Floods in India

Sine 7 days Radha lives in a reception camp set up in a school in the North of India. Water masses have destroyed her family house. This year the monsoon has hit South Asia especially hard, also the region where Radha used to live. Thousands have lost their homes to the floods. Radha just about managed to bring her children to safety.

Radha and her daughter find help in the reception camp. Photo: Emmanuel Hospital Association

In July this year a call for help reached us from the Indian province of Bihar. The first half of the year was extremely dry, in the second half followed torrential rainfall for days on end. Rivers overflowed their banks. 8,8 million inhabitants in Northern India as well as in adjacent Nepal and in Bangladesh were affected. People have been killed and injured. humedica responded immediately and provided what was necessary. In cooperation with a local partner we supplied the affected people with clean water, food hygiene articles and tarpaulins.

Since 2013 humedica India runs an office in Kolar Gold Fields in the South of the country. It coordinates our projects in India and implements long-term measures for self-help. It also initiates and steers emergency interventions on the Indian subcontinent. For the last two years humedica has therefore been organizing trainings and schooling local emergency personnel in India. One of our partners on site is the Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), which supports our present help for the flood victims. As the communication is already well established, help can be provided even faster

Within a very short time, humedica could start to distribute food the first victims. Photo: Emmanuel Hospital Association

Within the first 24 hours our EHA friends had identified the most urgent needs such as germ-free water, fresh and dry food, tarpaulins to set up emergency accommodations and hygiene articles to prevent the spreading of diseases. Swiftly, the humedica headquarters transferred its initial financial support. Only 24 hours later, EHA purchased the aid supplies and started their distribution to the flood victims. Many of them had not eaten for days.

The people in Bihar are grateful for the food supply. Photo: Emmanuel Hospital Association