Successful Flood Relief Camp

Dear friends

Please find below the post from

http://ourrevolutions.blogspot.com/2009/10/successful-flood-relief-camp.html

As soon as we heard about Floods in Andhra, Baasata and Our Revolutions started discussing on where, how and what to help .

We luckily were able to establish a very good contact in Kurnool, Mr. Ratna Prasad is very good Social Service activist in Kurnool and he did a very good job in past.

We contacted him. One of our friend's father has worked with him closely in identifying a village K.Singavaram near Kothakota which is 35Kms from Kurnool and has 400 families.

The village is on the bank of Tungabadhra river and the damage was more severe than anticipated. The flood has shown no mercy on small farmers and no anger on landlords. It took everything. Everyone lost equally everything.

A bridge between this Village and Kurnool was severely damaged and it took 1 week to restore it. The villagers of K.Singavaram did not receive any help

We contacted the villagers and asked them what assistance did they expect from us to pace up their rehabilitation.

They said that some how they are getting some food grains and requested us to provide them some clothing.

We discussed with the Village head Mr.Chinna Sathyanarayana and others. Since winter has almost approached, we zeroed on some warm clothing. As most of the villagers work from morning to evening on farming and considering the climate condition in Kurnool, we thought Woolen Blankets wouldl help them out. The villagers agreed for it and requested us to help them equally i.e. to bring our help in Units of 400. Kudos to their spirit of Unity. What moved us is that no one was greedy and they wanted help equally.

On fast track we gathered the funds from our Baasata Members, Our Revolutions and Spurthy Foundation(Bangalore) which totally summed up to Rs.49,976/-.

We purchased 400 Woolen Blankets and 400 towels. The quality of Woolen Blankets and Towels are as good as the ones in our home. The purchase was made after a very good research which lead careful selection of Woolen blankets and towels of good quality at cheapest price. We thank the owner of the shop who sold us the clothing for almost zero profit.

We distributed them 1 Woolen Blanket and 1 towel per family by checking their Voter ID or Ration Card to confirm that they belonged to K.Singavaram. Few of the villagers volunteered themselves to identify no members of same family repeated twice. making sure that every family got help and no family got help twice.

Our Revolutions, Spurthy Foundation and Baasata Society have co-operated well, clarified every aspect and saw that the distribution was done effectively. The synchronization of different groups of people was a wonderful lesson in our journey. We could proudly say that every penny donated has very well reached the needy.

Thanks for putting trust in us.

We from Baasata Society would like to thank D.Diwakar(Our Revolutions) , G.Praveen(Spurthy Foundation), Ratna Prasad(Kurnool), Mali (Kavali) and the others who involved in making this event successful.

We are looking forward to help those villagers in another phase. We are out of funds and once we finalize on what to do next we will start raising funds. I request you to point us towards any kind of assistance that the villagers could get.

PS: In this activity every effort was on fast track, it was an overwhelming for all those involved to see things happen at a very fast pace. In every walk of our efforts we felt the spirit of humanity and unity assisting us.

Thanks

The Baasata Team

Hi All,

Thank You all for your responses for the flood relief activity we planned. Initially we planned to conduct the activity on 17th of October. Since many of you could transfer money after 17th, we postponed it to 26th of October based on the availability of the village heads where we decided to help.

As expected the response was overwhelming from many of you. We selected a village called K.Singavaram which is near Kothakota (35Kms from Kurnool). We had a lead from one of our friends in this village who helped us in identifying the correct families and also in helping us to distribute to each one of them correctly.

We discussed on various options but zeroed in on Woolen Blankets and Towels. There were 400 families in the village that required immediate help and we were requested to help all of them. Govt. gave them rice and other house holds items so we decided to distribute woolen blankets & Towels (also because it falls into our budget and more importantly because it was winter) to the 400 Families.

We bought 400 Woolen Blankets & 800 Towels in Kavali and divided them into 400 packets and transported them to K.Singavaram. Mr. Chinna Satyanarayana , helped us in collecting the ration cards of the families well before the distribution started helped us in issuing each pack based on the ration cards he had with him. This way every family got their pack.

Since this was a major event considering the budget, we combined with 2 similar organizations named Baasata (Read here)& Sphurthy who are doing an excellent job among themselves. They played an important role in collecting the money required to complete this Important event.Would like to take his opportunity to specially thank Revendranath from Basata & Praveen GR from Sphurthy.

The most challenging thing during the flood relief activity for any group is during distribution (Many organizations could not distribute to the right people because other village people started looting the vehicles midway). So would like to thank Venkat Babu, Mr. Ratna Prasad & Chinna Satyanarayana (Head of the Village) in helping us take the parcels safely from Kurnool.

A special thank you note to all the people who came forward with old clothes(many of them still new). we were told that many of the villages were not accepting old clothes so we did not take them with us. We have around 60-70 pairs of old clothes right now. We are still collecting them and waiting for a genuine opportunity to distribute them.Kindly let us know in case you find people who are in need of old clothes.

