Flooding at Ramavaram

Here is a panorama of the recent flooding at the Ramavaram Slum as well as the engorged Adyar river which lies adjacent to it, taken on Friday, November 28th.


As reported, we visited the residents to give them food on Friday. Many of the them had to leave their homes in a rush as the water levels rose suddenly. They have lost clothing, important documents, and other personal effects.

The rains this year have been especially bad; however the monsoon is a constant feature of the Indian climate. Because they are adjacent to the river and located in a depression in the land, the residents of the Ramavaram slum are especially vulnerable to the effects of flooding. Their inability to cope with the yearly monsoon season is a worrisome sign and it is something we will have to help them prepare for in the future.

Ramavaram Food Donation, November 26th

As described in previous posts, today we carried out our project to distribute food to the residents of the Ramavaram slum.

The situation in Ramavaram worsened dramatically overnight - indeed, the entire slum has been submerged by the floodwaters.

Last night, when they were sleeping, the residents were woken up by policemen giving them the instructions to vacate their homes immediately as the floodwaters were rising. They were vacated to a nearly school complex near the Nandambakkam Police Station. It is good that the State Government acted quickly in this regard or it is very likely that lives may have been lost.

This morning, we spoke to the residents by telephone who conveyed these events to us. We were saddened to hear this and it gave some urgency to our work - though it was a small gesture, at best, given the immense problems they were facing. Our group today was small but we were organized and able to get the work done efficiently. Nazneen, Vasundhra and Pamela did a wonderful job of organizing the work. A small group went to get the dhal while another met with Hema Aunty to get the rice. Meanwhile, Shankar and I went to locate the residents.

As we passed by the slum at Ramavaram, we were all awestruck by the flooding there. Here are a few pictures of the slum that I took on the way back:

The school where they have been relocated to has been generously provided for by the State. Of course, school has been canceled so it is not in use now. While they have a roof over their heads, the families have to deal with the crowded conditions of having 8-9 families living in each room.

Once we met them, we began distributing the rice. One of our contacts in the slum, Nagappan, had prepared a list of each family that had been relocated. We gave each family 2 kilograms of rice and half a kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas.) In all, 105 parcels were given - a total of 210 kilograms of rice and 52.5 kilograms of lentils. This is a very small contribution, considering the size of the group and their needs during these difficult times. However, having been relocated, and out of work, we hope that it can make a small difference to them. In addition, more than the food, I think the fact that we showed up made a big difference. They were very happy to see us and our demonstration of solidarity with them.

One thing which strikes me, personally, is the immense perseverance that I see in the slum. They have difficult lives, and their problems increase immensely when it rains and floods like this. They have lost many of their personal belongings in their rush to leave the slum. However, despite these problems, they have positive attitudes about their current predicament and seem to be holding up in situations that would make most people (including me) feel very hopeless.

We'd like to thank Hema Aunty (that is, Mrs. Hema Trivedi) for coming out today as our special guest. We'd also like to thank her for helping to sponsor this event as well as for providing the vehicle that was essential for this project.

Click here to view the photos from this trip.

Food Donation Visit Confirmed for Tomorrow

As a follow up to the last post, the visit is confirmed for tomorrow. We will be serving 2 kilograms of rice and half a kilogram of thoor dhal to each residence to help them come with the torrential rains of Cyclone Nisha.

The trip will begin at 4:30PM, rain or shine! Please bring an umbrella and dress suitably if you plan on coming.

We really need volunteers so if you can come, please contact Nazneen at +91 9940443757 or email us at info@sangamindia.org.

If you are willing to sponsor our event, please let us know. Our expenses are given here.

Thanks very much to Nazneen and to Hema Trivedi for making this trip possible!

Photo: Accuweather

Update on Food Drive: Tomorrow

The rains across Tamil Nadu are worsening and have now formed into a cyclone. It looks like things are going to be getting much worse here before they get better.

Today Nivedita got a call from the slum residents asking urgently for any help we can provide.

We have decided to speed up our current plans and try to distribute the rice tomorrow. Plans are in the works and stay tuned for another post to confirm them.

