Saturday, September 20, 2008

Education centers

Thanks a lot to all our donors, itwould have been very difficult to sustain our little effort without
your help.
Vivek Ji,(Vivek Pandey)thanks so much for all the support and encouragement you have been giving us and e materials you have sent..it helps a lot.
People at Capegemini, your support and prompt dispatch of relief materials have
been really helpful, as has been the quantity & quality of materials that we received and distributed.

There is something about the importance and passion for education in the relief camps which is so
encouraging, and given a bit of support ..there is no limit to the heights this small emerging community commitment can reach.
On the Dafarka embankment, a small classroom started by Pratibha Kumari
has encouraged two more such units on the 4km stretch of temporary shelter
for 1000 odd family living there.
With milk for children,books,notebooks,slate,chessboards,ludo,educational charts
and posters being given to them we expect more students to join these small educational shelters. We plan to start a few more on the nearby embankment settlement in this week.

This is all very exciting, yet humbling, their faith in tomorrow,in government, in you and me..in humanity.
People wait for relief to reach at these places, and any delay kind of makes
you feel guilty.These camps are 310 km away from Patna and detours
because of highway Jams are becoming our biggest pain..but at least we
have a traversable road and a tireless crew to reach out to almost any of these camps.

This is not a regular monsoon flooding. This is a river changing course, taking the shortest route to discharge into the plains..into the ganges..and this river is coming untamed right from the Himalayan kingdom.
This picture( google earth) shows the location of Kosi barrage, with left and right discharge canal system. The white color on the blue river image is SILT. Lots and lots of SILT. Kosi brings in huge amount of silt collected from catchment areas in nepal( ~ 86%) and India(~14%)
Kosi Barrage- right canalKosi barrage, left & right canal discharge
The breach happened about 12 km upstream of the main barrage, at the point where you see one broad blue band across the river bed where the Kosi crosses from the left flank to
right ( pic 4)), almost at center of picture.
The width and location of the breach can be seen in the satellite picture (pic 5)

Kosi Barrage Taming the riverSat.Image of breach,day 8
The width of breach is about 20 km. The new course of Kosi thus formed is
5 times wider than its older version and is slashing right across the heart
of kosi belt, almost perpendicularly south, meeting Ganges near Naugachia.
It almost seems like a ox bow lake of gigantic proportion...but it
isnt. Its something freaky.. the way a 10-20 meter initial breach can change the
course of humanity for more than 20 hundred thousand people ( Yes, thats two million) ...and more..its freaky, its unfortunate, it could have been avoided and its definitely not 'Natural' calamity. This might be the result of cumulation of small oversights from many years in the past.
The future is shaky too, but its something that we can try to shape..cant we ?
We are working on education & childcare in some small distant relief settlements, we aim to build a basic structure for small centers of education. We have already initiated three such centers..and we look forward to do a few more.
We look forward to your help and suggestions.

ALERT : A driving licence,ID card and some important documents belonging to Mr.G.Poornachander of Rajiv chowk, Karimnagar,Hyderabad, Andhra pradesh was found in the clothes sent by Capegemini,(Kolkata/Pune/Mumbai). If anyone knows Mr. G.Poonachander, please ask him to contact us asap.

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