After The Rain Has Gone

In August 2018, the south-Indian state of Kerala was hit by an unusually high level of rainfall, causing the worst floods in the region in nearly a century. Almost 500 people lost their lives, and an estimated million had to be evacuated. Heavy rains in hilly districts caused landslides causing severe damage to people’s homes, farms, livestock - leaving hundreds and thousands of people with nothing.

AEIN’s project towards rehabilitating Kerala began on 1st October 2018, and along with its partners, an intensive need assessment was conducted to identify the families that would benefit the most from rehabilitation efforts. Working closely with local representatives, the most marginalised families were selected with preference given to single women, widows, women-headed families, tribal and scheduled caste families, families with differently abled or mentally challenged members and elderly couples without children.

These families have benefited from the following recovery efforts by AEIN and its partners :

• Livelihood restoration for 111 families : AEIN has identified the most vulnerable population in the severely hit Idukki/Ernakulam districts and supported them by providing capital and resources to restart their farms, small-scale workshops, cottage industries, hotel & restaurant businesses, grocery shops and other small businesses. AEIN has also provided sewing machines to 40 women to restart their tailoring units.
• 50 Houses have been repaired or reconstructed in just six months.
• Safe drinking water sources completely destroyed by landslides also caused contamination in the quality of the water from these sources. AEIN’s partners tested water in the affected areas and provided 11 water filters to communities where water was polluted the most. In addition, a bore well provided to a Government School now ensures safe drinking water for 140 students.
• A total of 200 hand-wash kits were distributed to children, pregnant mothers and lactating mothers.
• Skill and Entrepreneurship training workshops were organised for 25 people, including 15 youth. A seed capital of Rs. 20,000 was provided as a part of the livelihood support activity.
• Children & Adolescent Camps organised in schools for 95 children to help with post-traumatic stress management. The camp helped the children to express the emotional trauma undergone and enable them to overcome the fear of disaster.
  AEIN and its partners continue to work in the flood-affected areas and have many more efforts planned in the months to follow.

  

  

  Article written by our partner AEIN