Our prayers go out to the families affected by this tragedy as well as to those who lost family in the recent events in Mumbai.

Photo: Accuweather

Food Donation this Weekend

We are putting together some plans to go to Ramavaram this weekend to deliver food to the slum residents. Over the past week and a half, there have been heavy rains which have caused significant flooding in Chennai and, sadly, even a few deaths.

The forecast for the rest of the week shows that the rains in Chennai are going to progress and possibly even worsen.

In order to play our part - small as it may be - we are trying to arrange a trip to Ramavaram to distribute food to each household in the slum. This will include:

• 2 kilograms of rice
• 1/2 kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas)

When the North East Monsoon first began in October, we carried out a similar task. Heavy rains in slums not only causes spoilage of foods and a rise in disease - it also means a heavy economic loss as the family breadwinners cannot go out and earn money for that day. In fragile economies such as those at Ramavaram, a loss of daily income can mean a loss of food and empty stomachs.

We hope to be able to arrange this despite the fact that many of our members have major exams coming up and won't be able to participate. Because of this, we will need all the help we can get for this task! If you are willing to volunteer and help out, please contact us. Also, as mentioned before, this is an expensive undertaking for a group as small as ours. The expenses for this kind of project are about Rs. 6,500 (approximately USD 130.) If this is something you are interested in sponsoring, please contact us as well.

An ongoing weather story is the on dealing with the North East Monsoon and the long "swoon" in rain over southern India this month. The lengthy break in the rain that began in late October has left some areas (of which greater Chennai is one) short on rain at the heart of the vital, short rainy season...

What about a tropical cyclone? Well, I am beginning to think the one is in the works come the end of the week. The GFS has been consistently showing a well-marked low over the southern Bay of Bengal as of Saturday and Sunday. Something to follow carefully.

-Jim Andrews, Accuweather.com

Photo: The Hindu

"Everybody Loves a Good Drought"

ARTICLE BY NIVEDITA GUNTURI

Since I moved to India, I’ve found that public awareness of true social conditions is sorely lacking, in the non-humanitarian circles at least. Thorough journalism and a global commitment to turning awareness into a social epidemic might do something to move us in the correct direction.

I came across a book in which the author attempts to do just this, getting the word out to as many people as possible. P. Sainath, a journalist, received a grant from The Times of India to travel across the country, revealing the hidden injustices that the poorest of the poor suffer in India. He did a phenomenal job, creating a volume that anyone with any vested interest in social work in India must read. His work is investigative journalism at its best, filled with everything from statistics to case studies to thorough, incisive interviews.

The author covers a host of topics, which I’ll list here so that readers can have a better idea of what the book actually contains:

Health Care
Sainath talks about the state of rural health care and the shortage of doctors for the poor. He asks biting questions about why a poor child does not deserve the same care that a better-off child gets. Important reading for any one wanting to go into public health anywhere in the world, and especially in South Asia.

Education
The dismal state of education in India is covered here. This chapter left me feeling that a proper education is vital to the improvement of the state of affairs here in India.

Displacement
It is particularly heartbreaking to read of how adivasis (tribals) are being summarily thrown out of their homes with little to no promise of compensation. The truly dismal part of this is that their homes and villages are being used for weapon testing and target practice by the military. It is shameful and despicable that a nation can treat its own citizens like this. Of course this is not the only place in the world that this has happened, but that does not make it acceptable.

Survival Strategies
This chapter is at once uplifting and tragic, as we see what the poor of India have been doing to improve their lot in life.

Crime
This part of the book looks at what kinds of crimes have been committed against the poor and the utter, shocking, lack of response from the Indian justice system.

Water
This chapter describes the lengths many in India have to go to to find water for daily use and how dependent they are on others for their water supply.

Media
This is a particularly important and especially impressive part of the book, I feel, because Sainath takes a moment to cast a critical eye on the media and journalists, of whom he is one. He talks about how journalism takes a view that is either sympathetic to the government or speaks highly of NGO’s. He argues that neither is helping the poor. He also reveals the sheer number of NGO’s which have been accused of corruption and have embezzled funds donated to the poor.

