Flood relief in India

I am raising money for relief efforts in Cuddalore, a coastal district south of Chennai, because I conducted research there in 2014 and 2015. The photos show part of the village where I worked, and were sent to me by my friend Shiva, a young man from the village. In November and early December, the city of Chennai (Madras) and nearby coastal districts were hit by the heaviest rains for 100 years. Approximately 300 people have died, thousands have lost their homes and possessions, many schools, hospitals, offices, shops etc shut down for more than a month, and there is a continuing risk of major outbreaks of disease. Cuddalore was badly hit by the floods but has been neglected by relief efforts, which have mostly focused on Chennai, which is the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

I would like to encourage you to donate to relief efforts led by a group of my friends in Chennai, Pondicherry and Cuddalore. My friends are in the process of putting together a relief package for villagers in Cuddalore. They want to give each household in the villages where they work a package containing rice, cooking oil, lentils, sambhar powder, turmeric powder, red chillies, wheat flour, tamarind, salt, 2 bed sheets, 2 dhoties, 2 sarees and 1 towel. After providing this basic package, they want to take measures to ensure necessary health aid reaches the villages and assess the need for larger-scale compensation (to be sought from the government) based on health, property and livestock damage.