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Bihar Floods - What can you do?
How bad is it?
It is bad enough to be declared a national calamity and 5 million (50 lakh) people are said to be directly affected. Worst hit are children who are estimated to be more than half the number. Some news coverage:
What can you do?
If you are religious you can consider this as act of god punishing people for their sins. If you don't believe in god, you might feel vindicated. And if you are not comfortable taking sides, you can just sit back and watch the drama unfold.
What really needs to be done?
While big numbers promised by various governments and organisations might leave us with the feeling of-what-use-my-small-contribution-be, you will be surprised to know that these isolated efforts go a long way in helping people on the ground who actually are involved in relief efforts but, are frustrated because of lack of funds. Most of these so-called large pool of funds rarely reach the actual people on time (if they ever do).
We all have moments of i-wish-i-had-done-that but, this is one moment where you can do something and look back as one moment of pride where you actually did something.
What is being done?
There are a few people who are doing great job in co-ordinating some of the activities like managing funds and sending relief materials (medicines, cloths etc) to the affected region. It is a network of some NGOs and personal contacts based at relief camps.
How can I contribute/donate?
United Kingdom: If you are in UK, you can get in touch with me and I can arrange transfer of funds. Every amount is accounted for and every contribution will be posted publicly (unless instructed otherwise).
All funds in UK will go in to the account of BIHAR FOUNDATION UK. It is member of British Overseas of NGOs for development and thus is regulated. News coverage of the effort by Bihar Foundation.
India: You can again get in touch with me if you want and I can guide you. However, you can also look at following locations who as I said are also involved in such activities. I am in touch with some of them.
http://jayajha.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/many-avenues-please-contribute/
http://biharflood.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/more-avenues-for-contributing/
Ways to get in touch
1) Leave a comment
3) +44 780 944 1527
Related post: What the hell, its for a good cause!
Post script: Please note that if you have doubts about credibility of this effort then you will not be the only one. It won't hurt though to get in touch because worst comes worst you might still get to criticise and shout at me!
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