On 8th July 2019, Fandoro sent its final set of help to Odisha for the Fani survivors. Abhishek Raj, who is part of the Development team for Fandoro, was part of the visiting team. This is a heartfelt experience report shared by him when he returned. It has been copy pasted here in his own words alongwith the pics of his choice.
We all know the disaster that Odisha faced about 2 months back. We at Fandoro decided to help Fani victims through our platform and started a Disaster Relief Campaign for the survivors. Fandoro users contributed to the cause. My company chose me to be part of the team that would actually visit Odisha to distribute the collections and help them in person.
When we reached there, 2 months from the disaster, there were still ruins around and the state in which the people were still in – made us visualize what a havoc Fani would have created, when it was there.
We decided to mainly target the coastal rural areas who were far from the main city. We had a local gentleman – Mr. Pupul Das, who helped us find the village named ‘ GadaBangara ’. He also supported us in contacting the local people who needed help. We don’t speak ‘Oriya’, he did;and this helped us a lot in being able to connect with the people better. They were happy to know that we were there to help the fani affected people.They agreed to help us in our mission. As we got done with the distribution there , we moved further to our next stop – we found a small village separated from other big villages and even far away from the main road. This village didn’t have electricity supply or any communication mechanism. When we explored the small village, we realised – there were only 10 families living there.
They were extremely happy to see us and thrilled to know that we were there to help them. They were so emotionally touched that we searched them out to help them – We spent the next few hours with them and distributed some basic items for daily use and some food items (soap,toothbrush,toothpaste,slippers,rice,pulses,masala,sugar etc).
After this village we visited a few more villages nearby.We saw shops and houses which were made of mud with asbestos roof. They were broken. Survival in these conditions is surely very difficult. I saw a family still living in a tent because their home was demolished during the cyclone. And they have not been able to rebuild their house, yet.
By seeing these scenes, one can imagine what would have been the condition during the cyclone happened. It was an overwhelming feeling of depression to see their condition. We gave them all the supplies and clothes. We further distributed around 400-500 clothes mainly for children as we kept going through the 4-5 villages. Children were very happy to have received new clothes. It was raining and wasn’t easy to travel, but the whole journey was worth it. Helping people ,making them smile and seeing them happy, particularly the smiling children – was very satisfying and humbling.
I truly appreciate Fandoro, for giving me this responsibility. I will always be ready for such opportunities in future.
If you want to join us in our efforts – do register at https://fandoro.com!!
Take Care & Keep Giving – Always!!
Signing off for now
Abhishek.
