Food, blankets, lamps,
stoves and fuel...
 February 20, 1999-- Adipur, Gujarat -- Over 150,000
meals consisting of puri, curry, and rice, along with 1600
survival kits containing rice, oil, flour,
vegetables, stoves, lamps, blankets, candles, kerosene, etc, were
distributed by the Food for Life team from Baroda. See Pictures
More than 50 volunteers from the Baroda ISKCON temple set up camp in
Adipur and along with serving delicious hot vegetarian meals Dr. Savyasaci
Das counselled survivors from the Bhagavada-Gita. Twelve other nearby
villages were also served.
Dr. Savysaci Das also treated many patients with minor ailments at the
camp.
The following is a letter from one of the Village Leaders:
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Due to an unexpected earthquake on 26.01.2001,
the entire residents of Bhadreswar
village were put in a fearful awkward situation, but fortunately, a team
of Food for Life volunteers from ISKCON-Vadodara and Vallabh Vidyanagar
centers came to our village to help. They observed that the village people
were completely desperate for help as they had lost their homes and relatives.
Food for Life immediately established a tent in the village and set up
a kitchen. They provided us prasad (sanctified food) twice a day,,allowing
all of us sit-together without any discrimination of cast and creed.
They also distributed blankets, household kits, and medicine,
etc., and provided so many other important services. They served
our village continuously
keeping their kitchen active day and night for 14 days.
 In my capacity as a Sarpanch (elected head of the village), on behalf
of the villagers, we express our deepest feelings of gratitude that we
will never forget the obligation of the devotees of ISKCON throughout
our lifetime. Not only did they serve prasad for the 6,000 residents of
our village, but your team distributed prasad and necessities to the six
or seven surrounding villages. We heartily offer thanks to all of the
volunteers who so kindly helped us. Actually, we do not find appropriate
words to describe and praise your selfless services.
Over and above these words of thanks, we would like to point out that
our Bhadreswar village of 6,000, is very poor. No one in our village is
rich. There are no big companys established in the village. Till now,
the village has not received any aid from the Government, nor from any
other private firm, except some cash-doll money and 5 kg of grain from
the Government. In view of this, the future of the village people is precarious
because we are staying out-side the village in a temporally built tent
in the open field.
We ask you to kindly bestow your mercy and adopt our village under your
shelter and management to construct our 1,000 houses. This is our sincere
hope. We trusted this meets you well.
Yours faithfully
Chandulal Velji Kanah
Sarpanch
Sri Bhadreswar Village Panchayat
Taluka: Mundra
District Kutchh
Gujarat State
India
Phone: 83451
Village: Bhadreswar
Taluka: Mundra, Kutchh
Pin Code: 370411
- Report by Nityananda Rama Das
Hundreds of thousands benefited daily from Food for Life Relief effort
in Gujarat and Kutch
 February 15, Mumbai, India -- A team of Food for Life volunteers from
the ISKCON temple in Juhu have set up a base in the Rapar district of
Kutch to provide sanctified hot meals to earthquake victims in Gujarat
and Kutch.
Since beginning in the first week of February a team of 80 ISKCON devotees
have been working day and night to cook and serve hot breakfast, lunch
and dinner to almost 100,000 people daily throughout the various villages
in Kutch and Gujarat, including Anjar, Bhachao, Navapura, Motikhiri, NaniKhiri
and Nandsar.
A typical breakfast includes puri, (hot bread), pakora (vegetable fritters),
halava (semolina pudding), puffed rice, poha and boiled rice and is served
every morning beginning at 7am. Lunch consists of puri, subji (vegetable
curry), rice, dal, halava and pakora and is distributed from eight mobile
vans. Packets of biscuits, butter, bread rolls and toast are also distributed
freely.
Food for Life is also providing relief supplies and uncooked food grains
to local village authorities to distribute to villagers as needed.
Aside from great tasting food, the most unique
feature of the Food for Life program is the spirituality with
which the relief effort is being
offered. ISKCON devotees are entertaining the villagers with
melodious singing and dancing. Nitai Pad Kamal Das, Director
of Food for Life at
ISKCON Juhu, commented, "When the people join with us in the chanting
of the Lord's holy name they completely forget their misery and
start smiling again."
Other Food for Life teams from the ISKCON temples
in Baroda, Ahmedabad and Surat have also sent teams of volunteers
to other quake-hit areas. - Report by Parijata Dasi
BHAKTIVEDANTA HOSPITAL PROVIDES FREE HOLISTIC HEALTHCARE TO EARTHQUAKE
VICTIMS
 February 13, 2001 -- Mumbai, India - Bhaktivedanta Hospital, which provides
holistic health care with equal emphasis on the needs of the body, mind
and soul, continues to make a marked difference to the lives of those
affected by the devastation of the Gujurat earthquake of 26 January 2001.
