Tsunami relief: Collect aid and then dump it
IANS
[ MONDAY, JANUARY 03, 2005 08:08:11 PM ]
NEW DELHI: As the survivors of the Dec 26 tsunamis in southern India try to piece their lives together, many have been deprived of vital relief supplies pouring in from various parts of the country and the world.
Stacks of food are lying kilometres away from affected villages full of hungry people in some regions while used clothes are lying in piles outside fishing villages where people are rejecting old, torn textiles.
Aid agencies and volunteers complain of a lack of coordination that is killing the purpose of the outpouring of relief and support from all over India and from outside for the victims of tsunamis, the giant quake-triggered waves that have claimed some 150,000 lives in Asia including around 13,000 in India.
"It is difficult to work in these areas because of shattered communication channels, but poor coordination makes it worse," said N K Singh, spokesman for the International Red Cross that has launched a massive effort in the tsunami-hit regions of south and southeast India.
Singh said tonnes of relief material provided by the government were not reaching those who needed it, because of the lack of people to distribute them at the district level.
"Many organisations have just collected material and dumped everything, without taking responsibility to see that the supplies reach their destination," he said.
Many relief outfits have complained of trucks being waylaid and robbed midway.
Aid workers in worst-hit Tamil Nadu have also learnt too late that much of the supplies that have arrived, donated by various organisations and individuals in their well-meaning response to the enormous disaster, is quite useless.
An example is the mounds of clothes lying outside villages such as Nagapattinam where survivors have even expressed righteous indignation. People were not even going near the used clothes.
"Those affected are mostly fisher people and they don't consider themselves poor," said Ravi Shankar, a volunteer of AID-India who is working in Tamil Nadu's affected districts.
read more.... source:- THE TIMES OF INDIA
[ MONDAY, JANUARY 03, 2005 08:08:11 PM ]
NEW DELHI: As the survivors of the Dec 26 tsunamis in southern India try to piece their lives together, many have been deprived of vital relief supplies pouring in from various parts of the country and the world.
Stacks of food are lying kilometres away from affected villages full of hungry people in some regions while used clothes are lying in piles outside fishing villages where people are rejecting old, torn textiles.
Aid agencies and volunteers complain of a lack of coordination that is killing the purpose of the outpouring of relief and support from all over India and from outside for the victims of tsunamis, the giant quake-triggered waves that have claimed some 150,000 lives in Asia including around 13,000 in India.
"It is difficult to work in these areas because of shattered communication channels, but poor coordination makes it worse," said N K Singh, spokesman for the International Red Cross that has launched a massive effort in the tsunami-hit regions of south and southeast India.
Singh said tonnes of relief material provided by the government were not reaching those who needed it, because of the lack of people to distribute them at the district level.
"Many organisations have just collected material and dumped everything, without taking responsibility to see that the supplies reach their destination," he said.
Many relief outfits have complained of trucks being waylaid and robbed midway.
Aid workers in worst-hit Tamil Nadu have also learnt too late that much of the supplies that have arrived, donated by various organisations and individuals in their well-meaning response to the enormous disaster, is quite useless.
An example is the mounds of clothes lying outside villages such as Nagapattinam where survivors have even expressed righteous indignation. People were not even going near the used clothes.
"Those affected are mostly fisher people and they don't consider themselves poor," said Ravi Shankar, a volunteer of AID-India who is working in Tamil Nadu's affected districts.
read more.... source:- THE TIMES OF INDIA
Anand at 3:49:00 am |
Last night we saw on television that Releif is maldistributed.There are certain areas which received relief material in excess while others went completely without any . A shocking incident of officials being taken hostage in Campbell Bay because people were not getting any food supplies while the former were having Biryani is also in the papers today. Is there enough food reaching the victims of this Disaster ???
I want to know why tropops are dropping aid from the sky? Why can't they get down and help transport it or give it out personally or give someone a hug?
You CAN'T be serious with that!
AID has indulged in deception and quietly removed the reference to DYFI (militant group) from its website. This proves that they are all CHEATS!
Also, NOT a SINGLE AID volunteer touched a dead body, but they are claiming credit for organizing removal of dead bodies by standing next to those who remove dead bodies!