India photo story
Children in the midst of a rainfall deluge
Eastern India has seen its worst flooding in 60 years, causing massive destruction and large areas are still under water.
Around 5.5 million people have been displaced in Orissa and West Bengal. Save the Children India is responding, providing food, shelter materials, clean water, plus cash for work for repairing damaged homes and setting up child-friendly play spaces. We've launched an emergency appeal to raise money for the response.
In just the first month at least 5.5 million people have been affected in West Bengal and Orissa. At least 241 people have died and 8,000 livestock have been lost.
The monsoon season continues for some months and affected communities might not be able to return to their homes for at least 6 months.
In some villages up to 90% of the houses have been destroyed forcing people to find temporary shelter.
Most of those that have been displaced are children. We're deeply concerned about the impact the flooding will have on their health and nutrition and we are working flat out to protect them from malnutrition, illness, exploitation and abuse.
Many people have lost access to food, their homes and livelihoods. Living in unhygienic temporary shelters, along road sides, affected communities also face an increased risk of illness through waterborne diseases from the flood water and from a loss of sanitation and healthcare facilities.
Pregnant and lactating women, as well as children, need specific health and nutritional support.
Sumitra was forced to leave her house and move to a temporary shelter where 300 families are living. They are sharing just one latrine and one hand-pump, which has become contaminated. Many families, including her daughter have fallen ill from the dirty water. Sumitra is eight months pregnant, and since the flooding, has not had enough food to eat and has been unable to reach the hospital for antenatal care. She is concerned about her daughter’s health and the imminent birth of her child, and whether there will be enough food for them to eat.
Save the Children's response
We're already working to provide life saving supplies. Our response to the flooding will provide support to at least 15,000 children and their families, and 1,500 pregnant and lactating women.
We've already provided 3000 children and lactating women with food rations and treated 1100 people for illness such as diarrhoea.
We're supplying:
- families with items such as tarpaulin to setting up temporary shelters and clothing for children, to keep them warm and dry.
- Halogen tablets which will help families purify dirty water making it safe to use. Temporary latrines will help to stop the spread of disease.
- Hygiene kits containing basic medicines and medical kit to treat cuts and illnesses and setting up health check-up points in camps, we can provide medicines to treat infections. We will provide hygiene promotion sessions to spread the word about how to keep safe and healthy in these difficult conditions.
- Dry food rations for families, cooked food for children and essential complementary foods for infants will help to reduce malnutrition and reduce the pressure on the limited food stocks and crops ruined by flooding.
- School materials for primary school children including text books and school uniforms will help children get back into school and back to some sense of normality.
We're setting up:
- Child Friendly Spaces with trained volunteers and materials children can play with. Parents will be able to leave their children in a safe environment while they try to rebuild their lives. Children will be provided with counselling to deal with the terrible things they have witnessed.
- Emergency rescue shelters on higher ground, stocked with emergency supplies. We want to help the communities to rebuild their lives and be prepared for future flooding.
- Grain warehouses and community latrines and provide non-mechanised boats, as well as food for cattle and seeds so that they can respond to their communities’ needs and providing cash for work to support families recovering their livelihoods.
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