Visit to Flood affected areas in Karnataka
Photos
The company that I am part is contributing towards the relief work in Flood affected villages in the districts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh through Save the Children– international org (http://www.savethechildren.in) working towards the children rights.
The company that I am part is contributing towards the relief work in Flood affected villages in the districts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh through Save the Children– international org (http://www.savethechildren.in) working towards the children rights.
The objective of STC in this operation is to make sure that children from the affected villages are not deprived of their basic rights of Food/education/play; there are no school dropouts, no deaths due to malnutrition. To build a Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) where children can come together and spend their time with other children of community and feel cared for.
A set of passionate engineers led in my company by Lingaraja wanted to lend their support in the relief work, teamed up together and met with the STC Emergency Manager Ray and STC Marketing officer Divya to discuss how our time/presence can help them in their commendable service towards humanity.
There was a 1 day orientation given to the volunteers in our Bangalore Campus and we agreed to spend our weekends in batches for a 2 months period.
Feb 22-23rd was the weekend which I had opted to visit these villages. I was joining the company of Lingaraja Choudri and Vivek Shankar my colleagues.
Lingaraja had booked tatkal tickets for Hampi Link Express @ 10:30. As usual I started late from my home (if you are on time, KICK iralla). Didn’t get bus to City Railway station. After 25 mins of waiting got one at 10:05. Reached majestic bus stand at around 10:24 pm and had to sprint non-stop. To add to my anxiety, the train was on 8th platform, means more running. Finally made it to the train at 10:31 pm. Luckily the train was delayed by 2 mins J
Fullu “KICK”
Our journey from Bangalore
Day 1:
Reached Raichur at around 9 am ( 1 hour late). We freshened up in a close by hotel. Sanjay Nandan and K Piyush from STC were waiting outside our hotel to pick us. We had a standing breakfast, like the ones in our darshinis and started to the first village.
Sindhanur taluk – Chintamana doddi was the village we had to visit. It took around 1 hour to reach the place. We were greeted by the local partner Jana Kalyana NGO who is handling the relief activity in around 10+ villages. The children were in their classes reading their lessons.
Breaking the Ice:
We got into the CFS and waited for the children from different class to assemble here. To make the children comfortable and to draw their attention, we said we would take them to their place of interest. Initially they said , they are currently in Chintamana doddi village. They started listing the places; Mysore
We formed a human train and moved around in the CFS towards Gol Gumbaz. When we asked them again, Children said in chorus “GOL GUMBAZ”
Introduction:
We started asking for their name and what they want to be after their schooling. Some interesting answers –
- A girl said she wants to become a Police officer to arrest all those who get into fights in their village
- A boy said he wants to become “Parisara Sanrakshaka” = “Environmentalist’
- A boy said he wants to become a driver as he has seen lot of youths in and around his village turn into Drivers
- Quite a few said want to be kannada teachers
Career Options briefing:
We drew a flow diagram starting from 5th standard till 10th. And post 10th we listed the degree/streams they need to study to become either a Teacher/Engineer/Doctor/Police Officer. We also talked about Army/Navy/Airforce/IAS/IPS/IFS
The intention was to emphasize that they need to study till 10th to become whatever they aspire to be.
Lingraja gave simpler examples of use of technology in day to day use by Farmers
We distributed Vidhyarthigaagi book we had carried to kids who said jokes/sung. This book has chapters which has must do things for each student to fair well in exams. Briefly it covers, discipline, time table, concentration, letter writing skills, well preparedness before class, learning through questioning.
We clearly passed the message saying, this book is for each one of them, and they need to read the chapters in their CFS sessions
Distribution of Education Kits:
STC has been distributing
- Household kits
- blankets, buckets, mugs and some utensils
- Hygiene kits
- - School kits
- Maps, Charts, Globe, Sports utils, Green Boards
- Education kits
- Bags, 10 Notebooks, Pencils, Erasers, Sharpeners and other stationery
After detailed assessment, STC has prepared a list of most needy kids/family and accordingly are carrying out this distribution. The list is prepared in collaboration with Panchayat head, school master, 2 youths and 2 most poor families.
Sanjay, Piyush, and our group distributed the kits to the children and they were free for the day. This was followed by household distribution to the villagers.
