Hello, friend of Ekta Parishad! Welcome to Voice of Ekta's first issue. This is a fortnightly newsletter where we will update you on the important news and events at Ekta Parishad India, along with giving you an insight into how we work and what we’ve planned for the near future. Thank you for being a friend of Ekta Parishad, and for subscribing to Voice of Ekta. We hope you find the information and updates we share useful. In this issue, we’re focusing on our relief operations, especially the ones going on during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Ekta Parishad’s history of relief work
Ekta Parishad has been running relief operations successfully for years. Some successful relief operations include the Supercyclone in Odisha (1999), Gujarat Earthquake (2001), Tsunami in South Coast (2004), Flood in Bihar (2008); Drought in Central India (2016) and Flood in Assam (2012 onwards), Flood in Kerala (2018). In 2020, Ekta Parishad was globally recognized for the multitude of relief operations conducted among migrant workers and other marginalised communities across 17 states of India. Currently, we’re working on COVID-19 relief operations across multiple states.
COVID-19 Relief Highlights
Ekta Parishad is running the “Kill Corona” Campaign with the Madhya Pradesh Government
On the 1st of May, when a team of activists approached the district administration of Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh, the officials welcomed the idea of a joint awareness campaign against the pandemic. A team of 100 field activists and volunteers were determined to devote their time for the massive awareness campaign across 17 districts of Madhya Pradesh. The campaign will involve interfacing with the villagers, local health workers as well as distributing protective medicines & masks. As of May 22nd, we have already reached 40,000 families in Madhya Pradesh.
Ekta Parishad activists are working with the Chhattisgarh Health Department to organize vaccination camps
The Chhattisgarh government has given an open call for social organisations to work with the State government on various fronts. After setting a coordination systems between Ekta Parishad and Chhattisgarh Government, our activists & volunteers are engaged on ground awareness campaign and helping the Health Department to organise Vaccination Camps in the villages. We are also distributing preventive medicines and masks to the villages across 12 districts of Chhattisgarh. Our main focus is to encourage the villagers to go for the vaccination and protect their family and society. As of May 24th, we have already distributed protective medicine kits to 3000 families and helped organise 11 vaccination camps.
Our COVID-19 Relief Work
Ekta Parishad has its strong organisational membership base in nearly 11,000 villages in 120+ districts across 14 states of India. Almost in every village, youth trained on social activism were in the forefront of on ground actions.
In the first phase, Ekta Parishad is focusing on 80 districts across 12 states of India. Some of these districts are identified as red (highly affected by pandemic) and orange (relatively less affected in pandemic) districts where there is an urgency of relief operations at least for the next couple of months.
The larger aim of relief operations is to maximize our outreach towards one of the most marginalised community in the villages.
COVID-19 Relief Updates At A Glance:
Madhya Pradesh
COVID-19 vaccination awareness campaign launched in collaboration with the district administration in Sheopur, Ashok Nagar, Guna, Gwalior, Shivpuri, Damoh, Rajgarh, Datia, Sagar, Raisen, Sehore, Katni, Mandla, Jabalpur, Niwari, Dindori and Balaghat covering nearly 1000+ villages.
We’re assisting the Health Department in setting up 7 isolation centers at village and block levels in Shivpuri and Datia districts.
Provided oxygen concentrators to 12 Health Centers in Chambal and Central Region of Madhya Pradesh.
Chhattisgarh
Vaccination awareness campaigns are being organized across 17 districts of Chhattisgarh in collaboration with the Chhattisgarh Health Department.
We’re distributing masks and preventative medicine kits to 5000 identified families- families of the elderly, families run by single women, families of people with disabilities and very poor families.
Provided oxygen concentrators to 6 Primary Health Centers in Mahasamund, Gariyaband, Dhamtari, Koriya, Sarguja and Korba districts.
Odisha
We’re engaging with the State Health Department for a mass awareness campaign across 9 districts of east and west Odisha.
We’re reaching out to 2500 families to provide preventive medicine kits.
Provided 2 oxygen concentrators in the Health Centers of Kalahandi district
Jharkhand
Working closely with the state Government and jointly organising awareness campaigns in 5 districts of Jharkhand.
Distributing masks and preventative medicine kits to 1000 identified families.
Manipur
Voluntarily involved in educating villagers about the pandemic and motivating them to get vaccinated in Imphal (East), Imphal (West), Bishnupur, Thoubal and Kakching districts of Manipur.
Reaching out to 1000 identified families and providing preventative medicine kits.
Setting up 4 oxygen concentrators in the Health Centers of Bishnupur and Imphal districts.
Tamil Nadu
Working closely with the local Health Department and jointly organising awareness campaigns in 3 districts- Coimbatore, Thirpur and Dindigul
Providing preventive medicine kit to 750 families in Coimbatore, Thirpur and Dindigul.
A brief projection of relief operations is as follows:
Voices of Ekta Parishad: Dr Ran Singh Parmar
Dr Ran Singh Parmar, as a President of Ekta Parishad, is in the forefront of relief operations in Madhya Pradesh. Ransingh Ji is working to set up isolation centers in the villages, ensuring free medical assistance to the marginalised communities, training ground activists and volunteers on relief work and organising special nutritional assistance programmes for the women and children. Over the last few days, Ransingh Ji has contacted several officials and elected representatives and has engaged with them for vital collaborative relief operations across Madhya Pradesh. Ran Singh Ji has a clear plan to reach out to 2000 villages in coming months and ensure relief assistance to the villagers.
A few words from Rajaji…
COVID-19 has returned with greater fury, this time badly affecting rural areas. Villagers are already tired; they’ve waited a long time and have been without work. People who came back from cities aren’t able to go back. They’ve used up all their resources. The second wave of COVID-19 is beyond them, physically and economically. Ekta Parishad as a mass based organization with the strength of community behind is trying to do whatever it can. We need your support. We can perform better if we have more resources and your goodwill.
Learn how to support Ekta Parishad here.
From Ramesh Sharma, General Secretary of Ekta Parishad
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