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Indo American Sevaks Foundation (formerly known as Oriya sevaks)
was formed
soon after the devasting cyclone
of Orissa in October 1999 by a handful of enthusiastic volunteers,
mostly from Northern California, to render aid to the severely affected
Cyclone victims. This group of motivated people collected generous donations
from individuals, corporations and various other organizations through
personal contacts and other fund raising events. It is a unique group
with minimal organizational structure. The volunteers work through joint
team effort and in a cohesive manner to coordinate various activities.
The group meets once a month to discuss different projects and proposals.
Our initial goal was to extend all our help to the Cyclone victims, however,
as we move forward we have decided to expand our horizon to include other
projects such as educational improvement in rural areas of Orissa. We
are specifically interested in projects for developing and improving
the quality of life of village people.
The Oriya-Sevak group works in collaboration with IDRF (Indian Development
and Relief Fund), SEEDS and Cisco-Sevaks to distribute funds for these
charitable activities.
UPDATES ON VARIOUS PROJECTS:
(1)
Uchabali High School [Cost $40,
000]: The high school, located in Uchabali, Jajpur dist., was completely
demolished by the cyclone and flood. There is no other high school in
the Gram Panchayats. The project aimed at rebuilding the high school.
The completed building can not only be used as a school but also be used
as a shelter during an emergency . The school is double storied with
emergency kitchen on the top. This project provides education to 500
students. It is also aimed to provide long-term shelter during emergency
like this super cyclone. Here is a picture of the completed school building
Project Status: 100%
complete since December 2000.
US Coordinator: Sudam
Sahoo
(2)
Kaduapara Housing Project
[Cost $9, 000]: In Kaduapara, Jagatsinghpur, asphalt
rooftops were provided to 142 socio-economically disadvantaged families
in Kaduapada village. These houses were completely blown away by the
Supercyclone. The villagers themselves provided labor to re-build houses.
Project was completed in 2 phases - in the 1st phase we
completed roofs for 56 families and in the 2nd phase we provided
rooftops to 86 families. The material cost was covered by this fund and
the labor cost was provided by the house owners. This was a very successful
project.
Pictures of work in progress and completed rooftops.
Project Status: 100%
complete since September 2000.
US Coordinator: Sukant
Mishra
(3)
Dagarpada Anatha Ashram [Cost
$6,000]: The main shelter, boundary wall and the dinning hall of
the orphanage in Dagarapada, Cuttack was completely destroyed by the
super cyclone. About 15 less fortunate children were living under unhygienic
conditions with broken down structure. Two cement rooms with concrete
roof built and dinning hall with kitchen repaired. With this new improvement
they could accommodate about 25 total destitute children. The orphanage
was founded by Swamy Bichitrananda Kalyan Ashram which host 20-30 destitute
children. Please check out the work in
progress and completed photos
Project Status: 100% complete
since August 2000.
US Coordinator: Subrat
Mohapatra
(4)
Gunupur Health / Community Center
[Cost $21, 000]: The funds for this project was used to construct
a Health Care / community center at Gunupur which can also be used by
the village people as a protective shelter during cyclone in the future.
There are no health care centers in the surrounding twenty villages.
Provision has also been made for a doctor to visit the center once a
week to check on the health of the village people. This project was funded
through Ananya (NGO). Here are some
pictures of the health center.
Project Status: 100%
complete since January 2001.
US Coordinator : Mita
Moharana
(5)
Sri Aurobindo Nursery School
Project [Cost $20, 000]: A few of the structures in the Sri
Aurobindo school campus in Bhubaneswar were badly damaged by the Super
cyclone, including the existing nursery school.
We decided to fund building the nursery school.
About 150 students are using this facility after its completion.
See pictures of the completed school building
Project Status: 100% complete
since January 2001.
US Coordinator : Kamal Acharya
(6)
Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust
(KGNM) [Cost $18, 000]: KGNM, another non-profitable organization
in India, mobilizes it's resources for women and children. Part of its
infrastructure in Cuttack was damaged during the Cyclone. This fund donated
by our group was utilized to reconstruct the damaged portions of the
building and add new extensions. This project has been completed.
Project Status: 100% complete.
US Coordinator : Sujata Das
(7)
Tube Wells in Jagatsinghpur
[Cost $10, 000]: 24 tubewells were provided to 20 villages in Jagatsinghpur
dist under the following Gram Panchayats - Palli, Odisso, Mudupur, Baijanga
and Pokapur. These tubewells, providing drinking water to mostly socially
downtrodden people, were bored in areas where the unfortunate neither
had any easy access to drinking water nor had any future hopes of getting
it soon.
Click here for tubewell pictures
Project Status: 100% complete
since December 2000.
US Coordinator : Sukant Mishra
(8)
Primary School in Kalahandi
[Cost $35, 000]: We are building a primary school in a remote area
of Kalahandi district in Orissa. There was no school in that area and
the poor children did not have any scope for basic education. SEEDS has
been actively involved in this project since last year. Now this will
be a joint venture between SEEDS and the Oriya Sevaks group. This project
is very much in progress and requires a lot more funding.
Project Status: In progress.
US Coordinator : Prasanta Behera
(9)
Medicine Distribution [Cost
$6,500]: Oriya Sevaks worked with AmeriCares to send medicines to
the cyclone affected areas. AmeriCares matched these funds with a proportion
of 10 to 1. The medicines were distributed by Lions Club. A part of this
donation also went through Kalinga Hospital for distribution. This project
has been completed.
Project Status: 100% complete.
US Coordinator : Prasanna Samantaray
(10)
Karamala & Mahupadara Agriculture project [Cost $20,000]: Two agricultural projects
were undertaken - One in the Karamala, Puri area and the other in the
Mahupadara, Ganjam area. With help of VIDE and IDRF, we
distributed 2000 saplings each of Coconut, Guava, Lemon, Papaya and
25 quintal high quality deep water rice seeds to
farmers of 10 villages in Karamala. In the 2nd project, 40 quintal rice seeds and
1000 saplings each of Coconut, Guava, Lemon, Papaya were distributed to the
villagers in Mahupadara area of Ganjam district. Both projects are complete.
Click here to see sapling distribution photos.
Project Status: 100%
complete.
US Coordinator : Manoj Panda
(11)
Blanket and Mat Distribution [Cost $3, 000]: During one of our members visit
to Berhampur (in Dee 1999), he found that the Cyclone Victims were badly
suffering from the severe cold weather. The group immediately decided
to dispatch funds for more than 800 blankets to be distributed. We also distributed another
400 mats in Jagatsinghpur area. This project has been completed. View
blanket
and mat
distribution pictures
Project Status: 100%
complete.
US Coordinator : Anup Nayak
(12)
Miscellaneous Projects: There are many other projects that have been
undertaken by our group. These include, a Lift irrigation project in
Bijipur ($5,000),
Karamala Health Center Project - $12,000 (Coordinated by Manoj Panda),
RK Mission help to provide scholarship to cyclone affected students ($5, 000) etc.
FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES:
We started our fund raising activities with a Pledge Drive from the Oriya
community. In January 2000, we organized an Oddissi dance by
Nandita Behera in Palo Alto. In August 2000, we opened a stall in the Independence
day celebration and sold snacks and cold drinks. The stall was named
as Taste Of Orissa. This was followed by another dance program in September, 2000
performed by famous bay area Oddissi artists
Jyoti Rout, Niharika Mohanty, and Vishnu Tattva Das.
How Can you Help : Please help us by participating in
various fund raising activities
Contacts:
sevaks@mycalnet.org
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