Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Assam and Bihar had to witness devastating floods. With villages inundated, crops ruined, and houses and other community infrastructure damaged, people in these states needed urgent support. Our teams in both these states were immediately on the ground, standing in solidarity with those worst affected and providing them humanitarian support.

In Assam, we have been distributing relief material to the worst-hit households across the districts of Barpeta, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Golaghat and Morigaon. So far, we have distributed hygiene kits to 1,558 families across these districts and tarpaulins to 272 of them to help them cover the damaged roofs of their huts. Besides, we have reached out to 960 families with feed for their cattle. We have also constructed temporary toilets in Barpeta. We are ensuring people’s access to potable drinking water through iron removal handpumps in Barpeta and Morigaon. Also, to minimize the risk of water-borne infections, our teams carried out decontamination of drinking water sources, and cleaning drives in relief camps and flood-hit villages. Awareness campaigns on the precautions to be taken to prevent COVID-19 infection and on how to stay safe were organized for children across all intervention districts. You can follow this Twitter thread for updates on our Assam flood response.

As part of our efforts to support the communities affected by floods in Bihar, we have so far distributed dry ration kits and masks to 400 worst-hit families in Samastipur and 355 such families in Muzaffarpur. Besides, we would soon be reaching out with ration support to 200 vulnerable families each in the districts of East Champaran and Sitamarhi. We are also sensitizing communities on the need to maintain cleanliness and hygiene to prevent water-borne infections and the spread of COVID-19. Besides, our volunteers are facilitating access of community members to the various government welfare schemes. You can view our updates from the Bihar flood response on this Twitter thread.