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Sewa Sandesh August 2018

Kerala Floods

Sewa Volunteers in Action

In the aftermath of the severe southwest monsoon that devastated the South Indian state of Kerala, 483 people lost their lives, and a million people have been displaced. Torrential rains and floods resulted in 221 collapsed bridges, 537 landslides, and damaged over 6,000 miles of road. About 57,000 hectares of crop were completely destroyed, affecting over 260,000 farmers. The biggest calamity over the past century has resulted in estimated losses of over $3 billion so far. In these trying times, Sewa International along with its ground partners responded immediately and provided succor to the suffering people.

Of the 3,965 rescue camps run by the government, 150 of them are directly managed and maintained by Sewa International Bharat’s partner organization with 50 volunteers exclusively dedicated to each camp. About 20 volunteers are deployed to each of the remaining rescue camps. Volunteers take up various responsibilities that include rescue, logistics and support, distribution of relief material, cooking, serving, transportation, etc.

Volunteers from all districts, especially the fishermen community from Kozhikode, Thrissur, and other coastal areas are actively engaged in the rescue work in Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta, and Thrissur districts.

More than 70,000 people were rescued by Sevabharathi volunteers from the flood affected areas

Sewa International volunteer, Dr. Viren Naik, who has been regularly holding free medical camps for Bru community in Tripura, with 3 other volunteer doctors, conducted medical camps in Alappuzha for 10 days, treating more than 4000 patients, suffering from post-traumatic stress, leptospirosis, fungal infections, body aches, fever, diarrhoea and other ailments.

With help pouring in from many quarters, the Kerala floods have brought together everyone throughout the length and breadth of the country, who have joined our relief operations with full dedication and commitment.

Sewa Uttarakhand

Mr. Shyam Parande Visits Uttarakhand Clusters

With an objective to laud the work done by SIB’s Uttarakhand team and to motivate the SHG members, Shri Shyam Parande (Secretary, Sewa International) visited Uttarakhand on a week-long tour. One of the villages he visited was Radua in Pokhari cluster. He visited some of the farms of the members & appreciated the farmers for the bountiful produce of cabbages, chili, brinjals etc. Thereafter, a meeting cum open session was held with the SHG groups and the members where he interacted with the local women members. He encouraged them to strengthen the SHG movement by building trust among the members. He stressed that proper accountability is the key to the success of the SHG. He narrated some experiences from other SHG movements around the world. He was accompanied by Abhishek Mishra (Program Manager) who later briefed the members about the upcoming farmer producer organization ‘Himsampada’ and how it would help the farming community obtain better prices for their produce.

Lai Mela Celebrated At Kalishila, Uttarakhand

Lai Mela, a traditional pastoral festival held on the 5th day of the Hindu month of Bhadrapadh used to be celebrated in Uttarakhand with great fervour. Traditionally, the festival marks the time when the pastorals used to come down with their sheep from higher reaches to the plains.

Sewa Uttarakhand through its vertical SewaSaahas, revived this traditional festival at Kalishila, the holy place of deity Kali situated at around 8500 fts, and 6 kms trek from last motorable village of Kalimath. The day saw over 1000 people belonging to different villages like Kalimath, Byunkhi, Jaggi, Bagwan, Raunlek etc come to this beautiful peak to celebrate the day.

The objective of the festival is mainly to develop livestock management and animal husbandry as a viable livelihood option amongst the population. As part of the celebrations, shepherds were felicitated and a one-day long animal health camp was also organized which provided free medicines and checkup by a veterinary doctor.

The fair was also marked by extracting wool from the sheep returned from thebhugyals (meadows). The fair saw a total of 1500 sheep in participation.

This event provided a golden platform for bringing the communities together and sharing ideas. Keeping this in mind, Sewa Uttarakhand is planning to develop and to hold it on a bigger scale next year. Also, the larger plan is todevelop Kali Shila as a tourist destination. SIB hopes to continue with its vision to bring the local and traditional fairs and festivals back to the limelight and generate sustainable livelihood options by them.

