Oct 20th, 2021
Kerala is experiencing a situation almost similar to what the State faced during the devastating floods of 2018 and 2019. Normal Monsoon in Kerala is from the second half of May until end of September. But this year it has been raining beyond the usual. From 16th October onwards it has been heavily raining all over Kerala. By 17th morning there was a huge cloudburst in the central part of Kerala with extreme casualties.
Mostly the affected areas are the districts such as Kottayam, Idukki, Thrissur and some parts of Ernakulam. There has been a number of landslides in which two were devastating. They caused flood in the villages such as Plappalli, Kokkayar, Koottikal,Mundakkayam, Ranni, Thodupuzha, Erimeli, Peerumedu, Peruvandhaanam, Eanthayaar, Kanjaar, Poonjaar, Kokkatthodu, Kalleli, Vayakkara and Eettumanoor, to name a few.
More than 200 houses were totally washed away in the flash flood caused by landslides and many other houses have been partially damaged. Several people have been injured and displaced while 25 have died and more than 10 persons are still missing. A total of 105 relief camps have been set up across the central Kerala. Since more rains are expected yellow alert has been issued in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Patthanamthitta, Alapuzha, Idukki, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode. Army, Navy and Air force have been mobilised to carry out flood relief operations. The casualties are still on the rise.
It takes a long time to build their life back to normality. We request all of our dear friends, benefactors, well-wishers and healthcare volunteers to support this cause with their prayers, presence or other means of contributions. CTF began to organizing the medical camps and the relief activities on 18th October. We shall ensure that whatever financial aid you may provide through the CTF-India reaches the deserving.
The immediate response aims to:
- Distribute food provision kits and drinking water to reach out to 11,640 families and 58200 beneficiaries through this act of charity;
- Build medical camps and bring medical aid since people are in need of daily medicines, medical check-ups, treatment for the cancer patients and dialysis for the kidney failure patients, medical and surgical equipment and for medical interventions at the hospital for the poor sick;
- Recover household items lost during the flood, such as kitchen appliances and household materials (tables, chairs, Cots, Kitchen appliances, beds, buckets and plates etc…);
- Distribute the necessary clothes (for men, women & children, bedsheets, towels etc..) for their further going and living as per their needs;
- Distribute cleaning materials for the houses so that people can move back home from the relief camps;
- Buy the construction materials for the damaged or destroyed houses. We help partially to rebuild the damaged houses to help the poor families.
CADIS International is appealing to your generosity to help and sustain our emergency response. You may send your contribution to this account:
ACCOUNT: Fondazione Camillian Disaster Service International – CADIS
ADDRESS: Piazza della Maddalena, 53 – 00186 Roma
BANK NAME: DEUTSCHE BANK
IBAN: IT13T 03104 03202 00000 08402 70
BIC-SWIFT: DEUTITM1582
BANK ADDRESS: Largo di Torre Argentina, 4, 00186 Romaor
PAYPAL "DONATE" section on the website cadisinternational.org
We thank you in advance for your great support and generosity. Please keep our emergency relief teams in your prayers. We will keep you posted of the recent events on the ground.
Every natural disaster teaches us spiritual lessons and makes us realize the value of life we live. Every event happens so that we may learn something. It seems from minute to minute there is some new disaster making the headlines. We're just recovering from one world-altering, paradigm-shifting event and another follows.
I am convinced that one of the greatest tragedies of our society today is the fact that somehow, we have equated the ability to be sympathetic, the ability to be compassionate, the ability to relate to the needs of our fellow human beings as weakness--when, in fact, it is a sign of strength.
The more we are able to communicate to others and ourselves the spiritual consequences of trauma, the more likely we will be to heal and transform these experiences. It is because; pastoral care is leading, guiding, nurturing, sustaining, healing and restoring the people and the world as a whole.
Fr. Baby Ellickal MI
National Director, CTF-India
