Alipore Social Welfare Trust has been trying its level best to serve and provide facilities and help to all the people in need. We have been in the 21st Century but still we have no technology to save people from disasters. Disasters are of various types, like Natural, Man-Made, Accidental, Fire and so on. When disaster occurs, there is widespread loss in the form of life and properties which leads to mass destruction. There is scarcity of food, clothing, shelter and acute need for water supply. There are also fear of epidemic spread out and casualties.

India is a vast country and is prone to natural disaster like floods, earthquakes, cyclones & storms and also have several times experienced man-made disaster like, riots, terror, gas-leaks and we have also seen many accidental disasters. In Gujarat, in past few years, we had faced earthquakes, storms, cyclones, floods and riots. These disasters had very big impact to the public with losses of lives and properties. Hence to fight against these disasters we all have to organise and unite ourselves for all the required reliefs we do. Whatever little we do is not enough but atleast it can help us to give relief to the affected people.

To meet all these disasters, the members of Alipore Social Welfare Trust have launched “ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund”. We shall be helping the local people in different ways. Our aim will be to help the disaster-affected people, irrespective of caste, creed, colour or religion, as much as we can. The relief work shall be done in a planned and professional manner with the guidance and recommendations from the Local Relief Committees and also advice shall be taken from our elders and professionals. ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund will organise hand-picked dedicated volunteers from various fields for the rescue operations and to help of the people affected due to disaster.

The members of Alipore Social Welfare Trust had earlier worked for disaster relief also but that was always done individually or privately or in a small groups. Hence for maintaining proper records and for doing the relief work with utmost care, there was a need for transparency and accountability. For this purpose it was decided to organise ourselves and work for the relief of the disaster-affected people under one banner and select only those dedicated volunteers who shall take care of all the work with full responsibility and apply themselves to work against all odds and adverse conditions. For example, after flood and torrential rainfall, after flood water level starts to decrease, they leave behind large amount of stinking filths and mud, dead-bodies of human beings and animals, in addition to wastes and dirt. Working in these conditions requires dedication and courage; hence for this type of rescue or relief operations, proper volunteers are required.

It has been decided that there shall be a permanent fund in the name of ‘ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund.’ This fund shall be kept exclusively for any Disaster Relief Purposes which are always unforeseen and unpredictable. Hence funds will be kept separately in ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund account, for relief purpose only.

FLOOD IN SURAT (August 2006)
We all are created by God, the Almighty and Most Merciful. And for us, human beings He has created everything in the Earth and in the Universe. Whatever happens just happens with His wishes, He knows the best.

Moments of happiness, sadness, calamities, luxuries, sickness, pride, disgrace, success, failure, good, bad and so on, just happens because He, the Almighty has written in our destiny. Hence calamity which happened in Surat was due to water. We have had one of the worst natural disasters during past two weeks in the form of rainfall in the south and Central Gujarat.

The worst hit were the towns, villages and cities along the Tapi River. There was heavy rainfall in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and for that reason the level at Ukai Dam on the River Tapi rose drastically which had no option but to release water by opening all the doors. High tides in the Arabian Sea, Large Scale of Water Release from Ukai Dam and above all Heaviest Rainfall recorded lead to flood we had never heard of. Due to which Surat City, Hazira Town and Industrial Area and all the towns, villages at the mouth of Tapi River got flooded. Some parts like Rander, Pal, Adajan of Surat City were submerged in water to the extent of 20 feet. These worst affected areas also had large population of under-priviledged.

The affected people were deprived of food, water, electricity, and other basic needs. Ironically, the people-affected were surrounded by water but they could hardly find drinking water.

07/08/06 was the day when River Tapi, which usually is a very calm river, showed her anger and there was flood and torrential rainfall, in addition to the high tides in the Arabian Sea. Due to high water level in River Tapi, Surat City and surrounding areas were badly affected and submerged under water for several days. Flood in Surat and Surrounding Areas were of different types, firstly, Dam Water Discharged from Ukai Dam due to heavy rainfall in the catchments areas, secondly, heavy rainfall in and around Surat City and thirdly, High Tides, due to Tidal Waves in Arabian Sea. All these factors led to flood in Surat which was the deadliest in the history of Surat.

