Indian Jesuits help flood victims with support of UK Charity

(March 16, 2010) A British charity, SPICMA - Special Projects in Christian Missionary Areas, is supporting efforts by Indian Jesuits, to rebuild the lives of villagers still devastated by floods more than five months ago. It has renewed an appeal for funds for the people of Manvi/Pannur in Raichur district, Karnataka State. Most of the homes in 29 villages in the southern Indian State were reduced in October last year, to little more than rubble. It is said to be one of the worst disasters in the area for decades.
An initial appeal through SPICMA and Jesuit Missions raised £32,000, which provided food, clean water and medical help. The Jesuits also helped several dalit (former low-caste) villages to build temporary accommodation of wood, reeds and corrugated iron. But SPICMA says many of the people made homeless, are still living in makeshift tents. Land has been bought above the flood plain for new houses, but £3,000 is needed to provide each family a home. “We appeal again for these poor people, who had so little and lost all,” Jesuit Father Maxim Rasquinha, mission superior in the area, wrote in the SPICMA appeal leaflet.