issued a $1.49 million preliminary appeal for three programmes assisting with cooked meals, dry food rations, temporary shelter, household goods, materials for house repair and basic clothing. The appeal will fund relief efforts running between two and three months and will help 41,000 families. Some of the programmes will focus on marginalised communities, such as Dalit groups.
However, the response is in urgent need of further resources. ACT International Asia-Pacific programme officer Michelle Yonetani says ACT is concerned that funding commitments have been slow to materialize, given the large number of people affected and the urgency of the relief effort. ACT has sent a US$100,000 funding advance to members in India to ensure that responses can get underway.
One of the ACT International programmes is currently providing nutritious and satisfying meals to 59,000 people in 73 villages. ACT International has scaled up the number of family relief kits and dry ration kits to 3875 and is in the process of procuring 3375 polythene sheets which families will use as temporary shelter. This number will be further increased as more funding pledges are received.
As waters recede, people start the journey home to villages to begin the long cleaning-up and repair homes and businesses. However some people remain in relief camps, facing uncertain futures. The 900 families living in Thalamari village in Raichur district lost almost everything in the floods and received no relief assistance. They were forced to spend a week in the flooded village before being given inadequate shelter that lacked privacy. These people developed coughs, fevers and gastric ailments and had to get unclean water for drinking from a canal 3.5km away. When local politicians came to assess the damage, the villagers sent them away because they had neglected the village.
Among the villagers are 400 Dalit and tribal people who depend on income from daily labour. Without their sources of income, they are now in a desperate situation and are preparing to migrate in search of work. An ACT International member has been implementing its feeding programme in the village through its member church, and will also support with relief material.
ACT International flood rescue
With increased global attention on reducing the risks presented by disasters – and that October 14 was international day for disaster relief – this story from ACT International members Churches’ Auxiliary for Social Action on rescue efforts by CASA staff is timely.
At the height of the flood on October 3, three staff members trained in rescue techniques went to the town of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. At the Saibaba temple they found that the river Tungbhadara had flooded a kilometre inland. The slums areas were being inundated with water. Immediately, the team took charge of a boat and some dinghies. The team rescued 17 people, helping elderly and handicapped people into the boat and then to dinghies to reach higher ground. During the rescue, the team noticed families trapped on the second floor of a building. Using the boats to reach the buildings, the team was able to hand them drinking water, bread and food packets. They were later rescued and brought to safety as the water level continued to rise. At another multi-storey building, the team blew whistles attached to their life jackets to get the attention of trapped families.
At the Saibaba temple, the rescue team helped 13 pilgrims in the temple as the water encircled the temple and rose steadily. This rescue operation ended a day later. The courage of the volunteers was covered on local television news the next day.
