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| RAINA PRAYAS LAUNCHES
EMERGENCY RELIEF EFFORTS AFTER FIRE DESTROYS 380 SLUM DWELLER HOMES
IN BAWANA |
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RRF
Founder Appeals to All to Open their Hearts and Donate Generously
Dec 08, 2006: Robin Raina Foundation (RRF)
announced today that it has launched emergency relief efforts
after an accidental fire in the slums of Bawana, India on
December 6th afternoon destroyed 380 slum dweller homes and
left 1685 under-privileged people with virtually nothing in
terms of shelter, food and clothing.
The foundation also announced that all the children of Raina
Prayas School in Bawana are safe as they were in the school
when the fire started. The fire started by an accidental oil
spill while a woman was cooking at a slum dweller’s
home soon engulfed the entire JJ colony slums of Bawana. The
fire was brought under control in another three hours after
a consistent effort by 15 fire brigade teams, but left complete
devastation in 380 homes. The good news, if any, was that
the impact could have been far worse as Bawana is home to
the largest slums in North India with 5000 slum dweller homes.
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| As the only charity that has set
its base in the slums of Bawana and is trusted by the people
there, Raina Prayas took the lead and launched immediate relief
efforts. The Raina Prayas volunteers have been at the site since
the fire started and have been involved in every aspect of the
relief effort – from reporting the fire to the fire brigade,
jumping into the fire to save the lives of the old and the children
to providing food, medical relief, clothing, utensils etc.
In the last few days, Raina Prayas has provided relief in
a number of ways to the needy:
• Providing food to around 3500 people daily.
• Running medical camp with a team of five doctors on
the site
• Providing in excess of 1000 blankets
• Providing thousands of utensils to 380 families –
plates, bowls, water flasks, cooking utensils, frying pans,
glasses, serving spoons, normal spoons etc.
• Providing shelter to the children of those effected
at night in the Raina Prayas school
• Providing a few hundred sweaters and shoes to those
effected.
• Helping the administration run a census of those impacted
• Coordinating with the local administration to seek
relief from them too. |
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| RRF Founder Robin Raina issued an
appeal to all the people of United States to donate generously
to the relief efforts. In a statement, Robin said, “Our
heart goes out to those affected by the fire. This is the time
for each one of us in the United States to open our hearts and
wallets, to help provide immediate relief to these needy people.
All of us have good life styles here in the United States and
a little bit of monetary help might not change that life style
in any manner but imagine the positive impact it can have on
the lives of those in Bawana who badly need your helping hand
today. I appeal to each one of you to donate generously towards
the ongoing relief efforts in an expeditious manner.”
All donations payable to “Robin Raina
Foundation” should be sent to:
Robin Raina Foundation – Raina Prayas Relief
Center,
2075 Lake Shore Landing,
Alpharetta, GA 30005
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| A day by day, site report
filed by Archana Gupta, Project Manager – Raina Prayas
is reproduced below: 6th December 2006:
It was 1.15 p.m. when peace at E – Block, J.J. Colony
broke into shriek and cries of people affected with major
fire accident. The cause of fire was mere negligence of a
lady while cooking. As Raina-Prayas centre is 3 k.m. away
from the scene of fire, we got the information on telephone
and the news spread. Our children were taking midday meal
and after hearing the news Raina-Prayas staff immediately
contacted the Fire Brigade and in 6 minutes along with big
children of Raina-Prayas, the staff rushed to the spot and
helped them in all possible ways to save the lives of families
caught up in Fire. Within 15 minutes all the way from Bawana,
Narela, Bhor Garh, Rohini and Jahangir Puri 13 Fire Brigades
rushed to the spot. Our staff including Raina-Prayas Counselor,
Educators, Volunteers and Vocational students made immediate
efforts to save people’s lives and avoid new unfortunate
events happening in the community which also includes fight
between the anti social people and Fire Brigade team. After
the struggle of 3 hours the fire was under control but it
left everything black & burned behind with people crying
bitterly for all their losses in the accident. The families
were left behind with nothing but most importantly their lives.
Only few were injured while saving their homes. Project Manager
along with three teachers was at Tughlakabad office for training
on HIV-Aids. After getting the information regarding the Fire
accident, Project Manager immediately at 1.30 p.m. contacted
Dr. Somwal for sending medical assistance on the spot and
soon after along with the teachers rushed to the Bawana affected
spot and reached there at 3.30 p.m. A survey form was then
developed by Raina-Prayas. A copy is enclosed for reference.
