How bad is it?
It is bad enough to be declared a national calamity and 5 million (50 lakh) people are said to be directly affected. Worst hit are children who are estimated to be more than half the number. Some news coverage:
On how children are being affected
Google News
What can you do?
If you are religious you can consider this as act of god punishing people for their sins. If you don’t believe in god, you might feel vindicated. And if you are not comfortable taking sides, you can just sit back and watch the drama unfold.
What is being done?
There are a few people who are doing great job in co-ordinating some of the activities like managing funds and sending relief materials (medicines, cloths etc) to the affected region. It is a network of some NGOs and personal contacts based at relief camps.
How can I contribute/donate?
United Kingdom: If you are in UK, you can get in touch with me and I can arrange transfer of funds. Every amount is accounted for and every contribution will be posted publicly (unless instructed otherwise).
All funds in UK will go in to the account of BIHAR FOUNDATION UK. It is member of British Overseas of NGOs for development and thus is regulated. News coverage of the effort by Bihar Foundation.
India: You can again get in touch with me if you want and I can guide you. However, you can also look at following locations who as I said are also involved in such activities. I am in touch with some of them.
http://jayajha.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/many-avenues-please-contribute/
http://biharflood.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/more-avenues-for-contributing/
Ways to get in touch
1) Leave a comment
3) +44 780 944 1527
Post script: Please note that if you have doubts about credibility of this effort then you will not be the only one. It won’t hurt though to get in touch.
Its a Mind Game... 