A team of doctors, nurses, spiritual care counselors, and support workers
tirelessly work on a regular ten-day rotation basis, providing holistic
care to the inhabitants of Rahpar, a small town in the north of the Rann
of Kutch and 140 villages in the surrounding area.
The hospital relief team rapidly moved into the disaster areas soon after
the earthquake struck, seeing to the medical and nursing needs of the
victims. The physical support care program is being complemented by a
spiritual care package that consists of spiritual care counseling, sanctified
food distribution, and prayer group meetings.
UNICEF has made available to the Bhaktivedanta Hospital relief effort
a tent in which a Day Care Center with 20 beds has been set-up to provide
essential medical and nursing care. Up to now over 3 thousand patients
have been cared for since the hospital extended its care beyond its usual
catchment area in the Thane District.
The earthquake indiscriminately struck at the heart of every inhabitant,
leaving thousands of people devastated and destitute. Spiritual care counselors
from Bhaktivedanta Hospital are bringing hope and restored faith to the
victims who are grappling with the psychological trauma that this natural
disaster has brought to their lives.
Dedicated doctors and nurses risked their own lives when they took occupancy
of the deserted Shrushrusha General Hospital that was abandoned by its
own doctors and patients soon after the first tremors. It is in this hospital
where staff from Bhaktivedanta Hospital are attending to severe spinal
injuries, wounds, infections, fractures, lacerations to children, hypothermia,
pneumonia and
other related injuries.
Seriously ill and injured patients are being airlifted to Bhaktivedanta
Hospital in Mumbai where a team of specialist consultants are on stand-by.
Food for Life, the international food relief program of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Juhu, Mumbai is distributing
on a daily basis 150 thousand hot sanctified vegetarian meals to the needy.
This relief program has received international recognition for its efforts
in the Balkans wars.
All relief work is provided free of charge or is being sponsored by corporate
businesses on behalf of Bhaktivedanta Hospital.
"As a hospital with all facilities, I feel that it is very important
to reach out and extend ourselves by providing medical relief not only
at our hospital, but also to the affected sites where literally tens of
thousands of earthquake victims are struggling to come to terms with this
calamity. Bhaktivedanta hospital is committed in making a discernible
difference to the lives of our brothers and sisters in Gujurat by providing
holistic healthcare that takes acre of the body, mind and soul",
says Mr. R. Talwar, Hospital Director.
- Report by Hari Dham Das
---------------------------------------
February 5 -- ISKCON Bombay recently put together a major Earthquake
Relief effort consisting of food relief and medical aid. Their camp site
is located at: Rapar, 45 kilometers from Bhuj, Gujarat.
Food for Life:
Five truck loads of ingredients were sent. 5000 plates of hot,
nutritious prasadam (sanctified vegetarian) meals are being distributed
every day.
Number of volunteers: 50
Medical Relief:
Field Hospital with a operation theater is set up. Facilities
for general and orthopedic surgery available. Facilities to handle possible
epidemic such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, gastroenteritis, hepatitis
etc.
Number of beds: 10 / Number of doctors: 50
Report by Bhima Das
-----------------
February 2, 2001 -- We have just visited our camp for prasadam distribution
at Bhadreswar which is some 27 kms from Adipur. The whole area is quiet.
Lots of dead bodies being burnt in heaps. Still removing bodies from debry
at Anjar.
Today we began serving more than 10,000 meals of Khichadi
(rice and bean stew), puri (fried bread), and sabji (vegetable curry)
at our camp, and
surrounding villages and at Adipur. Most of these people have
lost their homes or are poor and have no work for at least the next 2-3
months. Such
people require to work on daily basis and hence are in desperate
need right now. We now have a team of 25 to 30 volunteers from Baroda
and Vidyanagar
working in a place with constant fear of further tremors and
cold weather.
Report by Basughosh Das
------------------------------ January 28, 2001 -- More than 10 tons of supplies along with 30,000 water
pouches accompanied 12 Krishna monks and 15 volunteers from the community
who journeyed to Bhadreswar, close the the earthquake, where they set
up camp. From there the volunteers will be able to cook and serve hot
meals to the surrounding villages.
The situation there is horrible. We will be trying our
best to reach out to persons in remote areas. We shall keep you informed
of further
developments.
Report by Sacchidanad Das
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