The statistical data collected with the help of survey form
is as under –
Block affected with Fire – E Block
Total no. Families – 380
Total No. of members affected with Fire Accident – 1685
Students of Raina-Prayas among the affected members- 63
Self Help Group Women among the affected members – 67
Vocational students among the affected members – 25
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At
3.30 p.m. when everything got silent, the Local MLA,
Counsellor, SDM, SHO, local leaders and school principals
tuned up to the affected area. People were out of control,
but the leaders came forward with sympathy and lots of promises
again. Immediate food & temporary tent as a shelter was
arranged. The local MLA was quite helpful in supporting the
relief efforts. In the mean time the medical van along with
Raina Prayas Health Service Team reached the spot to start
our medical camp.
The senior Raina Prayas team visited the spot at 8.30 p.m.
and was there with us till 12.15 p.m. They all settle down
with the Project Manager and counselor of Raina-Prayas and
discussed the budget we have with us to help the needy.
We were there till 11.55 in the night and met the people
suffering with pain. Raina Prayas Project Manager called
Robin Raina in Atlanta and discussed everything with him.
He immediately deputed Mr. Vikas Verma, Robin Raina Foundation
to release funds and reach the site with other relief workers
and relief stuff.
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7th
December, 2006. Raina-Prayas team reached the spot
at 6.30 a.m. and distributed milk and bread as a breakfast
to the affected people. At 8.00 a.m. the Raina Prayas health
team reached the affected area and started the medical camp
again to facilitate the sick people who were shivering with
cold without clothes. The camp was carried away very well
with the help of Raina-Prayas volunteers, NIUA, Self Help
Group Members and Vocational Students. It was team effort
which gave the best helping results in terms of faith developed
in the community for Raina-Prayas which was seen as people
were only allowing Raina-Prayas to enter and work in the community
with other organization and leaders keeping away from them.
At 3.00 p.m. Mr. Vikas Verma, and Mr. Satya, Robin Raina Foundation
along with his team visited Bawana to coordinate relief efforts
and discuss more relief. They met the people and their children
of Raina-Prayas who were now without clothes and homes. They
discussed the need of the community with the Project Manager
and thought of distributing 1000 blankets and 380 set of Utensils
(Four plates, Four Bowls, Four Spoon, Two serving spoons,
One kadai and One big Patila) to the affected families on
8th December, 2006. It was only Raina-Prayas who was there
in the community with the affected people from morning till
night. No other organization was taking effort in helping
these people even the local leaders and Police was appreciating
the work done by Raina-Prayas and was with us wherever we
required them. Raina-Prayas then distributed meals, sweaters
and shoes to the people of the affected community. |
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| 8th December, 2006: At 7.00
a.m. Raina-Prayas team reached the site and distributed
Breakfast with milk and bread to the people. At the time of
writing this at 9 pm today, we are now distributing another
860 Blankets and Utensils today to those affected by the devastation.
Filed by:
Archana Gupta, Project Manager
Raina Prayas |
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| About
Raina Prayas
In 2004, Robin Raina Foundation and Prayas, a Delhi based
highly decorated NGO in India decided to set up the Raina
Prayas joint venture initiative in Bawana, for the sole purpose
of promoting literacy among the children living in the slums
of Bawana and providing hope and a future to these kids and
their families. The goal of Raina Prayas is not only to help
educate children in the slums, provide food, clothing and
medical facilities to these children but also to motivate
other organizations to establish similar programs throughout
the city, across the state, and all around the nation.
About the Robin Raina Foundation
A 501(c) charity, Raina foundation has been setup to raise
funds for work to be carried out to empower children who need
help around the world. The foundation's focus is to make a
difference in the lives of children - who are handicapped,
blind, mentally challenged, sick or in need of urgent medical
help and underprivileged kids who need education.
RRF Contacts:
Sanjay Supehia (678)517-8688
ssupehia@rainafoundation.com
Ashish Arora (678)910-2604
aarora@rainafoundation.com
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Celebrity speaks
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I thank Robin Raina foundation for putting tremendous effort in bringing light, hope, comfort, and education to children in need.
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