SOS Children’s Villages of India stands in solidarity with the people of #Uttarakhand. Our emergency response team is on the ground to provide immediate relief to the affected children and their families.
Nearly two weeks after the disaster struck Uttarakhand’s remote villages in Chamoli district the hope of finding survivors is diminishing with each passing day.
This was a disaster that arrived in the form of an Avalanche and deluge- happened after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off on the February 7, 2021 leaving more than 170 people dead.
Loss of lives and livelihoods have endangered the survival of family members and quality care for their children. Most of the men who lost their lives were the only bread earners of their families with no other source of income.
In every natural disaster, children are the worst affected! They struggle to come to terms with intense psychological trauma as they deal with the loss of homes, belongings, and their loved ones.
Loss of lives and livelihoods have endangered survival of family members and quality care for their children. SOS Children’s Villages of India, is the only NGO that has hit the ground running with immediate relief measures for children and families swiftly responded by opening a childcare centre – providing children a safe zone - toys, meals, stationery, and books and by supplying dry ration to the families.
The objectives behind this initiative are:
Supporting children with basic reading writing materials for continuing education and have built a child care centre
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Providing dry ration to overcome disaster related setbacks as well as on alternative ways of livelihoods to the families-food security assured
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Giving hope to people in these difficult times
Looking forward to your generous support to help us minimize sufferings of these children and their families in this hour of need
Stories From the Ground
Kumari Dika (from Tapoban Village) will never forget that tragic day of 7th Feb when she saw that humongous gallons of water making roaring sounds and washing away the entire valley. She could hear people screaming and running for life....Her father for whom she had made morning breakfast was also at the site for his morning shift. Generally, her father Narendra Lal,48 years old used to take weekly off on Sunday, but that day life had planned something else for him.
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Anil age 24 from Tapoban was planning to get married this year after having some savings in his account. Even though his father and relatives were pressurizing him for the last 2 years, his only response to all those social pressures was...“let me have my savings to run my family”. Sunday were always off for the local people, but young population like Anil used to work 7 days a week to have more income. Jagdish Lal father of Anil still remember his son wearing a red jacket & safety cap and going for his shift during the morning hours, but he never thought that was his last good bye to his son. With hopes his old father is still waiting for his son to be back from work and have his meals with the family.
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For children like Naveen who have already seen loss of dear ones during early years of life, it was too difficult for them to handle this situation. Naveen age 18 and his sister Deepika age 21 never even thought that they will face this...day when they be will left alone in this lonely world. Naveen who is currently studying in class 12th and his sister who is in 1st year of graduation are in shock due to this disaster. They not only lost their mother, but the only person they had in their lives. It was Laxmi Devi (who is currently missing) was the only person taking care of them since childhood. Laxmi lost her husband when Naveen was just 6 years old due to long his prolonged illness. On that fateful day, she as usual cooked food for her children and Naveen left for school as a normal day. (Schools above class 6th started from 8 Feb 2021). Post that she went down to the site to collect green pasture for goats. However, no one knew that is the last day when she will be seeing her children. Naveen with eyes filled and pain is still recovery from that incident and he is finding it difficult to accept the fact that he may not even see the corpse of his mother.
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