After cyclone Fani hit the fishing village of Penthakata hard, the local population was in need of support. Thanks to generous donations, Usthi was able to provide emergency relief in collaboration with its local partner. After the situation has calmed down and our students are back at school, the emergency relief is considered complete.

Cyclone “Fani” caused severe damage on the east coast of India and, despite extensive evacuation, caused many deaths and injuries. Countless families have lost their homes and income. Until state aid reached the village of Penthakata, they were urgently in need of help. Part of the Usthi school grounds was also damaged. The windows and a large part of the school books and computer infrastructure were completely destroyed and have to be replaced.

Since the walls of the classrooms are very massive, the rooms could fortunately be used as emergency accommodation for the families affected during the cyclone. After the cyclone, the families of our pupils and other severely affected families were able to obtain food and building materials from our partner organisation in order to make ends meet in the critical phase immediately after the storm.

Until Mid-May, hot meals were distributed daily for about 600 people. In addition to food and building materials, clothing was also handed out if urgently needed. Meanwhile a little normality has returned and the distribution of food by our partner is no longer necessary. By now many households have electricity again, which also makes the cooling of the fish catches possible again and gives the inhabitants of Penthakata back their livelihood – to some extent at least.

The clean-up work on the school grounds is already well advanced, the power supply has been restored and the school was able to resume operations on the 17th of June. This also ensures that the children continue to receive a warm meal every day. Together with the pupils, new trees were planted on the school grounds. It is still necessary to replace part of the teaching materials and the computers. Usthi assumes that these can be replaced by donations in goods.

Since the costs for the distribution of goods are slightly below the budget and the exchange rate was in favour of Usthi, the costs for the reconstruction of the school did not exceed the original emergency aid budget of CHF 55,000. The actual costs amount to CHF 54,689.

Thanks to the great solidarity of private donors and institutions, the costs for the emergency aid could be fully covered. Usthi would like to thank everyone for the great solidarity, which has enabled us to help the people of Penthakata in these difficult times.