Overall, Everybody Loves a Good Drought is a true eye-opener, in many senses, and should be required reading for anyone wanting to work for India’s poor or India’s children. Although it is now twelve years old, I think the examples and causes delineated in the book are still 100% valid.

I’ve given an excerpt here from the chapter on health and health care, because it particularly hit home with me. I hope that it gives you a good idea of the tone and feel of Sainath’s book.

“Tuberculosis claims over 450,000 Indian lives each year. It would be lucky to get a couple of columns in the newspapers yearly. If it does, it’s when the country’s distinguished chest physicians, some of whom treat newspaper proprietors, hold their annual congress.

Diarrhoea claims close to 1.5 million infants each year in this country, one every three minutes. The best it can get by way of space is when UNICEF’s annual “State of The World Children’s Report” is released. Then it makes an occasional bow on the centre page. Or, in one of those anguished editorials (hastily written because the one on the Stock Exchange didn’t turn up) asking: “Where Have We Gone Wrong?” After which, it can be packed away to be used in identical form the following year. If no Indian has won a beauty contest that season, it could even make the front page. This establishes that the newspaper has a caring editor, who will soon address the Rotary Club on What Can Be Done For Our Children.

Every fourteen days, over 7.5 million children below the age of five in India suffer from diarrhoea. Close to nineteen million contract acute respiratory infections including pneumonia, in the same 336 hours. Quite a lot can be done for them, but it isn’t.

In 1992, USAID gave India Rs. 12.6 billion to be spent solely on population control in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. This program has serious implications. One is that hazardous contraceptives like Norplant will be pushed onto very poor rural women who have little or no access to proper health care. The same contraceptives are not in general use in any Western country.

Funds are much harder to come by for, say, water-borne diseases which account for nearly 80 percent of India’s public health problems and claim millions of lives yearly. These include diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid, cholera, and infectious hepatitis. Water-related diseases, including malaria, take their toll in tens of thousands of human lives annually.

Yet every third human being in the world without safe and adequate water supply is an Indian. Every fourth child in the globe who dies of diarrheal disease is an Indian. Every third person in the world with leprosy is an Indian. Every fourth being in the planet dying of water-borne or water-related diseases is an Indian. Of the over sixteen million cases of tuberculosis that exist at any time worldwide, 12.7 million are Indian. Tens of millions of Indians suffer from malnutrition. Yet, official expenditure on nutrition is less than one percent of GNP.”

One point that particularly struck me were that only 20% of hospital beds are in rural areas, where 80% of the population lives. I have heard varying versions of this statistic, but it’s always been just as drastically disproportionate as this version makes it out to be.

One particularly biting statement Sainath makes is that the Indian government is trying the ‘trickle down theory – take away from the poor, give to the rich, see how much trickles down to the poor.’ He remarks that the result is that ‘money trickles up, malaria trickles down.’

From my blog, Informed Activism in India.

Funding for Nagajyothi's Surgery

One of the residents of the Ramavaram slum, Nagajyothi has been diagnosed with the "unsafe type" of chronic suppurative otitis media, an ear infection which can have dangerous, (even lethal) complications ranging from deafness to brain abscess. One our visit to give food to the residents following the rains last month, Nagajyothi's mother complained to us that her daughter had an ear discharge since her childhood that had recently become bloody. We sent her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with this condition.

In order to prevent complications, this is a condition that requires surgical treatment. Sangam India is going to be funding this operation. Today Nagajyothi and her mother came to the hospital to begin doing the labwork to prepare for the operation, which will probably happen in the near future.

We aren't sure how much the operation is going to cost, but we will post an update as soon as possible. If this is something you may be interested in paying for specifically, please let us know. Thanks!

The WIP: "Students in India Take Social Change into Their Own Hands"

The WIP is The Women's International Perspective. It is a news site and blog written by women authors about world and social issues.

"Our mission is to provide quality news from the unique perspectives of women that is accessible worldwide and free to our readers." They write, "The WIP honors underrepresented voices. We honor women, we honor the indigenous, we honor the poor, we honor the personal and the invisible, we honor stories that don’t get press and we honor the freedom that is the gift that comes with the open exchange of ideas, analysis, and opinion."

