Have you ever been there?
where you decide to explore how far a wish of your takes you? and you get positively and pleasantly surprised by the response it receives?
Well, when Santosh Pawar asked in our KBP college batch group if we can do something for flood (2019) victims in western Maharashtra, it was just another thought. Somehow, it resonated with a few of us, and we decided to go with it.
As we wanted as much fund as we could collect to help the flood victims, I spread the word in my office group as well.
Within a week, we had 29,500 INR collected from my office colleagues and 54,950 INR collected from my college friends. My wife and her close friend since school days also contributed 5,000 INR each and we had a total of 94450 INR as a collection (I split my collection to double-hat in both CS and KBP groups :-P)
Collection details:
All of us were firm on the thought that we do not wish to just dump more of same things in some government or ngo office/camp, we wanted to help the needy by directly handing over useful goods to them. So, based on the collection that was flowing in, and feedback we were receiving from volunteers working in flood affected areas on a daily basis, we decided to make packets of grocery, medicine and inner-wear, such that one packet serves to help one family of 4-5 people get through at least a week or two.
Depending on the money we were to receive, we decided to just keep increasing number of such packets, to help more and more families.
Grocery was ordered through our mutual wholesaler friend in Satara, Anand Bhatia; Medicines through our doctor friend Dr. Tejas Patil from Satara, and we bought the undergarments from a wholesaler in Pimpri market.
Here is what we bought as part of one packet:
Here's the summary sheet to tie the contributions to expenses:
We were in touch with a local volunteer Aniket and also my friend's brother Dr. Tejas was already part of medical camps in Sangli. Two of them helped us scout for people who were yet to receive any aid, even after 8 days of flooding in their village.
We created 60 packets of supplies and chose the 'Khanai Malaa' hamlet on outskirts of Inaam Dhamni village on Miraj-Sangli road to go and distribute it on 18th August 2019. This place had a population of 62 houses, mostly of workers employed in near by brick kilns, who were already poor and had now lost most of they had, in the floods. The water level in their houses was 8 feet high for 3 days during flooding. They had to vacate and take shelter away from home and missed some of the initial help that was supplied by many in the initial days.
KBP gang of my classmates Santosh Pawar, Tushar Patil and his friend Vijay Nikam, Mallikarjun Bansode, Prasad Dalvi (myself), Nilesh Mudgal and his brother Nikhil, and Dr Tejas Patil (brother of Tushar) decided to go in person to distribute the goods. We were accompanied by a local gram sevak of Inam Dhamni Mr. Sutar. He had already extracted a list of one name per household with details of how many people are part of each of these household, so that we can track if every house has received the packet, and that nobody comes back for a repeat.
As we were carrying more medicines, we handed over the remaining 40 packets of medicines to Dr. Tejas, so that he can use them in his next camp in the flood affected region. This way we managed to reach even more people, although indirectly.
This activity was our drop of contribution in the ocean of help, that entire India is doing for the western Maharashtra region, to help it recover from the floods.
Some pictures of our visit below:
More pictures and videos in google photos album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/J6ymad3SbMfhTbVu8
At the end of our activity, we left a smile on face of 60 families, who needed a reason to believe in humanity, who wanted a ray of hope to rebuild what is lost and who have endured so much loss in a single natural disaster.
Here's hoping that we (KBP friends) can come together for more such causes [and sometimes, for the old times sake, also without any cause :-) ], to keep nourishing the bond of friendship we have since we were teenagers. Also, hoping to keep receiving similar support from my office friends and colleagues for helping the needy.
- parsooram
where you decide to explore how far a wish of your takes you? and you get positively and pleasantly surprised by the response it receives?
Well, when Santosh Pawar asked in our KBP college batch group if we can do something for flood (2019) victims in western Maharashtra, it was just another thought. Somehow, it resonated with a few of us, and we decided to go with it.
As we wanted as much fund as we could collect to help the flood victims, I spread the word in my office group as well.
Within a week, we had 29,500 INR collected from my office colleagues and 54,950 INR collected from my college friends. My wife and her close friend since school days also contributed 5,000 INR each and we had a total of 94450 INR as a collection (I split my collection to double-hat in both CS and KBP groups :-P)
Collection details:
All of us were firm on the thought that we do not wish to just dump more of same things in some government or ngo office/camp, we wanted to help the needy by directly handing over useful goods to them. So, based on the collection that was flowing in, and feedback we were receiving from volunteers working in flood affected areas on a daily basis, we decided to make packets of grocery, medicine and inner-wear, such that one packet serves to help one family of 4-5 people get through at least a week or two.
Depending on the money we were to receive, we decided to just keep increasing number of such packets, to help more and more families.
Grocery was ordered through our mutual wholesaler friend in Satara, Anand Bhatia; Medicines through our doctor friend Dr. Tejas Patil from Satara, and we bought the undergarments from a wholesaler in Pimpri market.
Here is what we bought as part of one packet:
Here's the summary sheet to tie the contributions to expenses:
We created 60 packets of supplies and chose the 'Khanai Malaa' hamlet on outskirts of Inaam Dhamni village on Miraj-Sangli road to go and distribute it on 18th August 2019. This place had a population of 62 houses, mostly of workers employed in near by brick kilns, who were already poor and had now lost most of they had, in the floods. The water level in their houses was 8 feet high for 3 days during flooding. They had to vacate and take shelter away from home and missed some of the initial help that was supplied by many in the initial days.
KBP gang of my classmates Santosh Pawar, Tushar Patil and his friend Vijay Nikam, Mallikarjun Bansode, Prasad Dalvi (myself), Nilesh Mudgal and his brother Nikhil, and Dr Tejas Patil (brother of Tushar) decided to go in person to distribute the goods. We were accompanied by a local gram sevak of Inam Dhamni Mr. Sutar. He had already extracted a list of one name per household with details of how many people are part of each of these household, so that we can track if every house has received the packet, and that nobody comes back for a repeat.
As we were carrying more medicines, we handed over the remaining 40 packets of medicines to Dr. Tejas, so that he can use them in his next camp in the flood affected region. This way we managed to reach even more people, although indirectly.
This activity was our drop of contribution in the ocean of help, that entire India is doing for the western Maharashtra region, to help it recover from the floods.
Some pictures of our visit below:
A list of our beneficiaries was ready by the time we were done with the distribution, thanks to pro-activeness of Mr. Sutar. Sharing it here as well.
More pictures and videos in google photos album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/J6ymad3SbMfhTbVu8
At the end of our activity, we left a smile on face of 60 families, who needed a reason to believe in humanity, who wanted a ray of hope to rebuild what is lost and who have endured so much loss in a single natural disaster.
Here's hoping that we (KBP friends) can come together for more such causes [and sometimes, for the old times sake, also without any cause :-) ], to keep nourishing the bond of friendship we have since we were teenagers. Also, hoping to keep receiving similar support from my office friends and colleagues for helping the needy.
- parsooram
