On Nov26th, I flew for my long due trip to flood affected villages in Andhra Pradesh On oct 6th, I read this news on BBC and decided to do something about it. I was flying almost one and a half months later to put a face on the 4000 bucks we had raised to help the villagers. Some people I knew were doubtful about how much I can help after so many days of the flood. However I still wanted to see the situation first hand. So after 20 hours of flying and 4 hours of driving I reached the affected villages near Kurnool.
My first sight was rows of temporary tents built for villagers on both sides of the road.
Here is a video I recorded while driving by it:
I simply didn’t know where to start who to help? No government people around no NGOs in vicinity. After talking to people it seemed like NGOs give everything raised to government office which works directly with villagers. However due to corruption, nothing reaches to people. At that moment I was glad I decided to visit personally.
Here are some villagers waiting for their farms to be reusable again. I could not have done much for these people.
After driving around villages, talking to people, we finally reached Rajoli, one of the most affected villages. As the major profession, these villagers convert raw thread to beautiful Indian silk.
All the weaved clothes, weaving equipments(looms) were destroyed by the flood. On top looms are not even insured. This is how looms looked like after the flood.
Here is one villager trying to fix his destroyed loom.
Overall, the first impression was pretty sad one after seeing people living in tents with both privacy and security exposed. On top of that no hope for the future with nothing left to try one more time. I never felt more gratitude for what I have.