Pictures from Today's Relief Work

Here are some photos from today's relief work at Ramavaram. As mentioned previously, we gave each of the residents a hot packet of curd rice for them to eat. A writeup will be posted later tonight.

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Photos: Summer Visit - Day One

Here are some photos from today's Summer Visit. Thanks to everyone who came out and we'll have a few words about today by one of our members tomorrow.

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Photos from Educational Programme - Day 6

Here are some of the photos from today's Educational Programme, held on April 25th, 2009. Check back tomorrow for a post about the visit.





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Panorama of Adyar River and Ramavaram Slum

Panorama of Adyar River and Ramavaram slum, June 2008 (.jpg)

Photos from Educational Programme - Day 5

Here are some of the photos from today's trip to Ramavaram as the fifth day of our Educational Programme.

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Photos from Saturday's Trip

Some more photos from last Saturday's educational trip. Generously contributed by Jaba:

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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.

Diwali Celebrations

To celebrate Diwali, we decided to hold a clothing drive for the residents of Ramavaram. This event had been in the planning for the past few weeks as we had people send us clothing from all over the world. The clothing drive began at 7:30am where we divided ourselves into four groups. Each group was responsible for distributing the clothing to their respective blocks they were assigned to. The clothes were sorted according to the ages and genders of the family members of each household. This made the distribution not only more organized but reduced the chances of any problems arising as well. Aside from the clothing drive, we also decided to distribute food to each household. This was done based on the complaints we had received regarding the shortage of work due to the rain. Each family received two kilos of rice and lentils that would help them for a few days.

All in all, today’s trip to Ramavaram was an overall success. We were able to distribute the food and clothing smoothly and I got to see some newcomers: Zuhra, Zahara and Praveena. We hope to see you at more of our events!

Special thanks go to Vasundra, Pamela, and the rest of the girls who helped organize the clothes. Without them, this event would not have been possible. And of course, thanks to everyone who generously donated their clothing to support our drive.

Happy Diwali!

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Diwali Preparations

Here are some photos from our Diwali preparations that currently going on. Our members in the girls hostel have put in a phenomenal amount of work in sorting, folding, and organizing the clothes in order to prepare a package for every household in Ramavaram.

The project starts tomorrow at 10AM. We'd love to see you there! Please contact us if you want to help in the distributing of clothes.

If you have any clothes (new or gently used) that you would like to donate, now is a great time to do it. Please let us know as soon as you can. Thanks to everyone who has donated clothes and made this effort possible!

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Also, as we mentioned before, we are purchasing 2 kilograms of rice and half a kilogram of dhal for each of the patients. This is to help to recover from the very heavy rains. We did the same thing earlier this week and it seems like the food was really needed. The weather hasn't gotten better and so we'll be doing it again. Please let us know if you'd be willing to sponsor this, as it is a very expensive project.

Ramavaram Food Donation, October 21, 2008

As discussed in previous posts, today a group of Sangam India members went out to Ramavaram to distribute essential food items to each household in the Ramavaram community. Our aim was to deliver to each household the following items:

• 2 kilograms of uncooked rice
• 1/2 kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas)
• One packet of Sunfeast biscuits

The biscuits were a last minute addition, due to a generous donation by Swathi, and they were certainly appreciated.

We had a good turnout at the slum today, with plenty of new members. We were very systematic in our efforts to make sure that no house was missed - and no house was. As we gave the food to the houses, we asked everyone if they knew of any cases of fever (which might be due to malaria) or diarrhea. The incidences of both tend to rise sharply when there are heavy rains. These cases were treated. Fever cases were treated with antipyretics and the people in the houses were advised to visit the hospital if the condition worsened or if it continuted. Diarrhea cases were treated with oral rehydration solution (ORS.)

Though 2 kilograms of rice only lasts for a short period of time in households as populated as these, we hope that this small measure can help these families in some small degree. It was clear that the offer was appreciated as the families were truly grateful of our desire to help.

As the rains continue, we may have to repeat this activity to help the residents of Ramavaram as much as we possibly can. We see it as our duty to aid them in this time of difficulty. Here is a breakup of our expenditures:

1. Rice, 2kg: Rs 39
2. Toor Dhal, 1/2kg: Rs 26

Though this comes to a mere Rs 65 (USD 1.30) per household, covering one hundred houses in total cost us Rs 6500 (US 130.) This is a somewhat heavy cost for our group to bear. We thank people who have donated to us in the past who made this possible. If you would be willing to sponsor even a few houses, it would be of great help to us. Please contact us if you can be of any help.

Click here to view photos from today's event.

This effort would not have been possible without the dedicated work of Pamela and Vasundhra, who took charge of this activity. In addition, we are deeply appreciative of Anand Trivedi and Shilpa Menon for allowing us to use their vehicles. Finally we'd like to thank all of our first-time comers: Samson, Amrutha, Kiran, Kirshnaja, Manmitha, Tejasvini, Sheetal, and Jananee. They all did a terrific job and were very dedicated to the work at hand.