Many areas were submerged to the extent of 25 feet. It took as many as 6 days for the flood water to recede in some areas like Rander, Adajan and other places. The food-grain stock in the warehouses and local shops were destroyed and also other things like clothes, house belongings, houses, cattles, and lives too.

Surat City became isolated. There was no water or electricity supply for ten days, Tele-Communications and Wireless Networks were badly affected. Milk supply was restored after nine days. The only food, water or milk the affected people got was from the relief workers. We have seen people drinking dirty flood water out of acute thirst (Please refer to the pictures shown below). There was acute shortage of medicines. Amongst those affected were General Practitioners, Doctors, Clinics, Hospitals and Chemists too. Stocks of medicines stored in Warehouses and Pharmacy shops were totally submerged or destroyed in the flood. Medicines with General Practitioners in their clinics as well as in their homes were submerged and destroyed.

Members of Alipore Social Welfare Trust had decided to do relief work in Surat under the banner “ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund”. We shall be helping the local people in different ways. Our aim will be to help the flood-affected people, irrespective of caste, creed, colour or religion, as much as we can.

We at ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund Department organized ourselves and got together and carefully selected dedicated youths for the relief work operations. The volunteers were taught how to tackle with any kind of adverse situation. Working in filths and piles of mud and wastes was a challenging but required lot of guts and working spirit and dedication which they successfully accomplished.

APPEAL FOR FOOD GRAINS KITS RELIEF TO BE SUPPLIED BY ASWT ALIPORE HOSPITAL DISASTER RELIEF FUND DEPARTMENT FOR SURAT FLOOD 2006

We at, Alipore Social Welfare Trust, have started to distribute Foodstuffs for the affected people as an initial relief. It has been decided that, for one family, following items will be distributed which will be serving them for atleast 12 days:

10 Kg of Rice
5 Kg of Dal (Pulse)
10 Kg (Flour) Wheat
5 Ltrs. Cooking Oil
2 Kg Sugar
250 gms. Tea
One Bed-Sheet

The above items will be distributed amongst One (1) Family each. The Cost for One Kit of these relief items will be Rs. 800/- each, which comes to around Ten Pounds (£ 10 per Kit for One Family).

On behalf of all the members of Alipore Social Welfare Trust, I humbly request you to please try your best for these affected people. We shall do the needful from our side, Insha Allah!

May Almighty grant Barkat to all the donors and give relief to all affected. Ameen!

For Alipore Social Welfare Trust

Mr. Hassan Ismail Mayet
(President)

THE WORK IMPLEMENTED BY ASWT ALIPORE HOSPITAL DISASTER RELIEF FUND DEPARTMENT FOR SURAT FLOOD 2006

CLEAN-UP OPERATION: Flood water receded after few days, leaving lot of stinking mud, filths, dead bodies of human beings and animals, wastes and dirt. The clean-up operation began. The Local Relief committee and local population required equipments as well as disinfectant powder. We were amongst the first to provide them with disinfectant chemical and also sent equipments like shovels to cleanup the heap of mud leftover by flood.

MEDICINES: We made a list of medicines which would be enough to open one clinic and included medicines which can fight water-borne diseases, cholera, malnutrition, malaria, typhoid, plague etc and hence costly Anti-biotic and Drips, IV Fluids, syringes and even gloves etc were also added.

We have made one set enough for the General Practitioner to open his clinic and have delivered the medicines to them. We also supplied life-saving medicines to Mulla-Lokhat Hospital, at Rampura, Surat, which had maximum flood-affected patients admitted, Sufi Sarvajanik Hospital at Rani Talao, Surat, (which had 25 flood-affected patients) and Burhani Hospital (having 35 flood-affected patients) where there has been major casualties.

We saw to it that G.P. from different areas especially slums and most-affected places were given the medicines for distribution to the poor and flood-affected patients, Free of Cost.

Please note, Medicines in the Store and Pharmacy at Hospitals at Surat worth Millions of Rupees were all submerged by flood. If this is true please lets think of the GPs and small Drs and Pharmacy shops, what was their fate only Almighty knows. We, at ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund have supplied to as many as 25 Doctors or General Practitioners all the medicines he / she required in his clinics alongwith the medicines which might be needed for the ailments and epidemics caused due to aftermath of flood.

