Live Updates from the Relief Mission
Please find the latest information about the work Sankalp is doing in the disaster affected area here.
Recently a volunteer of the Sankalp emergency wing was interviewed on the current blood shortage that has hit the state due to dengue. Read on-
Q. Tell me about the situation?
 Ever heard of Tha
World Blood Donor Day is celebrated to create awareness about the importance of voluntary blood donation and encourage more people, especially the Youth, to become regular blood donors who donate two or three times in a year. Apart from encouraging people, 14th June is a day when the individuals who have saved lives by donating blood and become super hero are thanked and acknowledged.
Taking the same spirit ahead Sankalp planned an elaborate World Blood Donor Week at MSR Hospital and MSR Group of Institutions to carry forward the message.
 Although all reports indicate that the city is running at possibly the lowest levels of stocks for certain blood components, it is not that Sankalp is just complaining about it. Over the 2 month period from June 2010 to July 2010, Sankalp organised multiple blood donation drives with more than 1100 units of blood being collected. A million thanks to all the organisers and donors for standing up to the challenge. Here is a brief note on all the various camps held with different organisations.
With most of the Sankalp volunteers on vacation due to semester end holidays, only a handful of volunteers are involved in various Sankalp activities. Here is a snapshot of what happened in Sankalp over the last few days
 The dengue infections have reached their peak in Bangalore. We have scores of patients around the city receiving treatment for the same. A direct impact of this is the increase in workload of the Sankalp Emergency Team.
Normally after a good blood doonation drive we try to sit back for a while believing that the units collected in the drive will be available to the patients. However, this season it is different. On Saturday 17th July, we had more than an hour long session when the phone hardly was put away. We had more than 6 blood requests - all for platelets - and all of them for multiple units of platelets. The city is seeing the worst crunch for platelets. The poor staff at the call centre is reporting nil stocks for platelets for most part of the day and simply forwarding the requests to be handled as emergency. And for the emergency team, the challange of ensuring timely supply of platelets is becoming a bigger challange with each passing day.
 The World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on a world-wide scale on 14th June. This time Sankalp has taken the initiative to organize a Blood Donor Week  . The week highlights are inauguration of World Blood Donor Week, Donor Felicitation program organized in M. S. Ramaiah Memorial Hospital and Blood Grouping and Haemoglobin testing in all the Institutes in Ramaiah Campus.
Since it's inception, Sankalp has called itself a blood donation organisation. Those are big words for a bunch of engineers, because blood is a vast area in the medical field. understanding blood becomes highly critical for all volunteers and work in a more meaningful manner. there have been tremendous advancements in science and this has led to various new things.
One fine evening, Few of the volunteers of Sankalp emergency wing received a call. A patient in Gulbarga urgently needed AB- blood. Gulbarga is one of the remotest places in Karnataka with very little blood awareness, and finding a donor there was a tough challenge.
The Year 2009-10 was an eventful year for Sankalp India Foundation. The group of 30 individuals who call themselves Sankalp volunteers were kept very busy with the back to back activities that took place in the last year. We are happy to bring to you the yearbook of 2009-10.
The month of May was a busy one for the Sankalp volunteers. Most efforts went into getting things moving for the anniversary programme. Nevertheless, some things are always important and they have to move on. The clock ticks on, and so do the volunteers of Sankalp in their respective teams. Here is an update of what happened in the month that went by
Sankalp India Foundation is happy to announce it's much awaited "Disaster Relief Partner Program". First of it's kind in the country, this Program lays the roadmap for better disaster response planning.
 On the 22nd of May this year, Sankalp India Foundation celebrated being 7 years old. To mark this milestone, a small event was organized at MSRIT. Well wishers, parents of volunteers, members from the blood banking community, friends, and people from organizations with whom we work were all part of the event.
CTC Disha
April was a busy month for the Disha team. The team started work to ensure that the online update mechanism that has been setup to ensure better inputs for other Sankalp team comes on track. The initial few sheets have been added and more is being done to provide regular accurate inputs.
The Brand New Sankalp T-Shirts are on their way. It costs Rs 250, gray in color and is available in Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L), Xtra Large (XL) sizes.
 The early history of British expansion in India was characterised by the co-existence of two approaches towards the existing princely states. The first was a policy of annexation, where the British sought to forcibly absorb the Indian princely states into the provinces which constituted their Empire in India. The second was a policy of indirect rule, where the British assumed suzerainty and paramountcy over princely states, but conceded some degree of sovereignty to them. ..
 India, a nation that has undergone complete transformation after it got independence from the British Rule. But somehow the influence from the West never ceased to affect our culture and the growth of the Nation. The three major transforms taken from the entire lot is the way Mobiles, Cars and Malls have brought to the India nationality.
The story before: The positive role that dairying could play in providing income and employment opportunity was clear to policy-makers long time back and a set of measures were put in place to develop and protect the dairy industry. Immediately after India gained independence, the Milk Control Board was set up which controlled the supply and distribution chains.
