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| Dadamben telling her story to Mittalben |
We encountered Painful memories of bitter experiences in the past. Memories that left us heavy hearted and teary eyed. The Banaskantha floods of 2017 had brought extreme pain in lives of many nomadic families. It continues to remains such a tragic event of their lives, memories of which they would want to erase forever.
The
Devipujak families of Patni Odha, a hamlet of Khariya village earned their living by farming small plots of land they had. But the floods swept away everything they owned. Almost 50 families lost their pucca homes while some were rendered inhabitable. The flood waters gushed unannounced living them no time to rescue their cattle that was tied to trees and hooks.
I distinctly remember meeting Dadamben during my immediate visit to the flood affected areas. “How will we ever manage to overcome this calamity,” she recounted the deadly floods with tears in her eyes.
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| Mittal Patel consoling Dadamben in the time of 2017 |
Organisationally, we were not prepared to meet such unprecedented demands of relief and rehabilitation. We knew these families were helpless and needed our support. VSSM appealed for help to its friends and well-wishers and as expected we received overwhelming support. The contributions helped us rehabilitate 219 families whose homes were completely destroyed in the floods. Each family received support of Rs. 50,000 to 70,000 while they also poured their hard work to rebuild their homes, their lives.
A rather upbeat and cheerful Dadamben welcomed us to her new home, her current mood quite different from the one that flashed back after meeting her. It was an experience to catch up with her and other families, sitting in the veranda of the brand new homes build from the support we received from you all. The families needed a lot of moral support, the team members of VSSM Naran, Ishwar and the youth of Patni Odha proved to be pillars of strength for these families.
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| Devastation in Banaskantha in Floods |
A huge thank you to all of you, our friends and well-wishers who always choose to stand besides us, besides these nomadic communities. It is your support that enables us bring a smile back on the faces of individuals like Dadamben!!!
If life were to offer us a chance, many amongst us would wish to permanently delete the painful memories of bitter experiences we encountered in the past. Memories that left us heavy hearted and teary eyed. The Banaskantha floods of 2017 had brought extreme pain in lives of many nomadic families. It continues to remains such a tragic event of their lives, memories of which they would want to erase forever.
The Devipujak families of Patni Odha, a hamlet of Khariya village earned their living farming small plots of land they had. But the floods swept away everything they owned. Almost 50 families lost their pucca homes while some were rendered inhabitable. The flood waters gushed unannounced living them no time to rescue their cattle that was tied to trees and hooks.
I distinctly remember meeting Dadamben during my immediate visit to the flood affected areas. “How will we ever manage to overcome this calamity,” she recounted the deadly floods with tears in her eyes.
Organisationally we were not prepared to meet such unprecedented demands of relief and rehabilitation. We knew these families were helpless and needed our support. VSSM appealed for help to its friends and well-wishers and as expected we received overwhelming support. The contributions helped us rehabilitate 219 families whose homes were completely destroyed in the floods. Each family received support of Rs. 50,000 to 70,000 while they also poured their hard work to rebuild their homes, their lives.
A rather upbeat and cheerful Dadamben welcomed us to her new home, her current mood quite different from the one that flashed back after meeting her. It was an experience to catch up with her and other families, sitting in the veranda of the brand new homes build from the support we received from you all. The families needed a lot of moral support, the team members of VSSM Naran, Ishwar and the youth of Patni Odha proved to be pillars of strength for these families.
A huge thankyou to all of you, our friends and well-wishers who always choose to stand besides us, besides these nomadic communities. It is your support that enables us bring a smile back on the faces of individuals like Dadamben!!!
ગુજરાતીમાં અનુવાદ
દરેકના જીવનમાં એવી કેટલીયે વાતો હોય છે જેને યાદ કરતા આંખ ભીની થઈ જાય. કાશ કમ્પ્યુટરની જેમ જીંદગીમાં પણ એક ડીલીટ બટન હોય તો કેવું સારુ થાત.
2017માં બનાસકાંઠામાં પુર આવ્યું ને કેટલાયના જીવનમાં ઊથલ પાથલ કરી નાખી.
ખારિયાના પરા પટણીઓઢામાં દેવીપૂજક પરીવારો રહે. ખેતીવાડીની આછી પાતળી જમીન ને કાંઈક મહેનત કરીને આ પરિવારોએ બનાવેલા ઘરો.
પણ પુરમાં બધુ તારાજ થઈ ગયું. 50 ઉપરાંત પરિવારોના પાકા ઘર જમીનદોસ્ત થઈ ગયા. તો ક્યાંક સાવ જર્જરીત થઈ ગયા. પુરનું પાણી ચોમેર ફરી વળતા ઘણા પરિવારો તો ખીલેબાંધેલા ઢોરેય છોડી નહોતા શક્યા.
પટણીઓઢામાં રહેતા દાડમ બહેનને એ વખતે મળેલી. વાત કરતા કરતા જ રડી પડેલા. કેમના બેઠા થઈશું તેવું તેમણે કહેલું…
અમારાથી શું થઈ શકશે તેની અમનેય ખબર નહોતી પણ આફતમાં આવી પડેલાં આપણા સ્નેહીજનોની પડખે ઊભા રહેવાનું તો કરવાનું હતું.
અમારી સાથે સંકળાયેલા પ્રિયજનોને મદદ માટે અપીલ કરીને સૌએ થાય તે મદદ કરીને જુઓ દાડમબહેન જેવા 219 પરિવારોના ઘરો ફેર ઊભા થઈ ગયા. પ્રત્યેક પરિવારને 50,000 થી લઈને 70,000 સુધીની મદદ કરી. આ પરિવારોએ પણ મહેનત કરીને ઘર બાંધકામમાં પૈસા જોડ્યા ને રૃડા ઘરો ઊભા થયા.
દાડમ બહેનને પુર પછીના દિવસોમાં મળેલી ત્યારે તેમણે પુરમાં જર્જરીત થયેલું તેમનું ઘર બતાવેલું તેઓ સખત હતાશ જણાતા હતા. પણ હમણાં તેમના ઘરે જવાનું થયું ત્યારે સ્નેહીજનોની મદદથી VSSM દ્વારા બંધાયેલું ઘર જોયું ને એના ઓટલે હુંયે બેસી.
ક્યાં હતાશ દાડમ બહેન ક્યાં અત્યારના મોંઢા પર હાસ્ય સાથે જીંદગી ફેર શરૃ કરેલા દાડમ બહેન….
VSSMના સંવેદનશીલ કાર્યકર નારણ, ઈશ્વર અને પટણી ઓઢા વસાહતના યુવાન આગેવાન પ્રવિણની આભારી છું. આ લોકો જ હતા જે સતત આ પરિવારોની સાથે રહ્યા ને હિંમત આપી.