We had a walk around the makeshift village where the 130+ families are living to take some snaps and spoke to few onlookers
Village Facts Files
Chintamana Doddi has a population of around 300+ people and is next to tunga bhadra river. The entire village was submerged in the water for 3 days. The villagers had to run for their life and took refuge in the near by village. They were without food for 2 consecutive days and 1 night. Help came in the form of chapathis, rice not just from the near by villages but from various other part of Karnataka. A big group from Kolar had come well prepared to handle the situation with required cooking aids. Bangalore
- For every house completely lost, family gets 35000 Rs,
- Partially damaged house get 15000 Rs
- Quite a few Cattle has lost its life in these floods
The entire village will be re-built in a new place close to the old village. Around 143 houses are proposed. A local Swamiji helped Govt negotiate for the new village area from the land owners.
Government has provided sheets and bamboos for their temporary houses which they are living in. The occupants are worried of the “Ashaada Masa” mid-July to mid-August month when the wind speed is too high and the makeshift houses might not sustain to these strong winds as the entire area is open land.
Ramakrishna Mission has adopted this village and has promised to construct the houses in next 6 months which is very optimistic considering it requires all Govt approvals/support/intervention.
The DC visited this place when we were talking to the kids to monitor the progress of layout development. The villagers have a strong belief in this guy as he seems to be a promising administrator. The pity in our society is all dedicated/worthy people who are ready to offer their service are all governed by selfish politicians who care a damn thing for the citizens, not everyone though.
We had a sumptuous meal at the CFS animator’s house. Very very tasty and spicy food. We then left for Raichur to close our day 1. We visited Kollur Lakshmi temple enroute
The temple priest told us the story about this 8 - generation old temple.
< ? Lakshmikanth Acharya ? > came with his disciples to this secret place Kollur surrounded by hillocks to spend rest of his life. One day in his dream, he got the “Divya-Darshana” of goddess Lakshmi. When he was churning Sandal (SriGandha), the sandal started rising up to form the Goddess Idol. The Idol couldn’t be seen directly by anyone except Lakshmikanth acharya himself. The reason is most of us pray for this goddess only for wealth. The goddess should be seen as a goddess who gives abhaya/arogya/aishwarya/jaya (Fearless/Health/Wealth/Victory) and approached with Sharanu Manobhava (submittal expression).
The goddess could be later seen by everyone after installing the Lord Venkatesha’s idol.
Once a farmer came to Acharya seeking his help as his plough was struck and couldn’t be moved even by 8 OXes. Acharya gave him Manthraakshathe (rice grains) to be put over the plough and return him whatever was found beneath. It turned out to be Venkatesha Idol which is placed next to Lakshmi’s idol.
During the 4th generation, a snake used to appear in front of the idols stopping the morning puja. Later, the then Acharya found in his meditation that Lord Hanuman needs to be installed opposite to the Main temple Idols. He placed a raw rock as Hanuman who promised to be the care-taker of the temple. The rock has been slowly taking shape of Hanuman over the last 120 years, with lines and shapes coming out gradually.
Day 2:
As per Sanjay’s instruction, we started early at 8 am. We had our breakfast at Prabhu Darshani which had a dimmed lighting giving a bar kind of look. J. We started towards Katakanuru, our first village, picking Sharane Gowdru – Prerana NGO volunteer – another local NGO with whom STC is working, on the way.
Sharane sir has been effective in the relief operation in villages around Raichur district. He has been in this field for almost 12 years and has a lot of ground level information and excellent negotiation skills.
As we left Raichur outskirts, we saw a Lingaraja Nilaya, and we were pulling Lingaraja’s leg saying he didn’t let us stay in his house.
We passed through the various villages on the way, and found most of these villages still don’t have roads. As we stopped near the Katakanuru CFS, kids came running greeting all of us. It was their play time, kids were playing cricket, volleyball, badminton, ring, skipping and some indoor games in smaller groups. Each one of us joined the different group and played with them. It was too hot, and we got tired within mins. Soon we took the shelter in CFS. Kids joined us inside shortly.
Ice Breaking:
We made the kids play Kere Dada (in/out). Every kid has to imagine line in front of him/her. When we say “in” they come front, and on “out” they go back. We eliminated kids who did the wrong move. Finally we had around 8 people. The play speed was increased and the kids were too smart to eliminate any further. We could finally get the 5 kids to whom we gave the Vidyarthigaagi book and asked them to read, learn and share the summary of the book with class mates/friends.
In this CFS, selected kids are given with various portfolios – namely, Health, Sports, Education, Food, Welfare ministry. They were all introduced to us along with their responsibility viz – kids cleanliness, involvement in sports, assure no school dropouts, food on time, fight child labor and so on.
