The worst floods in over 30 years have caused huge amounts of damage in one of the poorest regions of India.  Listen to the CRS World Report.

A woman rows a boat in Sindh, Pakistan, where swollen rivers swept away homes and destroyed crops and bridges. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS

By Jennifer Hardy, CRS digital and new media communications officer

While 6 to 8 feet of water submerges homes in Orissa province in India, floodwaters are also packing a second punch to people in Sindh province, Pakistan. Still rebuilding their homes and farms after deadly flooding in 2010, half of the people Catholic Relief Services plans to assist in Sindh are losing ground in their recovery efforts.

In the four districts CRS is prioritizing in Pakistan—among the poorest in the country—flooding has damaged or destroyed more than 200,000 homes. Jack Byrne, country representative for Pakistan, says this is “a double blow for many of the families affected by the current flood. They lost so much in the 2010 floods, and were beginning to get back on their feet. They’ve lost their crops, homes and belongings for the second time in a year.”

Teams from CRS in India report that some people are waiting to be rescued from the tops of their houses, whereas others have made it safely to embankments but lack sufficient shelter.

CRS is responding in both countries.
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Children at Mukti Ashram, a center for exploited children run by CRS partner Bachpan Bachao Andolan. At the ashram, children receive counseling and care before being reunited with their families. Photo courtesy of Bachpan Bachao Andolan

Salim, now 11, was about 8 when he ran away from his rural home in India. His father had started beating him, and there wasn’t money for school. A man from his village assured Salim he could find him a good job-so he went.

But like thousands of India’s children, Salim ended up in a sweatshop-in this case, a zari (embroidery) factory making items for foreigners. Salim would start at eight in the morning and worked late, sometimes until midnight, in a dingy room without windows. He lived and ate in the factory, and at night he slept along with other children on floor. His bosses beat him and scolded him for making minor mistakes. As a “trainee,” Salim received 50 rupees-one dollar-a week.

Salim’s servitude lasted two years. But when he was ten, a Catholic Relief Services partner, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), rescued him and hundreds of other childrenworking in factories. Following leads to find sweatshops and raid them, BBA workers put themselves in harm’s way to save children; in one case this year, they were beaten during a raid.
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Women living with HIV learn skills such as sewing and tailoring during a six month program at a teaching center in India. Photo by Stephen Cunliffe for CRS

Freelance writer Steve Cunliffe reports on a CRS program for HIV-affected women in India:

“Two years ago my husband ran off and I was forced to take my two children and move back to my parent’s home. Last year I became very ill; I was supposed to die, but God saved me. After recovering, I decided that I needed to improve my life and circumstances for the sake of my children,” says 30-year-old Sumati. “A friend brought me to Bosco Mangaal, where I received further antiretroviral treatment until I was healthy and strong enough to begin training in tailoring.”

Mangaal, meaning ‘light’ in the local language, seems a very apt name for a social services partner of a major Catholic Relief Services HIV project in India, LIFE AID. Women living with HIV learn skills such as sewing and tailoring at their teaching center. The six-month training program culminates with an opportunity for the most skilled, committed and productive ladies to band together and form a co-op that receives ongoing support, such as interest-free loans and marketing assistance, from Bosco Mangaal.
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“The sisters are like our parents. I love this place and am very happy here. I want to stay, but soon I will be ready to go because I will be done with class five.”

Nelson*, 13, lost both his parents and a sister to HIV-related illness. After the death of his parents, Nelson and his siblings were sent to live with relatives. Severe financial constraints forced all the children to drop out of school; however, after his younger sister succumbed to AIDS, child welfare finally intervened. When they discovered that he too was HIV-positive, Nelson was referred to Carmel Jyoti Care Centre and enrolled in the Breeze Course School, a part of Catholic Relief Services Project LIFE AID, which helps vulnerable children catch up on schoolwork they may have missed.

Sister Regina explained, “Carmel Jyoti cares for HIV-infected and -affected children. Almost every child you see here is an orphan. The Breeze Course School, staffed by nuns, operates on a five-class system that takes the young students two to three years to complete. The aim is not only to equip these children academically, but also socially, for reintegration into regular schools by the time they complete their final exams at the end of class five. Upon completion of the Breeze Course, the children return to their relatives, ready to continue their schooling in the local community.”
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Traveling by car, by boat, and on foot, CRS and its diocesan partner teams have already reached hundreds of families with buckets, water purification tablets, soap and more. Photo by CRS Staff

Catholic Relief Services continues to respond to severe flooding in two areas of northern India, where thousands of people have lost homes, crops, livestock and more.