Special Thanks to Revendranath from Basata for organizing the entire event which took a lot of effort.


Donations:

Baasata Society Rs.24,776/-


Our Revolutions + Sphurthy Foundation Rs 25,200/-


Grand Total : Rs.49,976/-


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Expenses :
-----------------------------------
400 Woollen Blankets + 400 Towels : Rs.42,352/- (Includes Rs.280/- packing charges)
Transportation : Rs.04,100/- (Includes Rs.100/- for driver(Mahesh))
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Grand Total : Rs.46,425/-
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Remaining Amount with us : Rs. 03,624/-

Photos & Paper Clippings:

Few Photos below, will be adding the remaining photos and paper clipping soon

Mr.Ratna Prasad distributing a Woolen Blanket and a Towel to a Villager



Regards,

Team REVOLUTIONS

For a student

One of our members, S.Naveen Kumar came across a girl student who is studying 2nd year Computer Science Engineering. We are keeping her details anonymously. All that we know is that she is economically struggling to support her education and our members together did a great work to help her in need. S. Naveen Kumar and Revendra has worked with 4 of our members and they together raised Rs.13,000/-. They intimated the members that the money they donated would be used to help this girl for her studies. She said this amount is enough to meet her year expenses.
She promised that she will do some part time job to meet her next year expenses so that the funds we raise would help some other students. Kudos to her spirit.

Books distribution at ZP Girls High School, Kavali

On 27 June,2009 Baasata Society has distributed around 1000 notebooks to over 225 students at ZP Girls High School, Sivalayam Street, Kavali.

Why did we Distribute books?
Students in ZP Girls High School belong to socially backward communities. Parents of the Girl students work as coolies, rickshaw pullers and do other forms of daily labour with which they hardly survive a day. Many of the Girl students who study at this school stay in BC,SC,ST Hostels. Their parents from Rural areas around Kavali and Jaladanki join them at the hostel so that they can save their daily expenses. It was really pathetic to know that few of their parents just join those students in Hostel and never come back or care about them. Having heard many tough facts from the students and school teachers, we analyzed the data we collected. The basic problem with the school is that the students are in short of the basic necessity, the notebooks and stationery. The Government are providing textbooks and All-In-One's for the students, but they could not afford notebooks. We had many rounds of discussions with school teachers and our members. We finally concluded on distributing the notebooks to the students.

Identification of Deserving students

School teachers especially English teacher Purnima took an active role in identiying the deserving students. We formulated an easy identification process. We took the details of deserving students from school teachers, then based on the details we shortlisted the students list.

In total we identified 200 students out of 350 students in that school.
6 books per student resulted in total number of books as (200*6=) 1200.

Every Penny is valuable
It's time to find a best deal to purchase 1200 notebooks of 180 pages each.

Initially we talked to many whole sale book distributors, we got a best deal of Rs.14/- per book which are very good in quality. Our members agreed on that price and we were about to make the order.
You can find the link to the Orkut thread here where we mentioned about this event and we were in short of money to purchase 1200 books

But our members Naveen Kumar S and Mahesh tried hard, communicated with book manufacturers and got the deal for Rs.10.5/- per book which resulted in Rs.12,600/-. The quality of the books are very good. Here our members have saved an amount of Rs.4200/-. The commitment of our members is not just to serve the society but to account for every penny of donation. Save at one end and help at the other.

Distribution of the Books
Finally the day has arrived. Neither did we wait for any weekend so that all of our members would gather to distribute the books nor did we plan some great event. Mahesh and Naveen distributed the books smoothly to the list of identified students.

Few of the students who have already purchased some books volunteered themselves not to take some books. Its really a good gesture from their end. We distributed over 1000 notebooks to over 225 students. We are still left with 180-190 books and we are in process of identifying a deserving school in extending our support to the needy students.

We thank all the teachers and members who worked together in making this event successful. We appreciate the donors who are always a step ahead to our expectations.
Thanks all for everything.

We are in touch with the students and teachers of ZP Girls High School and will organize career awareness camps. We promised to help the students for their higher studies if they pass with flying colors.




Note from Headmaster of the school


Mahesh Distributing the notebooks to the students

Baasata Society : Medical and Educational awareness program on 14-03-2009 at Gudladona

Educational Awareness program was conducted at Gudladona village which is 34Kms from Kavali towards Athmakur. We surveyed the village and collected the basic statistics.
Gudladona being the native of one of our members, Bhanu Kiran T, many people aready gathered before we reached the village. We met the enthusiasts who are interested in developing the village. We found that the village lacks basic infrastructure facilities. Our interaction with those villagers helped us choose few volunteers for our next activities in the village.

Srinivas working as teaching volunteer in Upper Primary School and his brother Satya, RMP doctor of that village helped us in providing a lot of information about the educational standards, medical requirements and few other problems. We interacted with few more people and told them about our commitment towards improving the educational requirements of that village. Many agreed to co-operate with us.