Sharane sir has very good oratory skills, and knows how to get kids attention and keep them involved. His signature “Makkale – Ooh” call cannot be forgotten. And I have started using it already.
Raghavendra is the CFS co-ordinator for the 10 villages falling in the same line of the river bank.
Introduction:
We started asking for their name and what they want to be after their schooling as we did in first school. Some interesting answers –
- A boy said he wants to become DC to help build roads and work towards social development.
- A girl said she wants to become a Doctor, to treat the villagers and give them with tablets, tonics and injection.
- As a group they said they want to be like us (STC, Prerana, us), to serve to the needy and reachout to villages and help kids
Career Options briefing:
We drew our standard flow diagram starting from 5th standard till 10th. And post 10th we listed the degree/streams they need to study to become either a Teacher/Engineer/Doctor/Police Officer. We also talked about Army/Navy/Airforce/IAS/IPS/IFS
Lingaraja stressed that to become whatever they want to be, they need to complete atleast till 10th, and should not stop schooling before that.
These kids were not only active in sports, but almost all of them performed on stage with songs, dance, and jokes. We gave as many Vidhyarthigaagi books we could and said share-care should be the policy.
Village fact files
Around 140 families in this village, 50% of the house completely damaged. The residents are living in temporary huts. Rest of them are still living in partially damaged houses with some patching done using sheets/coconut leaves.
Cisco Systems has adopted this village along with the other 9 villages. plan to build 140 houses. The Govt has already procured land and allotted for the house construction. A model house (2bhk) is built and Cisco is waiting for villagers’ approval on the house plan to start the construction in full swing.
We bid adieu and moved towards our next village B Hanumapura. The time was around 1:30 pm. The children had completed their morning session at CFS, and returned after lunch for the second session.
Sharane sir started immediately interacting with kids getting them to speak on what they do in CFS and the importance of CFS.
Sanjay began saying “Makkala Hakku Aata Oota” and taught them about their basic rights, stressing no one can take these rights away from kids. Kids were taught on which age range constitute as CHILD
He got the kids to understand and memorize the below ones with suitable example and clarity:
- Every Child has right of Birth
No one has right to kill the child in mother’s womb
- Child Growth
Should get/eat food along with play for their physical growth
Should read and learn for intellectual growth
- No Child can be bit by anyone at school
No child can be hit at school. This is punishable offence
- Child Labor is a punishable crime
Kids were aware of this and they could answer what is the punishment - 25000 fine and 1 year imprisonment.
He also mentioned universally there are around 42 Child rights and every child is equally eligible to exercise them in all parts of the world.
There was a small play that kids played on “Child Marriage” subject under the super kid HariKrishna’s (hope I’ve recorded the right name) direction. And we asked them to build a script on child labor and its ill effects. Suggested to perform street play and use this as a powerful arm to fight Parents who put their kids onto labor.
Post this play we stamped the message in the tender minds that they have to find out the kids who are school drop outs and working in fields/elsewhere. They agreed to submit a report to the CSF animator/volunteer on same in 3-4 days time.
A child asked, the parents of the kid might scold them if they ask to stop the child labor.
As an answer to that, we played a short cartoon “Ek chidiya Anek chidiya” – an old Doordarshan initiative to spread the message of Unity, an NCERT initiative. The gist of this cartoon is, we all are part of one nation INDIA
We concluded saying if all of you kids can team up, then you can stand against these elders encouraging child labor, and also stand for any cause going forward.
We left from the village towards Raichur.
Enroute Sharane sir explained on what it takes to be elected as Panchayat head. How the NREGS policy (rural employment guarantee scheme) is not reaching the rural population. How the pond area is now used to grow karbhuja fruit post floods, due to erosion of the pond soil and making it open ground.
Time was 3:30 pm and rats were running in our stomachs. The driver stopped near a village and there weren’t good options for lunch. We decide to have lunch at Raichur in good restaurant. But shortly we found a dabha which could serve our hunger. The gravies were all very tasty. We couldn’t enjoy the Jowar Crisp Rotis with the gravies. With our stomachs filled we started to Raichur and reached at 5pm.
Sanjay had some problems with his outlook client, and we techies tried to fix it. We could do it with some R&D. The PC sound was not functioning and we gave up after trying all possible tweaking/config. The time was 6 and we had to catch our train back to Bangalore Bangalore
I’m completing this blog exactly after 7 days when I was rushing to catch my onward train. J
Hope to visit these villages again in the coming months.
Sada Seveyalli
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