Eye Hospital for 10 Million Poor in Karnataka

The Project Vision was actively involved in supporting the flood affected Kerala during these 3 months under the banner "Bangalore Cares for Kerala" 

The Assessment

Across the District, families have returned from relief camps, attempting to rebuild their lives. The time for immediate relief is drawing to a close, but families are still left to face the long process of recovery. This is road where help is often limited, but urgently required.

Our View of Early Recovery in Kerala

FAMILY RELIEF KITS

WATER PURIFICATION FOR POTABLE WATER 

TEMPRORARY SHELTER SUPPORT

From the Ground

Relief camps have shut down, host families are running out of capacity to shelter others for long periods and permanent reconstruction will take significant time to occur. People need to get back to their homes and restart their routines.

'PROJECT VISION’ was centered in Wayanad district of Kerala, with a focus on Panamaram, Thavinzal, Edavaka, Vellamunda  and Thondarnad panchayats which was allocated by the District Administration of Wayanad. Working with the government eliminates the duplication process and utilisation of the contribution received to the beneficiaries directly.

Here, the damage has been caused largely by landslides and flash floods affecting local tribes and communities from scheduled castes.

Building of temporary shelters, cleaning of houses and chlorination of wells, distribution of .01 Micron water filter, rebuilding of toilets, repair & restoration of schools building, and providing financial support by employing the villagers to build the temporary shelters.

REACHING OUT AND MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

Beginning late August, PROJECT VISION has been on ground in Wayanad, working to help communities recover with dignity as of 18th November:

Voices

The beneficiaries are happy and a ppt is attached.

 'BACK TO WAYANAD' program is part of the “Bangalore Cares for Kerala” initiative with the objective of getting Wayanad Tourism back on track. Post the devastating floods; the tourist scenario had come to a standstill in Wayanad, which is heavily dependent on it for its economy and livelihood. 

The whole concept was termed as Social Tourism since the idea was to improve tourism on the one hand and to contribute to a social cause through building shelters for the flood affected on the other. Many agencies and associations connected to Kerala are part of this initiative. 

We launched the first of a series of on-site participatory three day Social Tourism program in Wayanad from the 30^th September to the 2^nd October in the weekend leading to Gandhi Jayanti and the 2^nd towards 19^th to 21^st October.

The program opened the eyes of the 100 (2 Batches) participants to the real situation of the people whose lives have been badly affected by floods. They engaged in building shelters for the flood affected in five panchayat,  People from different walks of life with different skills teamed up and worked during these days to build over 100 shelter houses. 

This was a good and successful launch of the first on the ground initiative of “Back to Wayanad” to provide confidence and insights to visitors to Wayanad and communicate the message of normalcy and safety while helping rebuild the flood hit tourism locations and contribute to helping in their livelihood and economy.

The evenings were organised with lot of fun - campfire, cultural programs, food and interactions. They stayed at resorts and hotels thus helping the hotels and resorts with business.

The three-day Social Tourism program was organised in Wayanad by Project Vision, sponsored by Padivayal Enterprise. Except the travel to reach Wayanad, everything was taken care of by Padivayal Enterprise and empowered by V PAD with their active participation.

Links:

• Short film festival
• http://www.theprojectvision.org

• Report of Bangalore Cares for Kerala (PPT)

The call for support:

The situation in Kerala's Wayanad district is particularly grim due to the floods in the state. Many villages in the area are completely submerged in water and rescue and relief operation have been met with many hurdles due to poor connectivity and accessibility.

children and stranded families can be seen taking refuge at a school in the district, The whole village is submerged due to floods and rescue and relief work has been stepped-up to evacuate people stuck in the deluge.

Shanoop, a resident of vythiri, Wayanad District who is part of the project vision rescue team told, "Most of the villages close to rivers like those in Chaligadha, Palakolli, Padilambam, Neykuppa, Lakkidi-Perur, Mookuthi Kunnu, Panamaram, Cheriyamkolly, Chegadhi, Karapuzha are fully submerged. Residents of villages, which are partially submerged, haven’t been fully moved to the relief camps yet and are facing problems like food shortage due to accessibility. Relief camps have been set up across the district by the Scheduled Tribes Development Department and the village panchayat. Schools are used for camping the effected families and the good hardhearted families have welcomed them into their homes. While many others are in parts of the areas near the villages which aren’t submerged.

The Adivasi population in the region is close to 15 percent and they stay in ‘urus’, which are isolated and difficult to access. Still, some of them have been rescued while efforts are being made to reach the others. Large landslides are also regularly happening across the region, especially around Melmurry, Vythiri taluks the photos are also enclosed. Le

The health department is providing medical treatment and medicines along with the NGO’s are supporting these services. But due to restricted movement, we were facing difficulties both in rescue and relief; however, attempts are on to reach across the region.

Project vision as usual addressed the call by having its presence at wayand to support help in relief work and to continue work in rehabilitation. Founder George Kannanthanam and sibu George attended tsunami at cadalore and Nepal earthquake in the same manner.

Testimony from Naufal from the severely effected zone

Naufal, a resident from Melmurry, kurichiyarmala waynad, shared his disastrous story “ His dream of owning a house started at the age of 22 and he almost fulfilled it when he was 33 years, it was a long dream come true. He had invited his friends and family for the house warming ceremony and accompanied with a long time desire of owning a two-wheeler, which he accomplished during this occasion and he had parked it in the porch of his new house. He lives with his wife and two children’s. A stream shutters down his dream on 9^th august, just two days before the house warming, came down the rocks and sand from above the hills of his house burying the house and the motor cycle into a heap of sand and rocks, which came down in the form of a landslide. He was not the only one but other six houses vanished with no traces in the disasters. We appeal to our supporters to extend your effortless support in addressing these “Naufal” and many others who have been a victim of Kerala Flood.

Eye Hospital

The resident and administration block was marked for construction, the commencement of civil work towards building the ground floor for the office and the first floor to conduct a one day camp and training is planned and the work is in progress. The ground floor was partially completed and the founder director Fr George Kannanthanam started residing at the rural camp for further development. The blessing of this new start was led by Rev Fr Peter D’souza and many of the well-wishers of project vision. We wish to complete the first phase by the end of this year and also to lay the foundation stone of the hospital block at the earliest possible days. All your support is requested to have this project take shape.

We thank all our supporters and contributors for having made this project a reality.

From the team of Project Vision

“Let Everyone See”

Links:

• Internation short film festival