 India and space laws: A millennium perspective
THE LAUNCH of Sputnik 1 by the former Soviet Union in 1957, followed by a similar feat by the U. S., within a few months, heralded the birth of the space age. The development and application of space technology has since made a tremendous global impact in diversified fields including social, economic, cultural and scientific.
 India is a country with a diversity of languages. Out of more than one thousand mother tongues, only eighteen languages are included in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution. Development of a particular state or region, to a very great extent, depends on the development of its regional language. This was an important reason given at the time of the formation of linguistic states, though many criticized such a linguistic “division” or “re-organization”.
 Past two decades have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of farmer suicides in our country. Across the nation, lacks of farmers have taken their lives in these years. Though this process is on for almost 2 decades, but it is only now that the nation is getting to know the seriousness and the extent of it. We are going through the worst ever farm crisis in the history of our nation. The booming economy and the India Shining Images have taken the headlines while the nations failed to take note of the pight of the farmers. Being an agrarian socisety where the lives of 800 million people is directly dependant on crops, it is high time that each Indian take note of the problem. "Why the farmers of this country, who place the nation’s food on its table, are starving?"
 3rd December 1984 Shortly after midnight poison gas leaked from a factory in Bhopal, India, owned by the Union Carbide Corporation. There was no warning, none of the plant's safety systems were working. In the city people were sleeping. They woke in darkness to the sound of screams with the gases burning their eyes, noses and mouths. They began retching and coughing up froth streaked with blood. Whole neighbourhoods fled in panic, some were trampled, others convulsed and fell dead. People lost control of their bowels and bladders as they ran. Within hours thousands of dead bodies lay in the streets.
It is hard to imagine today that there existed a time in independent India when the then Prime Minister of the country, Sw. Lal Bahadur Shastriji had to appeal to the nation to skip one meal a day. Our nation saw one of the darkest era when we faced acute shortage of food in the 60s. Ships from America brought in bad quality grain as charity to feel us and the Nation battled with the problems of rising prices and hunger.
 The Emergency in India denotes the 21-month period between June 25, 1975 and March 21, 1977 when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a State of Emergency in India under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties. It is one of the most controversial periods in the history of independent India. During the Emergency, many opposition leaders were jailed, freedom of press was suspended and powers of the judiciary were curtailed
 The Ancient Legend
In India there is an ancient legend about a girl, Amrita Devi, who died trying to protect the trees that surrounded her village. The story recounts a time when the local Maharajah's tree cutters arrived to cut the villager's trees for wood for his new fortress. Amrita, with others, jumped in front of the trees and hugged them. In some versions of the tale their dramatic efforts prevented the forest's destruction; in others Amrita dies in her valiant attempt.
 The All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed in Dhaka in 1906 by Muslims who were suspicious of the Hindu-majority Indian National Congress. They complained that Muslim members did not have the same rights as Hindu members. A number of different scenarios were proposed at various times. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent.
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The final distribution is done
The final round of distribution of utensils was carried out on 15th Novemeber 2009 at Ashraya Colony on the outskirts of Raichur. With this all work on filed in project Sparsh draws to a close
Till date...
On sunday, the volunteers visited Katarki village in Manvi Taluk of Raichur district. TungaBhadra river is just 2-3 kms away from the village. The extent of damage was pretty bad. Following the previous method of going from one home to the other and see the extent of damage, the volunteers were doing their assessment when one person started shouting and demanded more material. This eventually led to a chaos which made the volunteers to leave the village immediately. In total 59 sets of utensils, 50 blankets, 6 shawls and 5 sarees were given out in this village after visiting more than 100 homes here.
Next the volunteers went to Daddala village. This looked even closer to the river. Almost the entire village had been destroyed. When they visited the homes, and in most cases there were no homes. After visiting more than 120 homes, coupons were given to 91 people and materials were distributed to them. One of the volunteer claimed this was the worst affected village he had seen.
On the way back, another few sets were given out to some people. In total 157 sets were distributed on Sunday. On both days put together, 184 sets were distributed with at least 90% going to genuinely needy people.
There is still materials left which is for close enough to be given to 90 families. They have been stored in Raichur. They will be distributed by next weekend.
As on today (saturday,31/10)
Today 27 sets of utensils ahve been distributed in Akshala village. The remaining utensils will be distributed tomorrow.
Final phase
73 sarees have been transported today. About 4 Volunteers from our organization will be involved in the final phase of the distribution of the relief material spread over the weekend.
250 sets distributed
Over 2 days, our volunteer teams have been working to find the most needy families and have distributed 250 sets of utensils in villages in Raichur district and also in one village in Andhra Pradesh
150 more sets on Saturday
Another set of 150 utensils have been dispatched on Saturday night with 2 volunteers. Again KSRTC has been our mode of transport
More relief material dispatched
Around 353 sets of utensils have been dispatched by KSRTC bus today. Along with the utensils, 60 shawls and 50 blankets have been dispatched. They are expected to reach Raichur tomorrow.
