Students of Social Work Dept of Assam University along with NSS & NCC volunteers stand besides flood victims

May 24: The ongoing flood has affected a huge multitude of people in Cachar district. Although the river water has gone down considerably below the danger level, yet by then, many people were rendered homeless as river water flooded their home. As a good Samaritan, many individuals and organisations have come forward to help those people who are now staying in various relief camps.

All the faculty members and over 122 students of Department of Social Work Students, Assam University, Silchar along with NSS and NCC volunteers have been helping victims of recent floods in more than 10 relief camps set up by Cachar district administration in Silchar town. In this endeavour they have collaborated with UNICEF and DDMA, Silchar and have been ably supported by the District Administration.

In this voluntary effort, besides helping in distribution of relief materials, they have been creating awareness on maintenance of health and hygiene in the relief camps. Various awareness materials (developed by UNICEF) have also been displayed through banners and stickers in these awareness camps. Department of Social Work volunteers are engaging people in discussions through these awareness materials.

In case of any health emergency, the volunteers are immediately providing the information to the district administration, which is responding urgently to handle the same. As for instance, in Tarapur Girls’ Higher Secondary School, today, seven children got affected with chicken pox and the volunteers immediately reported this due to which urgent help of a doctor was arranged by the district administration and DDMA.

Volunteers have given special attention to the adolescent girls in the relief camps. They are conducting discussions and group activities on menstrual hygiene management with these adolescent girls. The other major focus of these Social Work volunteers is on children in the camps. They are conducting non-formal education classes with the children along with engaging them in different recreational activities like singing, dancing, etc. These activities not only keep the children creatively engaged and busy in the camps but also bring smiles on their faces during this time of crisis.

This initiative began on 24 May, 2022 and will last till 28 May, 2022. As the water has started receding and the flood situation is in more control now, it has been observed by the volunteers that people have now slowly started to leave the relief camps in order to return to their homes so that they can restart their daily lives after undergoing so much of trouble in the past few days since the floods hit Barak valley.

The Department of Social Work, Assam University, Silchar extends a sincere thanks to the district administration, DDMA, UNICEF, NSS and NCC for all the support that they have provided to our student volunteers in relief camps.