On the fateful day of October 12 last year, Vizagites experienced their worst fears - they were face to face with nature’s wrath called ‘Cyclone Hudhud’. That incident brought about a change in many people’s life, more so in their perspectives towards life. One such person was Sushama Kongana.
The calamity showed her life’s darkest side as she helplessly watched scores of homeless people struggle without a roof and food for days at a stretch. She describes those days as the “turning point” of her life when she went about volunteering for relief work in remote places of the region for a week.
More than six months later when devastation hit Nepal through a high magnitude earthquake, the images of the Cyclone Hudhud ripping apart her hometown Vizag flashed before her eyes. It took her less than 24 hours to decide that she would be heading to Nepal to render support to the earthquake victims.
Trained in rescue and search operations and basic first aid, Sushama formed a team with a mountaineer friend from Hyderabad, two doctors from Delhi and two other members from Mumbai to embark on a planned mission.
“We first reached out to people through social networking sites like Facebook and managed to raise around Rs 1 lakh funds through individual and private club donations. Some important medicines were donated by doctors. We also arranged four to five cartons of sanitary napkins and some tents to offer immediate help to shelter-less people,” says Sushama. The team landed in Kathmandu on Thursday and plan to stay there for 10 days to carry out relief work. Drawing conclusions from the Hudhud experience, Sushama says: “The aid that comes in within the first weeks and even months is of a life-saving nature.”
Says her teammate M.V. Girinath Reddy, a mountaineer and a software professional from Hyderabad, “Most of the relief work has been centred around Kathmandu. But there are lot of remote villages that are in difficult terrains, cut off from relief measures and badly affected by the earthquake. We have established contacts with our acquaintances in Nepal and will be heading to these villages for relief work. We mountaineers are accustomed to moving around in tough terrains.” For someone who visited Nepal just seven months ago, the shock of the images of a devastated country was extreme. Incidentally, Girinath had planned to go on the Everest expedition in April which somehow didn’t materialise. “It’s an irony that now I am heading there for relief operations,” he adds.
Vizagites uniteEven as Sushama heads to Nepal with the team, several Vizagites have pledged their support for the Nepal earthquake victims. Perhaps, the haunting memories of cyclone Hudhud remain fresh in their minds, which make them relate strongly to one of the biggest natural calamities of recent times. After all, the effect of natural calamities and human tragedies transcends geographical barriers.
Says J.D. Vineela, a resident of Vizag: “I feel helpless to see the sufferings of thousands of families in Nepal trapped in the misery. Cyclone Hudhud had showed us how nature can incapacitate man, when we suffered without power, grappling with severe shortage of food supply for many days. If that incident shook us so much, the Nepal tragedy is far more potent. In times of such huge crisis, people need support more than ever. Since I couldn’t go there, I have donated Rs. 2,000 for the relief work.”
Student organisations like AIESEC have also pitched in their support for the victims of Nepal tragedy.
Over 100 students and their families converged at R.K. Beach on Thursday to release sky lanterns as a mark of solidarity towards Nepal victims.
Each participant paid Rs 200 out of which half the amount was dedicated for the Nepal cause. Says Ramya Rednam, a student of GITAM University and member of AIESEC: “We Vizagites can relate to the tragedy much better having experienced the fury of nature in the recent past. We have been trying to contact our friends in Nepal, but till now we haven’t been able to establish any contact. We heard that network connectivity is snapped at most places in Nepal, a situation similar to what we faced during Hudhud.” The members of AIESEC in collaboration with Facebook’s initiative with Nepal International Medical Corporation will be organising another fund raiser on Sunday.
Meanwhile, around 10 city-based NGOs have joined hands under the common banner of ‘Vizag NGOs’ to set up stalls in 11 major points in the city for financial donations and collection of other aids like essential commodities.
The initiative will be carried out till May 6. The stalls for donations will be placed at Vizag Steel Plant - Sector 8, Gajuwaka – Anakapalle bus stop, NAD (Ambedkar statue), CMR Central Mall - Maddilapalem, Kali Temple – R.K. Beach, Dutt Island – Siripuram, Jagadamba, P.M. Palem, Sagar Nagar and Suraksha Health Park.