Several weeks ago, Nivedita and I were interviewed by a contributor for this organization, Fehmida Zakeer, who wrote an article about us that was published today.

The article highlights three student-run organizations: Umang Foundation from Mumbai, Diya from Chennai, and Sangam India. It discusses why young people work together for social welfare and how they are interested in making positive changes.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

In another part of Chennai, a group of medical students was distributing food to underprivileged children near their college when a man walked up to them with a request, “Can you help me send my daughters to school?” In a section of society where education for girls does not even warrant a cursory thought, here was a father who wanted to send not just one, but two daughters, to high school. The medical students soon founded Sangam India to help improve the quality of life for those in underprivileged communities. Their plan was to adopt one disadvantaged community at a time and guide it towards self-sufficiency by supporting education for children, providing vocational training to adults and establishing public health measures.

“We pass by slums and impoverished people on a daily basis but how often, if at all, do we stop and actually consider what their lives might actually be like? Where do they go when it rains and floods? What happens to them when they fall sick? Do their children go to school? What are their hopes and dreams? The answers will come only if we actually stop and meet the people staying there, and take the time to know the cadences of their lives on a personal [level],” say Nivedita Gunturi and Sriram Ramgopal, medical students and founders of Sangam India.

The article can be read for free at The WIP website. Click here to view the entire article.

Thanks to Ms. Zakeer for writing up such a great article, and of course thanks to The WIP for spreading the word!

Reflecting and Looking Ahead

The road Sangam India has taken since March has been a rocky one, with plenty of ups and downs. From the beginning, one of our most sincere and most elusive goals has been forming strong, lasting relationships with the members of the communities we wish to serve. Gaining the trust of the people in these communities has been almost a Sisyphean task, where for every step forwards, the next step is quite a few times more difficult, if not a retrograde step. Diwali, in many of our eyes, was a remarkable time for us to reassure these people that we are really here to help them, to be their friends. Of course, in communities that have had difficulties with outsiders in the past, trust is not easily won. But I think this was certainly a move in a good direction for us, a move towards openness and a chance for us to give these people what they need.

This past Sunday, we held a medical camp, about which you can read in the previous post. What was different about this camp was the response from the people. Many of us felt that we were able to connect to them, and help them in ways that they wanted to be helped. We felt that it was time for us to start including the community across the street. When Sriram, Srinandini and myself went to that community, the response we received was very heartwarming and encouraging. The residents were ready to come to our camp immediately, and hopefully we have helped a few of them and can help more of them in different ways.

Sriram, Malar and myself also visited Lakshmi, Amudha and Meena, the sisters that we've sponsored for 11th grade. For me personally, even though I don't speak much Tamil, it was a chance to connect, to see these girls as my friends, as my sisters. The inspiring part about doing this kind of work and meeting these people is not the work that is being done, but the people that we meet when we're there. It is truly inspiring to see Sangam India truly move towards what "Sangam" should really mean - unity and joining hands.

Things are really looking up for our little group, especially with the support of all of our members and friends who are not in Chennai. We are really looking forward to wrapping up this year with a bang and starting off next year with some big ideas and even bigger plans. More on that will come later. For now, I hope you will share in the joy that we all feel at experiencing what really seems like a breakthrough to a new dynamic within our group and with our friends at Ramavaram as well.

My Perspectives on Sunday's Medical Camp

A few things really struck me in the medical camp we had Sunday (November 2nd, 2008):

First of all, I have to say that I am very proud of our group members who took on the responsibility for this massive task - especially to Ayesha who has proven herself to be a very capable leader. Its exciting to see the group mature and for its members to be willing to take a more active role.

Ayesha did a terrific job of setting up the details for the camp - organizing and purchasing the drugs, arranging the space, finding the volunteers, and setting up the tent, among other things. We reached the campsite around 11AM to set up the tables. The children, as usual, greeted us excitedly and helped to set up the tables and chairs. We set up the pharmacy and got the camp started. Several of our members went into the slum to create awareness of the camp.