We requested them to collect the information about the drop-outs from that school and basic problems that school is facing. This data will help us find the gaps that have to be filled for successful function of the school and reduce child labour.

Few of our plans are for school in the academic year 2009-10 are -
1. Providing note books to the students,
2. Providing Hindi and English teachers in the Govt school - they face
major problem here [One of our friend has identified the respective teacher]
3. Try to discuss with parents of students who are discontinuing their
studies - especially girls parents.

Our Members who Organised the event are Bhanu Kiran T, Ravi Sankar C, Prachodhe SC and Revendranath T

Career Awareness Program - 21/02/2009

Career awareness Program was conducted at Muncipal High School 8th Ward [Venkayya vaari Badi]

We interacted with 40 students, talked to them individually & told the possibilites of fulfilling their dreams.

Out of those 40 students we shortlisted 23 deserving students to help them for their Intermediate Studies. We told them if they perform well l, we'll support them out in pursuing higher studies.
We encouraged them to continue their studies and told them not to drop after they finish their 10th class

We could see a grown confidence among students and discussed with their teacher to keep track of their progress.

We understood that they are facing problems with the Subject Hindi and they lack few books for studies. So we decided on providing some guides or question banks for them to prepare well for exams.

Teacher Sujatha has helped us in seeing this process be carried out smoother. Thank a lot to her. She further promised that she'll help us establish a library in that school. She said she will take active part identifying the poor students to support their studies in next financial year.

Our members Firoz, Prachode, Dinesh & Revendra organised this event. Once their 10th Calss results are out, we are planning to organise a meeting with their parents.Based on their performance and financial backgroud, we'll support them as needed.

Diabetes Testing & Awareness Camp

Diabetes Testing & Awareness Camp was organized by Baasata Society on January 26th, 2009 at Shadhi Manzil. Dr. Bezawada Ravi Kumar, a Diabetis specialist has attended the camp, delivered a valuable speech and interacted with the patients. Dr. Indira who was pioneer in our last medical camp at Bala Krishna Reddy Nagar was invited as special guest.

Around 80 people attended the camp for whom free Diabetis testing was done. We expected 300 members and made arrangements for the same. This event was a very great learning ground for us and helped us plan the activities more better.


Dr. Bezawada Ravi Kumar addressing the people.


People keenly listening to Dr. Ravi Kumar


Our volunteers Ravi Shankar & Prachodhe on Duty



Thanks to Dr. Indira for supporting us in Medical Camp at Bala Krishna Reddy Nagar


Our members at the event

Medical Camp at Bala Krishna Reddy Nagar on 2, November 2008

Bala Krishna Reddy Nagar is an area in Kavali where most of the daily labours live. A day without work to them is a day without pay and a day without food.We heard that not many people in this colony are affording proper medicines and are continuing to suffer from the diseases. So we decided to organize a medical camp here.

Along with Primary Health Centre, Kavali has organised a Medical Camp at Bala Krishna Reddy Nagar, Kavali on November 2, 2008. Mr. Bala Krishna Reddy retired M.D.O has attended the camp. Dr. Indira from Primary health Centre and Dr. Sathish from Latha Pediatric Hospital checked around 80 patients and distributed medicines for free.

We thank all the volunteers, who made the event successful, especially Dinesh & Yogesh for their active volunteering.

We also thank all those people who directly or indirectly made this event successful.

Patients attending the Medical Camp

Dr. Sathish [Pediatrician] treating a child patient

Dr. Indira prescribing medicines to the patient

Supporting Compounder & Nurses, played major role in success of the camp

Governing Body of the Baasata Society

Designation		Name	Email Id
President		Revendranath T	revendranath@gmail.com
Vice President		KrishnaRao B	krishnaraobontha@gmail.com
Secretary		Bhanu Kiran T	bhanubtech@gmail.com
Joint Scretary		Pradeep Kumar V	pradeep.vemireddy@gmail.com
Treasurer		Naveen Kumar S	skumar54321@gmail.com
Executive Member		Sandalya Prachodhe C	prachodhe@gmail.com
Executive Member		FirozKhan B	firozkhan85@gmail.com
Executive Member		Vamsi Krishna T	thotamail@gmail.com

Baasata Society

Baasata Society is registered under Societies Act 2001 with Reg No. 262/2008.
The Society aims at solving the Social Problems in the urban & rural areas. BAASATA in Telugu is "to support, aid or help".

We wil support our society in all aspects especially concentrating on

1) Health

1. Organising Medical camps in cities and villages.


2. Creating awareness about different diseases & precautions to be
   taken to prevent many diseases as "Prevention is better than Cure".

2) Education

1. Empowering the Primary and Secondary schools by providing the
   poor & needy students with books, stationery


2. Discouraging the child labour & encouraging the enrollment of
   working children in schools

3) Environmental Activities

1. Planting trees


2. Conserving water


3. Awareness campaings to reduce pollution

The certificate of registration for Baasata Society