Earlier this month, major rivers overflowed in an area called Uttar Pradesh, flooding hundreds of villages and breaching embankments. Thousands of people were evacuated to government relief centers and thousands of acres of crops were submerged. Though some villagers have returned home, many have lost property.

“At a time when the monsoons are normally coming to an end, weather forecasts continue to predict substantial rainfall, and additional flooding in the coming days,” says Deepti Pant, State Representative for CRS India in Uttar Pradesh. “Inhabitants of the area are on high alert.”

In a region called Uttarakhand, which like Uttar Pradesh is near Nepal, continuous rain has caused heavy flooding and landslides for the last four days. Over 500 miles of highway are blocked in different places, cutting the area off from supplies from major cities like Delhi. The rains, floods, and landslides have also disrupted power supplies, water sources and communication in the area. Many homes collapsed from the rains and floods, and in areas near a major dam, some houses are submerged. If the dam overflows, massive damage is expected.

To keep villagers in Uttar Pradesh from getting sick from polluted water, CRS has been distributing hygiene kits with buckets, water purification tablets, soap and more. Traveling by car, by boat, and on foot, CRS and its diocesan partner teams have already reached hundreds of families. In Uttar Pradesh, CRS also plans to build bathing cubicles and temporary latrines. In Uttarakhand, CRS is working with its diocesan partners to assess what people need.

“The monsoon rains this year in Uttar Pradesh have been heavy, steady and relentless,” says Ms. Pant. “People are going to need a lot of help.”

–Compiled from field reports

In the Gonda area of northern India, CRS staffer Elizabeth Tromans guides a woman she rescued from the floodwaters. The woman fell off her husband’s bicycle into rushing water and was pulled under; Elizabeth, a former lifeguard, jumped in to save her. Floods have affected thousands of people in this area of India. Photo by CRS staff

On the morning of Sunday September 19, Elizabeth Tromans, a Catholic Relief Services Fellow in northern India and a former lifeguard, was hiking with a CRS team to get humanitarian aid supplies to flood survivors in an area called Uttar Pradesh. She says:

“We were on our way to distribute kits to clean water. We went as far as the car would allow. Then we took a boat, and then we walked 2 or 3 kilometers [about 1.5 miles]. In between, there were a few areas where the road was washed out or there was standing water.

“We came to a road with a bridge that was washed out. We crossed over that in about knee-deep water–it was rushing pretty quickly. On the other side, we stopped because a phone was ringing in my backpack.

“I turned back and saw a man coming by bicycle with his wife on the back. He pedaled into the water. I thought, ‘What is this guy doing?!’ The current was strong; you couldn’t see the road underneath.
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CRS is helping people whose homes were destroyed by a severe storm that hit northeast India in April. Here, CRS India staff share one family’s story:

Mrs. Azgari Begum, 65, lives in a thatched house with her son, daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren. All the family members were sleeping in the house on April 13th. When a powerful storm and heavy rains started around midnight, the family members took shelter under one wooden cot. As the force of the wind increased, they felt that the thatched, mud-plaster walls of their house were trembling and might fall at any time.

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Catholic Relief Services is distributing aid items to flood victims. The aid packages include kitchenware like pots and plates; sleeping mats and blankets; soap, detergent, and water purification tablets. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS

Sixteen-year-old Renuka works twelve hours a day in a garbage dump in southern India, sorting cans, bottles, and glass. Each day she earns about 80 cents, enough to bring a few pounds of rice home to her family’s house in a slum area of the city of Adoni. Her parents don’t work, so she and her sister support the family by working at the dump. She sifts through a lot of trash, but says the needles don’t poke her.

Renuka could take Sunday off if she didn’t need the money, but she does—so she works every day. She took the day off on Tuesday this week, however, to travel two and a half hours to receive a package of aid items from CRS. Most of the beneficiaries live closer to the CRS distribution site, but Renuka and others from Adoni were added to the beneficiary list: not only is she HIV-positive, but her family’s home was destroyed in a devastating flood that hit India a few weeks ago.

It’s a triple whammy of crushing misfortune: impoverished, sick, and now virtually homeless, this teenager’s life seems impossibly grim. Renuka has someone on her side, though: a short, determined woman named Sister Lilly Lobo.
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