Youth brigade in action in floot-hit areas

When Supriya Gandhi came to Thiruvananthapuram from Pathankot, Punjab, in June this year as a trainee at TCS in Technopark, little did she imagine she would have to get her hands dirty before she left the city. But she did it willingly when she joined a team of 49 volunteers who cleaned Prince Marthanda Varma Higher Secondary School, Peringara, in Thiruvalla, which had got flooded.

She got down to her job in right earnest to wash away the slush and dirt left behind after the water receded from the school. Overcoming her revulsion for the dirt and the terrible stench, the 22-year-old flushed the classrooms with water collected from a well on the premises of the school.

“Since we had generators, pumps, diesel and motors, we could pump water from the well for cleaning the school. We had carried bleaching powder and plenty of cleaning lotions and disinfectants to systematically clean the rooms. Piles of damp books housed centipedes, frogs and various creepy-crawlies. So we put them all out to dry in the sun so that they would be free of insects and other creatures. The computer lab was completely gone,” says Ganesh Harshan, a volunteer with the team. They went to Thiruvalla on August 26 under the initiative of Prathidhwani, a forum of techies in Technopark. Supriya also handed over her first salary to the flood relief fund.

Similarly, from all over Kerala, there were hundreds of teams, working under a spectrum of organisations, who rolled up their sleeves, donned gumboots, gloves and masks to clean homes, schools, offices and hospitals invaded by the flood. The youth brigade were in full strength to help those displaced by the floods to return to what was life before the floods.

Many of them, under the banner of local self-government bodies, various organisations, NGOs, charity groups, Whatsapp and Facebook groups, corporate groups and the like had spent Thiruvonam at these places and some are still at these locations with the cleaning process picking up pace.

“It was heartbreaking to see that children had lost their books; people were starving and had no houses to go back to...I want to continue helping the people here though I have to join our Delhi office,” says Supriya. Pardeep Singh and Adity Gupta, both from Jammu-Kashmir, and colleagues of Supriya’s, were part of the team that was divided into four batches to clean the school. Another team of volunteers from Technopark is leaving for Kuttanad on September 1.

With zeal

In the meantime, Aadithya H. Nair, a final-year engineering student of PRS College of Engineering and Technology, Paliyode, had left for Malakkara, near Edayaranmula in Pathanamthitta district, on the day of Thiruvonam. He is back in the city for a short break before he leaves for Palakkad with a group of students from his college to undertake relief and rebuilding measures.

“I worked at the collection points in the city and also travelled with the team that went to distribute relief materials. But I wanted to do more and that’s why I decided to be part of the cleaning process. In Malakkara, I was part of the Art of Living team and I am leaving for Palakkad under the National Service Scheme (NSS) Technical Cell’s programme to work at the flood-affected areas in whatever way we can. Students from various engineering colleges have been invited to be part of this venture. I have registered to do civilian work and data entry work in the district,” says 20-year-old Aadithya.

Much praised for their discipline and professionalism at the collection points and in deluge-hit districts, many young volunteers assert that they will continue their work till all those affected by the flood can resume their lives with some semblance of normalcy.

Bijil V.J., a software engineer, was with a team that cleaned St Thomas Hospital, Pathanamthitta, which also had to face the fury of the Pamba when it breached its banks. “The hospital has been giving free service to people from economically backward families. It has a special section that conducts free surgery for children with cleft palate and rehabilitates them. The entire wing was filled with silt and the local people wanted us to clean the hospital immediately because there were no hospitals nearby,” he recalls.

Their group also worked at Koipuram in the district, where no aid had reached till then. “Slush hampered our movement although we were all wearing gumboots. And in order to clean those houses, we had to use the dirty water itself! Many families had just one room that they called their house. We also arranged food for some residents. After we posted about their plight on Facebook, more volunteers came forward to help,” says Bijil.

Fighting odds

The deplorable condition of slush-filled houses did dishearten some of them initially. Aswanth Ashataman, a final-year student of Journalism and Mass Communication, of Mar Ivanios College, explains: “Ten of us from our department went to Aranmula. It was a laborious process to clean the kitchen and the toilet, wading through dirt and all kinds of debris. We were apprehensive about snakes. As advised, we all took Doxycycline as a precaution against Leptospirosis (rat fever),” says Aswanth.

Nanda Bhargav, owner of a fitness club at Kowdiar, admits that they weren’t sure whether they could clean the houses at Mankara in Chengannur.

“There was mud and dirt everywhere and with no power supply, it was difficult for us to understand how much slush was there. The water had damaged almost everything and all the wells were contaminated,” says Nanda. The group cleaned several houses and a temple. “It was Thiruvonam and the residents requested whether we could clean the temple so that they could at least light a lamp,” he adds.

Reaching out

Aswanth’s classmate Megha Justin is happy that she is making a difference in the lives of people. Besides Aranmula, she had worked in Chengannur with a team from her church.

“The job was not easy, but the energy of the team was infectious. The residents were happy with our work. They took our phone numbers and promised to invite us when there were any marriages in the family!” she says.

Buoyed by the success of their team work, many volunteers are still on the job, helping people in different localities to come to terms with life after the deluge.