Wisdom of Life

Testimonial

«
»

Ranju was standing beside the school wall watching people queue to receive their relief but her name was not in the list. At an age of 26 she had become widow with a mother of one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. She only thinks about her daughter’s future.

Her house was washed away in the flood and now the mother and child lives with her husband’s relative at Dezoo Chapori village in North Lakhimpur, Assam. She helps in house work but always worried as anytime they can ask her leave the house.

“We wanted to raise our daughter by giving her quality education but our dreams remained as dream”, exclaimed Ranju. She used to stay happily with her husband Madhav Prasad Sharma and daughter in their house close to the river but never thought that the same river will take their house one day.

“Madhav had a medical shop which was their only source of livelihood. After his death, the shop is closed and whatever income used to come has stopped,” narrated Ranju with tearful eyes.

Every one affected by flood has their own story of pain which only brings back the moments of deprivation, confusion, hurt, loss and psychological trauma.

Ranju came to know about the complaint box installed at the distribution point for grievance redressal, so she dropped her application in the box mentioning her case for support. The village committee along with Caritas India personnel reflected on the application and considering her vulnerability had decided to extend emergency relief support to her.

“I will use this money for the admission of my daughter in school and reconstruct my house” said Ranju. She further plans to reestablish her husband’s closed medical shop to become independent so she can provide good education to her daughter.

The complaint redressal mechanism of Caritas India during emergency is an effective step to invite community to submit their confusion, complains and feedback for redressal and improvement. It not only creates space for community to express their views but also brings accountability, transparency and participation.

Every day after distribution of relief materials, the village committee and Caritas India personnel sits with the community and open the complaint box to hear the issues and unanimously decide for its redressal.

I will use this money for the admission of my daughter in school and reconstruct my house

Bipul Das an Unmarried man from Hojai, Assam, lives in a Small village named Siliguri. Bipul is a physically Challenged person, both the legs are paralyzed since birth. He lives with 9 members in his Family. But the flood affected the entire groups of Villages including Siliguri and unfortunately he and his family had to take rescue at nearby relief Camps.

As soon as the flood reduced, the caritas India team started a relief operation at nearby villages including Siliguri. The family of Bipul Das was provided with all the kits namely: Hygiene kits, Food kits and Shelter kits.

He thanks Caritas India for supporting and Helping with the quality and quantity relief assistance.

Bipul DasSiliguri

It was yet another scorching day in one of the villages of South Tripura, Kathalia Cheera. Down with high fever, Anojoy Chakma, a 7-year-old boy was brought to the community health volunteer (CHV) Ms. Shyamalaxmi Chakma by his elder sister, as their parents were out in the jhum since early morning.

Shyamalaxmi conducted Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) on the ailing boy only to confirm Pv positive malaria. As Pv drugs were not available with the CHV at that point of time, she thought to refer the patient to the Primary Health Centre (PHC).

However, another thought crossed the mind of the dedicated and compassionate volunteer to take an extra stride. She thought, “If I refer the boy to PHC, the treatment would be delayed because the parents are out in the field and would be home by late evening; thereby PHC would be reached the next day only”. She took the boy to the PHC herself along with the RDT kit and thus ensured timely treatment and saved his life.

After a week, Anojoy is back home cured, and is happy and playful as any normal boy of his age!
Under Integrated Malaria Control Project-II, Caritas India is scaling up effective preventive and curative interventions in the seven North Eastern (NE) states in India and covering 48 districts and 5663 villages to save lives from Malaria.

PROACTIVENESS OF CHV SAVED THE LIFE

Dilaram Rajbhar a Widower who lives in a small village named Matikhola; Hojai, Assam is severely affected by both the flood waves occur this June. Dilaram Rajbhar is aged 74 years and has two sons. Dilaram one son is physically challenged and other one is working hard to maintain his family.

His house is a Kaccha and is partially damaged by the flood.

The financial Condition is not sound of his family so they could not much overcome from the damaged.

But the relief provided by team caritas India had a great impact in their current condition. They were provided hygiene, food and shelter kits against the damage they had faced.

He thanks Caritas India and Team for these valuable relief assistance materials. These will help us to improve our living

Dilaram RajbharUttar Matikhola

I, Sri Madan Pradhan (50), am a resident of village Gujapanga in Kandhamal, where I live with my family of six members including my school going fourchildren. Being a daily wage labourer, some days I go without work, making it even more difficult to run my family. Falling under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category, I had never availed any public benefits owing to lack of information about the schemes and entitlements.
One day, I accompanied some villagers to the legal aid training organized by Justice, Peace Development and Communication, in my village, though only with half the interest. The advocates shared about various Government schemes for BPL families, such as the Indira AwasYojana (centrally sponsored housing scheme), Madhubabu pension scheme, Widow Pension scheme, Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Mo Kudia scheme etc. Upon learning about the Mo Kudia housing scheme of the Government of Odisha for BPL families, in the joint name of spouse, I sought legal guidance from the lawyer after the training programme concluded. After listening to my case and finding me eligible for the scheme, I was assured pro-bono assistance by the lawyer. I was assisted in submitting my application to the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Raikia. I was promised support from the administration and eventually, Rs. 75,000 (Seventy Five thousand) was sanctioned to me under the scheme.
Had it not been for the legal aid training I doubt if I’d ever been able to claim the entitlement. Moreover, the training and real time handholding instilled hope and confidence in me. At present, my family is happy to live in their new house.

