To position Andhra Pradesh as the leading intellectual capital of the world, by nurturing entrepreneurship, research and innovation, to achieve global excellence in IT products and services.
To position Andhra Pradesh as the leading intellectual capital of the world, by nurturing entrepreneurship, research and innovation, to achieve global excellence in IT products and services.
Events
ITsAP(Formerly HYSEA), NASSCOM and NASSCOM Foundation have taken the lead on behalf of the IT/ITES Industry of Andhra Pradesh to help in Relief and Rehabilitation of Flood affected districts of Kurnool, Mahboobnagar, Krishna and Guntur. We have partnered with Red Cross, Rotary, Blue Cross and Lead India 2020 to provide both immediate relief and help in rehabilitation and reconstruction activity in all the 4 districts.
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Industry on the whole has contributed more than 7.5 crores towards various relief activities.
Six volunteers participated in the first day of distribution. On Day 1 we had completed about 1100 distributions at 5 centers catering to 5 villages. In the process we covered a span of 200kms on a single day to complete the distribution. We had some distribution pending and decided to stay back to finish it across all the villages. On Day 2 we completed the distribution of 1050 kits at 4 centers, this time catering to about 8 villages.
Prior to the distribution, 4 of our other volunteers were involved in the Kitting process. Making 2000 kits in a short span of time was no easy task. Our volunteers decided to jump in and sweated it out along with the other Rotarians to complete it as planned.
Administration and Delivery:
Throughout the activity, be it kitting or Distribution, we were constantly supported by the dedicated Rotarians. The Rotarians were personally involved in each and every phase of the activity. We firmly believe that the efforts of the volunteers put in for the kitting activity made the job of distribution easy. The kitting comprising of almost 14 items was done systematically. After the kitting, the kits were dispatched to respective locations. Simultaneously tokens were issued to the families of the identified villages. To ensure no duplication occurs the tokens were issues against the white card which each family possesses. The white card was returned only after the distribution was completed.
The Distribution:
There was no wastage of time as the relief kits had reached the centers much before we arrived there. For one of the villages about hundreds of kits had been transported by boats much ahead of us reaching there. It was just a matter of few minutes and the distribution would get over. At the max it would have taken us 1 hour for distribution in any given center. Be it 15 mins or 1 hour it did exhaust us but never were we tired of it. After the relief kit is given the respective token was collected and destroyed to avoid any slippages.
The beneficiaries included people of all age groups. In some distribution centers the people had been waiting in neatly formed queues for more than 2 hours. In other centers people were seated and once we reached they would rush and thus making it difficult to manage the distribution. The beginning of the distribution always saw bottle-necks with multiple lines or cluttered groups at the starting point. Eventually, things would fall in place and in matter of minutes the distribution would get over. Irrespective of the hectic activity we were a satisfied lot at the end of the day.
The unfortunate few and the lucky ones!
Many did not receive the tokens as they did not possess the white cards. This would also make the administration difficult as without such an ID proof one would never know if the person is from this village or any other village where in relief was already given. People would complain that they lost the token, were not present at that time or the kid tore it off and all sorts of reasons. Some may have been genuine but to avoid duplications we had to be particular. But then we were being lenient as well. In some cases the entries were rechecked and the kits were given against their names. Some were really very deprived and we could not say no to them. While most of the unfortunate few had to go empty handed there were some who fought for their cause and were lucky to be considered.
The blessings!
Rightfully most of the people seemed restless, their eyes keenly looking at the kit, legs rushing through and the hands stretching out automatically to receive the kit not to be bothered by the camera or anything else. It might have been difficult for us to guess what exactly their present situation is but for the few who took time to stop by for a second and thank us whole heartedly with a Namaste and few words. It really touched us when few of them mentioned “Thank you Sir, we are glad you came. So far no one had come and we didn’t really know what to do. God Bless You!”. This indeed moistened our eyes. Whether each one mentioned it or not but there has been a blessing from each of the beneficiary receiving the kit. We, the volunteers, would like to pass on these blessings to each and every donor, volunteers, coordinators, the core committee, and everyone else involved in making this activity happen.
The Devastation:
One could see only greenery to the extent the vision could stretch, with paddy fields on either sides of the road. While we understood why Andhra is famous for rice we were also wondering that there are no signs of flood anywhere here. We had travelled almost 40-50 KMs to get easily deceived that all’s well in this part of the world. But then as we approached the pockets of village only then we realized that we were wrong. In some villages while the nature had settled down, the people had not yet come out of the misery. In other villages we could see the signs of the flood only with the dried up water levels which really amazed us as it was 2-3ft above an average human height. And then there were villages in which some of the houses and the bore pumps were surrounded by sluggish green water trying to get dried up still. By houses we mean huts. Yes, most of the village population still lives in kachcha houses. Few huts had collapsed to the ground. Most of the houses were locked indicating many people have not yet returned.
Roads to most of the villages had huge canals on both sides which had breached adding to the heavy rains. We could also see many standing crops and farms destroyed/dried up completely. The Banana plantations of 10-month life cycle had been damaged when they would have given their yield in just about 2 months time. Apart from plantations, there were lost/ damaged fishing nets of fishermen who live in village islands in the banks of Krishna normally addressed as Lanka. We could see that most of the low-lying villages bore the brunt of the nature’s fury.
Some of the towns were also affected by the floods and to carry out immediate relief activities they had move around over the roads by boats.
Casualties:
With such extent of devastation it only made us wonder if the casualties were high. We enquired with the villagers how they had managed on that day and all told us the same story. A day prior to the floods the police arrived and had forced the villagers to board Lorries and trucks and took them to nearby safer places like colleges, mandapams, etc. Forcing may have included beating and lathi-charge also but in the end nobody complained. Others took shelter on the roof tops of few high-lying pakka houses. Thankfully, for the timely action, we were told that the casualties were reduced to maximum extent.
Present Concerns:
We volunteers interacted with most of the villagers trying to understand what difficulty they are facing. All of them had a common concern. Most of them are struggling for their day-to-day livelihood as they have no work right now. Many villagers work on farms on daily wages. Now with the farms affected they are not going to have work for at least next two months. Similarly the fishermen having lost their fishing nets are struggling for their daily catch which is their only source of living. All these people really do not have any idea about what to do in the coming days. There were some who were concerned about their houses being rebuilt.
Phase 1: An Idea can change a life?
Phase 1 saw about 19 tons of material, sent from Hyderabad, distributed to 850 families across 3 villages. The Red Cross-Rotary pitched in to make kits and made it easy for disbursing it among the needy. 4 volunteers representing member companies of HYSEA-NASSCOM foundation supported the activity. The Red Cross – Rotary however had to face one challenge. Some of the materials collected were very limited in number, some could not be distributed directly, some not to be mentioned, and many such items. But they have ensured that every item contributed by the donor shall reach the needy. They have identified the appropriate needy for each and every item. To quote a few;
Every the Rotarians donate any item given from HYSEA-NASSCOM, they explain to the beneficiaries that relief has come all the way from Hyderabad, from the Software Engineers and to make it clearer they reiterate ‘Computer Engineers’.
End Note: Friday evening Rotary club, Guntur District, had a Board meeting graced by the Governor of Rotary. We volunteers were introduced to the members as representatives of HYSEA – NASSCOM. A formal announcement was made about the Rs 16 lakh contribution made by HYSEA-NASSCOM for Flood relief and we were felicitated with a bouquet and with shower of appreciations.
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