500 more sets of utensils
500 more sets of utensils will be dispatched to Raichur in batches of two, one tomorrow and the other on day after tomorrow along with 2 groups of volunteers.
More utensils
We will be sending more utensils to the flood affected areas near Raichur the coming weekend, as there are reports of food and clothing have reached in sufficient quantities.
Flood Relief Update: 13th October
Utter suffering
Where are the houses? Visiting the village of Pannur more than 60 kms away from Raichur the volunteer from our side after walking through a huge pile of rubble announced, we will go to each house and give tokens. The relief worker from local area gently spoke - "Sir there are no houses here anymore". The realization struck then. The volunteer climbed a broken wall to see hundreds of shattered homes all around. The destruction was complete and the area nothing but a pile of rubble. 3 houses of a total of 300+ were still standing! The Irony When we visited the village of Ragunathanahalli we had to drive through 2 badly damaged bridges. Fortunately we were on bikes or else reaching there was impossible. We went to look at the damage on one side of the village. House after house we saw how walls had come down. We came face to face with people who had lost all their belongings under the rubble. Families keenly showed us the damage hoping to receive some help. By the time we came back to the road, our companions (local volunteers) requested us not to give any material to these houses. They told us that damage was far greater on the other side that they had visited. It did not make sense to us. We had seen such gruesome destruction and we were told that these people did not need help? Somehow we decided to accept the idea of starting to distribute the relief from the other side. Soon the thinking changed! We were dumbstruck to see what we saw on the other side. The people on the side that we had visited had some jewelry on them. They had a few wall collapses but they had shelter. On the other side nothing remained. Water had carried with itself all the belongings. We left after having distributed 75 sets. Now we knew the difference between the needy and the most needy!
Stories from the field
The following are few of the experiences our Volunteers has to share. Improper Distribution One thing we realized in the first day of the survey of the area was the gross inappropriateness of the distribution strategy that many people were adoption. We saw vehicles coming from Bangalore who used to park anywhere and start providing the relief material to the people who were crowding outside the door. Clearly the stringer and the more influential in the lot were always the beneficiaries. Some families were relatively nearer to the distribution point. they collected multiple sets of goods. Others which were further off received less aid. Influence of Village Netas In many villages the people were making use of the lists that the Gram Pradhan had prepared. These lists were doing little good. They were heavily biased on the basis of caste and sect. Some families got helped more and more while the others continued to suffer. Having seen this we adopted a method suggested by the locals who were helping the victims since day 1. We went on a survey across the village visiting each house. Wherever we say the need we gave the family plastic tokens. Eventually who all had the tokens came to a single common place to collect goods. This was by and large the best way we could figure out to ensure smooth and need based distribution without bias. Village Accountant: The heard of but rarely seen species We were told that the village accountant was the govt officer supposed to co-ordinate relief. We just heard of these people but never saw them in the villages. We were told that they were negotiating things in the DHQ while the relief agencies struggled. Lack of Relief Planning No one knew who is going where and how much need is there. We had to struggle for 2 days to identify the most needy villages because there was no official process to channelize inbound relief agencies. Food was supplied The Govt had taken adequate care to ensure supply of food grains.
Villages where help was provided.
View Disaster Relief in a larger map
Distribution of utensil sets complete
Today, 75 utensil sets have been distributed to the most needy families of Chicksugur.
Further details are awaited to decide the future plans.
Distribution of utensil sets
Even though 500 utensil sets that were shipped from Bangalore reached Raichur, our volunteers were not successful in distributing the items today. The reasons responsible for the delay were:
In line with the philosophy to ensure material reaches most needy, we have re-assessed the requirement across the villages we were planning to support. The updated plan is as follows:
On the banks of Krishna river, Chicksugur will be receiving the utensils tomorrow.
On the banks of river Tungabhadra, there are villages where it is still impossible to go. People from these villages are living in a number of surrounding villages including Tungabhadra village and ChickManchur. Tomorrow morning, a second batch of volunteers will be visiting these villages to distribute the relief.
After these visits, assessment of the future needs can be given back to the other interested organizations/ individuals.
No rains since last 4 days
Sending Goods on Thursday
Contributions by Wednesday
- 1 Rice Cooking Utensil
- 1 Dal cooking Utensil
- 1 rice spoon
- 1 dal spoon
- 2 glasses
- 2 plates
These items were purchased after very strong market research. Eventually we got these items at a phenomenally low price of ~ Rs 220/- per set. Many whole sellers are providing the utensils at par with the costs and thus we are getting them at roughly 40-50% below retail price. The items are all made of Stainless Steel. Quality is reasonable and durability a consideration for purchases.Chickmanchal is next selected village
Fund Collecetion is Proceeding in Full Speed
Requirements Updated
Requirement Set 1 finalised
MSRIT Joins In
Sparsh Operationalised
People homeless
Affected Area Identified
Our Volunteer In Affected Area
Plan to use the existing network