Feba Delhi staff recently travelled to Leh in northern India to interview people displaced by the overnight cloudburst that caused flash floods and mud slides, killing about 200, leaving thousands injured and homeless.
The overnight deluge of rain (10 feet high in places) moved huge boulders and waves of mud, destroying roads, farmland, houses, buildings, communication towers... Living on an arid plateau, high in the Himalayas, the people were taken quite by surprise and many are now suffering post-traumatic stress.
When the Feba Delhi’s programming staff (Firoz and Anurag) arrived in Leh, they met with their local healthcare partner to discuss plans for the visit and acclimatize to the high altitude. On 26 September they visited Choglamsar, the village most badly hit by the cloudburst. Firoz says: “Mud and boulders ruined this area very badly. Everywhere we could see filled with 10-12’ mud and big chunk of stones. Mud covered the homes. Some people were busy digging where their houses once were, searching for valuables.”
Then they visited Solar Colony where 600 families from Choglamsar were moved, living in tents (2-3 families per tent). Many bulldozers and labourers were at work, busy building houses for the survivors before the bitterly cold winter. Here Firoz and Anurag listened to the people’s stories, helping them share their feelings and recording their concerns for upcoming disaster relief programming.
“We want to weep; we want to cry,” said one of the people to Firoz. “How can we forget that night when we were sleeping after 11 o’clock when the mountains (those ever protecting us) came down on us and ruined our lives?”
At the main district hospital, they interviewed medical experts, gathering more information for their programming. Firoz says: “We interviewed a psychiatrist and a counsellor who are actively involved in the post trauma programme in that area. They described post trauma syndrome in which people start dreaming the event, they weep or they laugh, they eat more or they lack of hunger, etc. If these symptoms arise, people need immediate counselling and treatment.”
To get this very important message out to the people of Leh, Feba’s local healthcare partner is distributing 300 radios (150 from Feba) to a list of families as they receive other aid. And a new disaster relief programme, SAMADHAN (Solution), is being produced for airing every Sunday evening at 8-8:30pm local time. “We have observed and experienced [the situation] personally, so now we are aware of their needs and can produce special programmes accordingly.”