Dear Friends

States across India have been hit with floods that have led to a huge loss of life and have left crores affected. The states that have been worst hit are Bihar, Assam and Uttar Pradesh, with the flood situations in West Bengal and Assam receding gradually. Major rivers in spate have breached banks, inundated new areas and displaced thousands since last week, washing away hundreds of huts and damaging buildings, roads, bridges and standing crops worth crores of rupees. But now all major rivers in the state are showing receding trend. With water levels in all major rivers going down, the flood situation is gradually improving in Bihar. In fact, thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes after flood waters entered their villages and have taken shelter at high places, including school buildings and embankments. The death toll in Bihar floods on Tuesday rose to 514 as the situation worsened affecting around 1.71 crore people across 21 districts in the state. Bihar Disaster Management Department official, Dinesh Chandra Yadav saying that the around 171.64 lakh people in 2,371 panchayats under 187 blocks in 19 districts had been affected by the floods.

According to an official release, over the last two weeks, at least 8,54,936 people were evacuated to safer places by the rescue teams of the Army, National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force. Following improvement in the flood situation, the number of relief camps set up by the state government has come down and stood at 115 on Monday from nearly 2,000 a week ago. Similarly, the number of people living in these camps has come down to 1,06,650 from over two lakhs. For the flood victims, only 794 community kitchens are running now as against over 1,000 earlier, the official said.

On becoming aware of the situation and the most worse living condition of the poor people in Bihar, Camillian Task Force along with Caritas India is willingly ready to respond to this flood disaster through organizing medical relief camps in the most affected 4 districts of Bihar. We are planning to send our CTF medical relief team to Bihar on 4^th September 2017. We request all of our dear friends, benefactors, well-wishers and healthcare volunteers to support this cause with your prayers and other contributions according to their means and possibilities. We shall ensure that whatever financial aid you may like to provide through the CTF-India reaches the people for whom it is intended to.

Contribution may be made to “Camillian Task Force”: Bank Details: A/C Name: Camillian Task Force India, A/C No: 0518053000007532, The South Indian Bank, Sarjapura Road Branch, and IFSC Code: SIBL 0000518, (Exempt u/s. 80g (5). Kindly continue to pray for the victims. Support and encourage our healthcare volunteers.

With a deep sense of solidarity.

Download the full text here