Bhubaneswar: With the rarest-of-the-rare severe cyclonic storm Fani leaving people of Odisha in severe distress, especially making a trail of devastation specially in the villages of Puri district, Team Akanksha the CSR wing of Infosys Foundation, along with Team Facility of Infosys Bhubaneswar are extending a helping hand to those villagers with an aggressive campaign for this philanthropic drive.
The planning from materials required, procurement to the execution of the relief operation was discussed in details and was quickly implemented within few days after the severe cyclonic storm Fani. More than 200 volunteers worked on weekends and off days to make this campaign successful.
Relief materials in Fani-affected Puri district by Infosys Foundation and Akanksha were distributed in a phase-wise manner and is still continuing. Since the last two months, the volunteers are working hard to make the lives of the villagers comfortable.
Relief materials like dry grocery items and clothes were distributed in 32 villages, to more than 11,000 families. The distribution started from May 12 and is still on. Bhubaneswar Development Centre volunteers along with Akshay Patra Foundation distributed cooked food to Fani-hit areas for 15 days and covered more than 5,000 people daily.
Since the restoration of the power supply is yet to happen in many remote villages, solar torch distribution in those villages was a boon for the villagers. Around 4,500 numbers were distributed to help more than 12,000 persons.
The teams of volunteers covered 10 villages (inhabitants are around 3000-4000) wherein they facilitated the villagers to cut down the Uprooted trees lying in residential areas as well as on roads, with the help of mechanical saws provided by Akanksha Foundation. This was an immense help to villagers as no other team had reached there to make their communication convenient. The monetary contribution for 50 tree cutting machines was approximately Rs 8.6 lakh.
Villagers, who had lost their roof over their heads were suffering due to scorching heat and upcoming monsoon. They were given 2,000 tarpaulins as temporary shades. Mosquito nets were distributed in villages to protect kids and families from the potential risk of Malaria. Around 2,000 nets were distributed among the affected villagers.
Rebuilding schools was another task undertaken. In Phase-I 5,000 tin sheets have been distributed to 35 schools, which are non-government aided. These school roofs were completely damaged by the severe cyclonic storm Fani. This will help more than 2,000 students to continue their studies. In the Phase-II 25,000 tin sheets will be distributed to 170 schools and colleges. Similarly, 200 water tanks are being distributed to those schools for the storage of drinking water.
Fani has uprooted about 11 lakh coconut trees only in Puri district which has greatly impacted the livelihood of coconut farmers. To help the farmers around 25,000 coconut seedlings are planned to be distributed for the livelihood restoration process.
The Infosys teams have covered most of the interior villages like Basudevpur, Noliasahi, Jatipur, Baliapanda, Penthakata, Bamana, Ganeswarpur, Dampada, Alisha, Churali, Patana, Jatipur, Pandaswara, Bhoisahi,DubaiPur, Andhoti, Kashoti, Badala, Biragobindapur, Chamarakera, Dhanikera,Gokulpur, Basudevpur, Badamachapur, Kapileswarapura, Balikera, Chamarabera, Tandikera, Nua Santha, Ghodaka etc and provided help and relief materialsas.
They have also taken precaution that the relief effort and benefits should not be duplicated by any of the similar efforts/funding by other NGOs and government agencies in villages where Infosys has been engaged in relief activities.
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Ms Kalinga