Uttarakhand floods: Donate for flood victims | Milaap
Uttarakhand floods: Donate for flood victims
  • Sewa

    Created by

    Sewa International
  • UG

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Uttarakhand Glacier Burst Victims

    from Tapovan , uttrakhand

Tax benefits for INR donations will be issued by Sewa International

As we write this appeal, Prem Singh (Name changed) is in a state of shock.

In the morning of 7th February, he had a conversation with his son, Prakash Singh about getting some biscuits for their family tea shack in the village. On a normal daily schedule, Prakash left the home for his job as a contractual labourer with NTPC in the morning. A few hours later, Prem Singh heard the loud thumping sounds of the river nearby. It was as if an entire mountain had broken, and the ground was trembling. Birds from the neighbouring villages flew with loud chirps signalling danger, and within a minutes, the river ferociously swept the village, ramming everything in her way with massive rocks of stone and ice. All these happened within a span of 30 minutes.

30 minutes of rage in the river and Prem Singh lost his son. Prakash Singh, along with hundreds of other workers vanished from the dam site within a few seconds, along with the gushing river. His body was recovered a few hours later, at Rudraprayag by the NDRF team.

His father, Prem Singh Ji is still unsure of what happened recalls:

It was so quick… He was just there with me today morning. And he is no more...I don’t know how this happened. Why is God testing us.. Why us...” 

His eyes are swelled with tears, and his body still shaking with the trauma of the impact.



Prakash Ji has left behind his new-born daughter (8 months old), his wife, his parents, and his old-aged grandfather. Prakash Ji was the sole breadwinner of the family, working at the construction site of the NTPC dam. The dam had been built over the acquired farms, so now there is no major landholding in the family too. His runs a small tea-sack in the village, but it has been flooded away too, taking all their shop investments too with it.

The family is not yet over the mourning for their son, while they worry about their next few days’ of food and basic supplies. Prem Ji, in his 50s, is teary, sitting at the corner, thinking how will he rebuild his family now that their elder son is gone, the younger son is still in school, and he has to provide for his family of 6, with no source of income...

And Prem Singh is not alone in this period of deep despair.

Similar stories are emerging from the 250+ families affected by the flash floods from the glacier burst a couple of days ago. While very few non-profits work at the high-altitude mountains, Sewa International has been rehabilitation projects in the area since the 2013 floods, spanning across 394 villages, involving thousands from the local community.

With more than two decades of experience in disaster relief and rehab operations, we are on the ground-zero, working with the impacted communities in the Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts of Uttarakhand. With over 30 dead, more than 200 missing and over 300 families losing their livelihoods, the damage of the glacier burst has shocked the entire community.

While the rescue operations for the missing people are still ongoing, non-stop for more than 40 hours now, Sewa International has started the relief operations with more than 120 on-ground volunteers providing health services, trauma counselling, food supplies, and helping the rescue teams with local knowledge.

We would be using these funds for the following purposes:

  • Health services: Our health teams are both at rescue site of Tapovan (site of the dam/power-plant that was devastated) and Raini village (First casualty village of the Glacier Burst), with trained medical professionals. We are providing the following services at both locations:
    • First Aid
    • ECG Check
    • X-Ray Machine
    • Oxygen Supply
    • Medicines
  • Trauma counselling: Our women team members are constantly spending time with the affected communities trying to provide solace and counselling to reduce their grief and bring back normalcy in their lives. With more than 30 affected villages, more than 60 team members are currently engaged in these services.
  • Supply Food and other amenities: With regular supply lines cut, and some houses devastated, we are supplying food, water and other basic supplies to 350+ individuals, twice a day, across 5 locations.
  • Helping the rescue teams with local knowledge: With a local network across villages, we are supporting the government authorities with names of the missing people, and their last known locations for rescue operations. We also support the government with the know-how of possible ways to reach out to the cut-off villages.
We are also preparing strategy and plan of action for the possible long-term rehabilitation programs in the area, like, long-term trauma counselling for the aggrieved, livestock support (goats, poultry etc) for immediate/reliable livelihoods, skill training for knitting, computers etc, and financial literacy for appropriate usage of any government grants in terms of running small sustainable businesses.

All these require your help and support!

Uttarakhand needs you!

Please support our relief and rehabilitation operations in the area by donating to our fundraiser here!

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