FOOD-STUFF: Food grains stored in the houses as well as shops and warehouses were destroyed due to flood water. We have Joint-Ventured with the local committee by distributing Food Stuffs (like rice, dal-pulses, wheat flour, sugar, cooking oil, tea, bed sheet etc) under ASWT. Local (Surat) Relief Committee shall distribute House hold Belongings like Mattresses, Pillow, Cooking Primus, Bucket, Mug and Chamboo, Cup- Saucers, Steel Utensils etc). Our kits consist of 37 Kgs. of weight. We took four truck loads of our kits.

REBUILDING SURAT: After we finished distributing food-stuff kits to the flood-affected people, we shall be spending money left for the poor slum-dwellers for the roof which were dragged away in the water by the flood. These people have lost houses due to flood and are in the relief camps. The local relief committees are doing the work of surveys and listing of the affected houses and shall be organizing themselves to reconstruct them. We shall be supporting them with money and man-power, whenever or wherever needed. The cost of construction One 10 ft X 10 ft House in slum area would cost around Rs. 18,000/- (around £ 215/-) to Rs. 25,000/- (around £ 300/-). ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund shall be concentrating on rebuilding the houses of these affected people.

RELIEF AGAINST EPIDEMIC: After rain and floods, the biggest problem was to clean-up the affected area. The filths and mud was not cleaned up entirely by the authorities or was not possible for relief workers too due to huge volume and absentees in the municipal corporation employees. Help from Ahmedabad, Jamnagar and Rajkot municipalities were sought for clean-up operation, which was not enough.

The stinking mud and dirt not only gave fowl smells but also invited germs like bacteria which spread diseases like Lepto-sporaisis, Malaria, Jaundice, Hemorrhagic Pneumonia, vomiting, and so on. The local hospitals were running 20% more than their capacity of in-patients.

Due to lack of medicine stocks in Surat, the doctors were helpless. We supplied the medicines regularly for preventive and for cure purpose and also adopted some patients who were unable to pay their bills in the hospital. ASWT Alipore Hospital Disaster Relief Fund Department shall be contributing towards some of these affected patients who are admitted in the local hospitals in Surat.

HELP TO RESTART BUSINESS OF THE HAWKERS – VENDORS: The flood water has destroyed the stocks of small vendors, hawkers and cheapjacks. Their four- wheeler cycles (better known as ‘lari”) were either damaged, destroyed or are no more due to flood. These people usually are selling fruits, vegetables, plastic household items, metal utensils, road-side mechanics, welders, onions and potatoes, paan-cigarettes vendors, tea vendors etc. These are the people who have no other income source other than this vending “laries”.
These hawkers-vendors-cheapjacks would not be getting help from the government due to bureaucracy in the hierarchy of Governmental Institutions, although they are eligible for Government aids for the damages incurred because of flood. Hardly 5% of the hawkers shall be successful in getting aids or compensations from the government.

We have decided to help these people who have no hope other than help they can get from Non-Government Organisations (NGO). We want these self-employed vendors or hawkers to remain self-reliant and self-sufficient. Hence we have decided to survey and give the support they want from the poorest of poor. We shall be giving monetary support which will be enough to repair their four wheeler cycle (lari) and to purchase stocks for sales purpose.

If they make a new lari (Four-Wheeled-Cycled Store), then they require Rs. 2,500/- (around £ 30/-) and minimum Rs. 2,500/-(around £ 30/-) for commodities they sell. We shall be giving them Rs. 5,000/-/-(around £ 60/-) to each hawkers.

SCHOOL STUDENT: Students have lost their school uniforms and school books. Government has announced to distribute text-books to the students but note-books shall be borne by the family which has no money. These people needs help and we may join the local releif committee and jointly distribute school uniforms and note-books to them

RELIEF PACKAGE PLANNED FOR WIDOWS AND ORPHANS: We are surveying the flood-affected widows and orphans who are living in poverty and shall be coming out with special package for them, 10 days before the holy month of Ramadaan starts. Local Relief Committee is involved in this survey. Their package may contain a sewing machine also to some females who have lost them due to flood.