By Rupam Mahapatra | Project Director
The severe cyclonic storm ‘Fani’ landfall in the coastal of Bay of Bengal on 3rd May 2019. It was intensified into extreme severe cyclonic storm in coastal area of Odisha mainly Puri. Due to this the area Puri, Khordha, Paradeep, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur areas were devastated. There has been major damaged happened in this areas. This severe storm affected 14 districts in Odisha include of 18,388 villages. The Fani caused extensive damage and impacted life and property of maximum (more than 1crore) people in the State of Odisha. More than 5lakh houses were damaged. Livelihoods were badly affected. The Government did a great job in advance to evacuate people from the vulnerable areas. Many families were living in temporary houses. it took massive efforts for affected people to rebuild their lives. Still many houses are not rebuilt. Safe drinking water was the major challenge in affected areas. Due to heavy rains and cyclone ground water level was affected.
Various voluntary Organizations played a vital role in relief distribution and rehabilitation work in affected areas
Distribution of Education Material to School going Children:
Many children have suffered due to this Fani cyclone. Nearly 6000 schools and anganwadi centers were damaged. The evacuation was done so hurriedly and due to severe cyclone, lots of children have lost their all education material like Book, notebook, stationary etc. children were much worried about their study and started trauma.
We provided study kit and school bags to all school going children who lost their books, bags other study materials. These things reduce stress among the children. One bookself has provided to school for school library to access books
Post Disaster Psycho Social Care:
Fani hited Coastal Odisha and took time to back to normal. But this severe cyclonic storm has impacted mental health of affected people those who have lost their property and livelihood. The post-disaster create a serious risk to life due to injury, trauma and health infections. In this time mental health problems is massive in individual, families and communities and it is invisible. Looking into this, psychosocial care was required in the community of affected areas. Early identification and timely intervention help the survivor to recover soon and start their normal life.
YCDA started Psycho social support with mental health professional from NIMHANS and BNI. A team was deployed and has identified the vulnerable areas through mapping . The team chalked out the intervention plan in Bramhagiri, Krushna Prasad area of Puri district and Khordha district. Volunteers are doing counseling to the Fani survivors and children. They also referred persons to the hospital who needs medical treatment.
Training of Volunteers on Psychosocial Care:
Training was conducted on Post Disaster Psycosocial support by YCDA with support of NIMHANS and BNI. All total 50 nos of volunteers were trained to handle the mental health strain in the community. It helps the communities to cope better with the psychological trauma they undergo during and after the disaster.
After training volunteers penetrated into the community and they observed lot of things. They discussed with the fani survivors. Traumatic experiences cause lot of stress. People have stated their symptoms how they have been in burnout condition.
Counseling to Fani survivors: Many community people and children are suffering from Post traumatic stress disorder. So it is important to provide counseling to the survivors for relax and back to normal life. After counseling volunteers found, survivors need medical support. Volunteers referred 640 person to District medical to access mental health care services. Some persons are now better than before. They are involving their daily work. Still many survivors are not come out from mental stress. It will take little more time to come back to their normal life.
Smiling for long time after long days…….
Sasmita is 12 years and her family belongs to Arkuda village of Krushnaprasad block of Odisha. The village is located remotely. Her house was totally damaged. She also lost her books and other educational material. Like her, other children also lost their educational materials.
All children including Sasmita tried to collect their books, notebooks, school bag, pen and other things from the remains of house after disaster. She was terribly upset as she couldn’t get back a single paper or pen from the house. She was very much worried about her study, so it took her little time to collect her books from her senior friends and relatives. It was very difficult for her to get back books. She was also worried about that. After reopen of school, she was surprised that, most of the things in school was damaged. Doors, window, school fan were damaged. On after 7 days of reopen of school she came to know that, Books and other educational material will be distributed in her school to all children. She couldn’t believe. It was quite happy time for her.
All the students were said to queues in class wise. Then a bag with full of education materials with colourfull items were inside the bag were distributed to all children. Sasmita got her bag and full of smile came to her face. She couldn’t believe it she will get all thing in very quick days. Then she ran to her house and hug to her mother. Her mother and her family members felt so happy to see Sasmita smiling for long time after long days. After that, Sasmita started her and go to school regularly.
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