Independence Day Celebrations

Ride For Sewa – Himalayan Bike Ride

The Independence Day at Sewa International had a special flavor to it this year. ‘Ride for Sewa’- its bike ride event from Delhi to Niti village was a huge success. The Himalayan journey was flagged off on 14th Aug 2018 from ITBP Gaucher. The team also conducted plantation and cleanliness drive in Navodya Vidyalaya Pepalkoti and Tapovan respectively. As part of the Independence day celebrations, various cultural activities were organized by the villagers in Karchho village, Tapovan, to encourage and welcome the riders. On 15th of August, the riders moved towards Gamshali village, where a Independence Day Message from Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh ji, addressed to Brave Soldiers of ITBP was delivered by our team. Later, rally moved further to Niti, the last village on the Indo China border, where they celebrated the day with Bharat’s brave soldiers posted there.

Children Celebrate Independence Day

Kashi and Tripura


Independence day was celebrated with great joy and fervor amongst the kids at Machharhatta Learning Center, Ramnagar Kashi and as far as in North Tripura at Ashapara and Khakchangpara Refugee Camps. From organizing the festivities to participating in cultural items, the children displayed talent and patriotism in so many different ways.

Sewa Kashi

The farmer community in Kashi recently underwent a training program on Cowpea Beans (lobia) production in collaboration with Gautam Kalloo Research and Development Foundation. The event took place in Purshottampur, Chunar district, Mirzapur which was attended by 30 farmers. The chief guest Agricultural Scientist Dr. Hiralal, briefed the farmers regarding pest control, crop’s vulnerability to diseases and the means and measures that can be taken to protect the crops from them. The farmers were also explained how the demand of the Cowpea Beans in the market has been increasing lately and how companies procure seeds from the farmers at a rate of almost ₹ 90 to 100. The farmers were also distributed with Cowpea Beans seeds later in the event.

Sewa USA gets $ 500,000 Reconstruction Grant

Sewa International USA team received USD 500,000 from the American Red Cross society in recognition of the relief work it carried out in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The American Red Cross awarded the grant to Sewa for reconstruction in Rosharon Village, Brazoria County, Texas. In the next 18 months, Sewa will help reconstruct 11 completely destroyed homes and 24 partially-damaged homes, benefitting 154 people.

Toilet & Hygiene Project

We commenced with the repair of toilets under Renovation of Existing Toilet Project in primary and upper primary schools of Lucknow. For Phase I of this project, we focused on 10 toilets in 9 schools. We had undertaken and accomplished repairs for toilets across 3 different schools earlier. So, we have covered repairs of 6 toilets across 6 schools this month.

Table 1: List of 6 schools where toilets were renovated/repaired

Sr.No. Name Of Schools No. Of Students Work Accomplished
1 Upper Primary School, Alambagh 68
  • Broken door, door locks and pipes repaired
  • New tiles bought and laid
  • Roof fixed
2 Primary School Ram, Aasre Purwa 151
  • Doors and door locks repaired
  • Walls repaired
3 Primary School, Ujariyaon 126
  • Broken pipes made functional
  • Cracked seat and floor fixed
4 Primary School, Takrohi 150 Soak pit cover added
5 Upper Primary Kanya Pathshala
54 The damaged soak pit that had rendered the toilet unusable, was fixed
6 Primary School, Bapta Mau 146 Broken seat, pipe, door and door locks fixed

Table 2: List of 3 schools where toilets were renovated/repaired

Sr.No.Name Of SchoolsToilets RepairedNo. Of StudentsWork Status
1Upper Primary School, Alinagar Sunhara
149Repair work done, Painting and logo work remaining
2Upper Primary School, Kanosi
165Repair work done, Painting and logo work remaining
3Primary School Lucknow Montessori
2500+Repair work done, Painting and logo work remaining

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