Plan India ensures timely humanitarian assistance in four states with a focus on protection, nutrition, education and WASH, especially amongst women and girls.
New Delhi, September 8th, 2017 – Plan India, a leading child development organisation committed to creating a lasting impact in the lives of vulnerable and excluded children, their families and communities, initiated its humanitarian response with an immediate provision of distributing food and non-food relief items to the most vulnerable families in the worst affected areas in Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai. So far, Plan India has already reached out to 5,084 families across these four states and aims to reach 20,000 families through its relief efforts.
Through the relief assistance especially targeted towards women and children, Plan India is mitigating the scarcity of portable safe drinking water, preventing critical infection and malnutrition, addressing unavailability of safe spaces for children and providing supplementary nutritious food for children and lactating mothers.
In Assam, Plan India reached out to 3,464 families in Mayong Block through distribution of hygiene kits, water kits and shelter kits.10 Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) catering to almost 277 children are functional. CFS shall continue until September 30, 2017. Plan India will also reach out to 2,250 more families in Morigaon district, targeting flood affected families in Mayong, Laharighat and Bhuragaon blocks. The affected families with be provided with hygiene kits, water kits and shelter kits.
In Bihar, Plan India has initiated its response to reach out to 1,000 families in the villages of Sitamarhi and Muzzafarpur districts. The aim is to meet the immediate needs of affected families. The relief items include providing tarpaulins, sanitation and supplementing nutrition for pregnant and lactating mothers and children (0-5 years). In the next phase, Non-Food Items (NFI) kits will be provided to 2,500 families and education kits to 2,500 families. Activities such as repairing of schools including hand pumps, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) centres and health camps are being planned.
In Uttar Pradesh, Plan India is reaching out to Laxmipur Block in 5 Gram Panchayats and 15 villages. In total, 1,287 households are affected and Plan India is reaching out to 870 families through sanitation and hygiene kits.
In Mumbai, Plan India is providing relief assistance to more than 2,000 families in three most affected areas that includes Garibnagar, Patelnagar and Pipeline. Plan India is supporting these families with water purification tablets, mosquito control measure, comprehensive health services and educational materials.
Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director, Plan India said “Overall, in all four states, we have ensured that our emergency humanitarian assistance and relief efforts reach out to the most vulnerable women and children. This year, our relief efforts addressed sanitation and hygiene needs of women and adolescent girls who are especially vulnerable during disasters to water-borne, vector-borne and communicable diseases. Besides this, nutrition supplements are being distributed to lactating and pregnant mothers. Special provisions are also being made to provide safe and secure spaces for children until the situation returns to normalcy.”
From 2013 to 2016, Plan India has responded to similar disasters including the floods in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand; and during the drought situation in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Plan India was also one of the first responders in the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh and Visakhapatnam, providing immediate relief and support during Cyclone Phailin.