This brings me to the second point which really struck me. We have made huge inroads to building trust with the people at the camp and I feel like that was very evident today. This is probably because of the work that went on in the last two weeks, where we responded the the community in its time of crisis to play our part - even though it was small, it was undoubtedly appreciated by the residents. The people at the slum know that we are there to help them and not to take advantage of them in any way and they were willing to come to the camp to get treatment.

In an effort to increase participation at the camp, Nandini, Nivedita and myself went to the slum on the other side of the road to increase awareness here. This slum was much smaller, and only slightly better off than the one we usually work at. The people here were very receptive to our message and a large number of them came to the camp to receive treatment. This was our third revelation. Following this experience, we have decided to include this slum in our future work at Ramavaram.

Finally, our doctors did a terrific job in coming. For people who work six to seven days a week, they were very enthusiastic to help and supportive of our cause. It is not small thing to ask from people who seem to be perpetually exhausted and tired from their work in the hospital to spend even more time working. Their willingness to participate in the camp is always deeply appreciated - after all, it wouldn't happen without them!

These things made today's camp especially exciting for me. Though this may be our last major even of the year, its clear that next year will bring us to the next level of promoting education, healthy activities, and overall self sufficiency to the slum residents.

Medical Camp, November 2nd, 2008

Yesterday Sangam India held its final health camp for the year 2008. Although we had already conducted a medical camp earlier on in the year, we decided to hold another one out of the request of the Ramavaram community. The camp began at 12pm where we got off to a bit of a slow start. Many wanted to have their lunch before the camp began but when it started, it got busier and busier. The patients were asked to register so that a log could be a kept on who was being treated. They were then ushered to one of the doctors who prescribed them medication for their complaints. Finally, the patients proceeded to pharmacy where they were given the drugs prescribed to them. Most of the complaints required simple treatment but a few had complaints that required follow up. This was noted down by Jaba.

The camp lasted for a total of 3 hours where approximately 45 patients were seen. In addition, patients from the slum across the street also came in to get checked up.

All in all, the camp was an overall success. The patients were happy with the treatment they got. I would personally like to thank Drs. Amish, Shihas, Tripthi, Arjun and Prashanti for sacrificing their only day off to conduct the camp and making it the success that it was. I would also like to thank the newcomers, Varna, Noora, Vidya, Vandhana and Naseema, who monitored and managed the camp smoothly. We hope to see more of you at our camps next year!

Drs. Amish and Prashanthi working with patients.


Thanks to Drs. Arjun, Amish, Shihas,
Tripthi, and Prashanthi for coming out.


Group photo at the end of the camp.

Click here to view the photos from this camp.

Sangam India Newsletter, November 2008

Hi!

The month of October, and the action it churned out, brings to you this newsletter from Sangam India. The winter rainfall brought us more surprises than we expected.

First came a note of appreciation from Pa. Vijay - a poet and a lyricist of growing fame. At this point, we would like to thank all the fellow members of Sangam India whose work is yielding constant acknowledgement and support from unanticipated sources.

Then, a scheduled visit to Ramavaram brought to our notice some unscheduled trouble. The rain played nemesis to an extent that a few inhabitants were deprived of their shelter and belongings. The Sangam Team geared into damage control mode. With food supplies and medicines water-borne diseases were kept at bay. Life in Ramavaram recovered well, and pretty fast.

The silver lining behind the troubled clouds - Diwali!

We discovered a new way to celebrate Diwali - the Ramavaram style. Clothes and grains for every family brought smiles that truly ushered in the festival of lights. We thank all the people whose generosity made this Diwali special for the people of Ramavaram. The sights and sounds of this day have been uploaded on our blog www.sangamindia.org.

What lies ahead? The next month will kick-start with a Health Camp followed by regular visits for follow-up. Meanwhile, we are also sketching out plans for the next year. Your inputs are paramount to our process of blue-printing. We have made this easier with our Orkut and Facebook groups. So, lets stay connected.

Rifa Khan
Sangam India

To join our mailing list and get monthly updates into your inbox, please visit http://list.sangamindia.org.