Legal-aid and information helped my family secure a new and better house

Ranu Pandit is a widow leaving in Radhanagar. Ranu Pandit lost her husband 6 years ago due to a deadly sickness. Since then she is been working hard daily as labour and maintain her family. Ranu Pandit has two young daughter, both of them are studying. During this flood her house was severely damaged since it was a kaccha house. She and her daughter had to take refuge at nearby relief camp. But the relief provided by caritas India helps them to overcome the situation after the flood. They received all the items – Hygiene, food and Shelter Kits. They are very much thankful for the team as well as caritas India for helping them in this situation.

Ranu PanditRadhanagar

Mrs. Sabitri Chawra,express that she lived in Natun Basti, Thepelaguri, they suffered a lot during the flood that submerged the entire Village. This village is near to Kapili river, which is just about 800m away, from the village. This family had received flood response relief from Caritas Germany on 12th June 2022 at Thepelaguri. This helped them a lot to tackle with the problems arising during and after the flood. The outcome of the flood relief was very good as well as pleasing, because they could equip themselves with the materials for safety and household/domestic use. After all it helped them lot to protect them. Earlier, before receiving the relief, the family had no access to any of these materials (Tarpaulin, mats, groundsheets, hygiene items, etc) as they are too poor to buy the things. And during flood they had to stay roadside without any of the sheltering materials. And it was a very difficult time for them. But as they had received the materials from Caritas Germany as a response to flood relief 2022, it helped them a lot during the second phase of flood that occured just after few days of relief distribution. The flood totally destroyed their house. Most of their household things were lost in the flood. However, somehow they managed to carry away the shelter kit (tarpaulin, mats, mosquito nets) along with them as they moved to roadside. But the saddest part of this family is that their house got completely damaged. And the Mother and eldest son of this family are mentally challenged. The mother carries a child of about 8 months old along with her. Hence, now, they had no house to shelter themselves and they are residing at nearby monk-ashram near komorakata D-reserve. At present their situation is very crucial as they are suffering from lack of food and drinking water

Mrs. Sabitri ChawraJugijan

Mrs. Parboti Chawra from Thepelaguri, said that, they lived and is living a misery life; they could not even afford to buy mosquito net, soaps, mats, tarpaulins. But as they received it from Caritas Germany as a relief they felt very happy because these things were highly necessary for her family, as they had no source of income to buy the materials, she said. She also mentioned that, the relief kits helped them replace their old torn mosquito net with new one, used the hygiene materials for two-three days. But unfortunately, again, the second phase of flood (16th June 2022) submerged the village more destructively then the previous flood which occurred just a month ago. As a result, they had left the village and gone to higher surface land area to keep them safe.

They carried Caritas Germany relief materials like tarpaulin, mats, mosquito nets and some soaps along with them and spent the night in tents. She said that, these materials really helped them in second phase of flood, to shelter and protects themselves. The saddest part is that they have, almost nothing left in their home now, neither food nor the materials to cook food, all these things had flown out over flood water, she mentioned. Thus,

She told that the materials greatly helped them in second phase of flood, as they could equip and use the kits to make tents and other use. Furthermore, she said that it was a great initiative by Caritas India, that they have provided these particular things, in view, as a future perspective for further use in times of need. The outcome of the flood relief was very good as well as pleasing, because they could equip themselves with the materials for safety and household/domestic use. After all it helped them a lot to protect themselves from rain and sun during second phase of flood, and also, after they are back home from camps, the kits were helpful to them because there is no proper place at home to sleep just because of wet and muddy surface. So they made tent out of relief kits and are spending their night.

Parboti ChawraThepelaguri

Rupais the second among seven daughters in her family. She hails from a village namedHarincolin inPurnea district in Bihar. With no stable family income and many mouths to feed, education was of secondary importance to her family. With her dedication, Rupacouldcomplete her education upto grade eight. However, the poor socio-economic circumstances of the family forced her into marriage.In the year 2013-14, when the vacancy for the post of a teacher arose in the Girl Child Educational Empowerment Programme through Caritas India, Rupaapplied and qualified for the same. Association with the programmehasmotivated her to continue her studies. Resultantly, despite the oppositionfrom her family and relatives, andbesides having a child, she made attempts to get enrolled in Grade IX. She put up valiantly with several systemic hurdles and disdainful attitude of the officials towards her when she sought a written permission from the DEO (District Education Officer) for her admission as the date of admission had lapsed. Finally, she received the written permissions and is continuing with her studies, whilst also serving as a teacher under the Educational Empowerment Programme. In this course, she not just struggled for her right to education, but also right to life with dignity and refused bribe that was demanded of her during the process.

Story of Rupa

Mrs Shefali Das share her sad moments during Flood, I was at home when the floods came. It was 3 o’clock in the morning on the Sunday of the flood when I woke up. By the time I was out of the house, the water was up to my chest. I waded, trying very hard to find the road. When I get armies with Boat I got courage and finally reached to highland. That’s how I got here. My whole family ran away but we left everything behind. Then, when I first got here, I stayed in the ‘club house’ here in Jathera. But so many people came there after me that I moved to Camp 2. But we don’t have enough shelter here from the rain, and even food sometimes we can’t find.

She Thanks Caritas India for giving support by giving Hygiene Kits which is very much helpful for them.

Shefali DasJathera
«
»

Share Button