Drought Relief and Well Drilling in Northwestern India
Nectar for the Body and Spirit
Over the past few years, northwestern India has suffered from an ongoing drought, but the situation deteriorated this year as crops failed and people suffered from severe water and food shortages. On learning of the situation, Supreme Master Ching Hai directed fellow practitioners to carry out relief work in the villages near the four major cities of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pali and Barmer in the state of Rajasthan.
Toward the end of April, 2003, approximately 40 fellow initiates from the U.K., Singapore and Formosa arrived in India and quickly purchased large amounts of staple foods for delivery to drought victims. The volunteers worked in three groups to coordinate distribution of the provisions with local governments and related organizations. When the first group of initiates arrived in Jaisalmer to discuss the relief work with local officials, they were overjoyed at the torrential downpours that fell for one whole hour in the city, which had not seen rain for a long time! At the end of the visit, the officials happily posed for a photo holding one of Master’s books.
During the first week of May, with the help of the cities’ mayors and local organizations such as the Red Cross and MMBA (Mahila Mandal Barmer Agor), the volunteers worked in scorching temperatures reaching 54 degrees Celsius to distribute the provisions to 10,500 families, thus temporarily resolving the local food shortage. The mayor of Jodhpur, Mr. Rajath Kumar Mishra, observed that it was the first time in many years that the region had received help and concern from a non-profit international organization. Before the relief team set out on its mission, he made special arrangements to hold a flag presentation ceremony to thank Supreme Master Ching Hai for Her help. In addition, on learning about Master’s loving instructions to render aid to his people, Pali mayor Mr. Arun Purohit immediately arranged for local residents to help the initiates and thus speed up the operation. Mr Purohit also expressed his encouragement by personally seeing the relief workers off on their journey.
When the relief work was completed at Barmer, the initiates learned that the local government had insufficient funds to build more underground water storage tanks and consolidate wells for the local communities. So the relief team immediately subsidized the purchase of materials to build 50 water tanks and consolidate 21 wells with the help of the MMBA. The water storage tanks in the community are designed to receive water from water vehicles in times of drought, and to store rainwater during the wet season. In order for local residents to be ready before the next rainy season, the construction work was stepped up so that it could be completed by mid-June, 2003. When finished, the project will benefit more than seven thousand people. The villagers were very thankful to Master for delivering them from the misery of having to walk more than ten kilometers daily across the desert to get water.
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