Sunday, December 6, 2015

What I learnt from organizing and participating in flood relief work

Everybody except the political class is being moved by the fury of the recent Chennai floods is an open secret. Individuals from Bangalore, Kerala, Andhra and other organizations are sending supplies in trucks and vans, while those far away are participating by sending in money. Sadly, some of these supplies were hijacked and rebranded by ruling party cadres, while some were lost in supply chain leakages. Though people's intention to donate materials is commendable, distribution without wastage, misappropriation, and pilferage is key. 

Here are some visible wastage and broken links that I've identified in the supply chain.
1. Uncoordinated supply and people trying to do things on their own is creating a big wastage. In the last three days I have seen half a dozen meals being delivered to the same location that end up being discarded thereby creating civic issues. 
2. Lack of requirements mapping for households affected by flood vs. people living in relief camps and prioritizing needs. For ex: groceries being distributed in flooded homes.
3. Sharing requirements on Whatspp, Facebook and Twitter often turns out to be a hoax. For ex: 100 units of blood requirement at Children's Hospital in Egmore and need of a doctor to treat 100 sick children in Sidapet when verified turned out fake messages. 
4. Difficulty in managing crowds and distributing relief material. For ex: My colleague and a bunch of volunteers had a harrowing time trying to distribute blankets. The same people tend to come back in the queue to help themselves with another blanket. Finally, shortage of materials also create unhappiness, jealousy and skirmishes among the community.
5. Lastly, a broken supply chain adds to the problem creating wastage of aid materials. While people donate to organizations, lack of volunteers at the receiving end to sort, map the needs and requirements, deploy and distribute material fails to solve the need and the intention behind the donation. 
6. Also, people at the receiving end tend to be greedy and want to lay their hands on anything and everything being distributed. Don't be surprised if I tell you that I had to chase a few men from the queue when we distributed sanitary pads and diapers. 

How can we ensure better distribution of relief materials without wastage and creating civic issues?
1. Area wise analysis of needs and allocation to organizations or group of individuals to supply and dispense them as opposed to random collection and distribution.
2. Ensure sustained relief operation as opposed to one time effort by mapping the entire life cycle of relief materials: food, clothing, health, sanitation (while at camps), education supplies, health, sanitation, garbage collection etc. (when they move back into their homes) and prioritize.
3. Proper balancing of both supply (sort, pack, and deploy materials) and demand (distribution) arm with equal number of volunteers.
4. Door-to-door distribution as opposed to asking them to queue up at a place thereby reducing duplication and wastage.
5. Ascertain hygienic conditions (toilets, garbage bins), recycling and collection of waste at the point of distribution.
6. Involve members from the local community and put up your organization branding to ensure that political parties don't score a free goal.
7. Finally, all volunteers must be given preventive medicines (a course of antibiotics) and vaccinations against common water borne and communicable diseases.

If you have donated or planning to donate money or material, please think about these issues and ask organizations questions on sustainability, hygienic conditions, distribution plans and proofs. If you can volunteer, nothing like it.

Let your contributions and benefits be longstanding and not like the Chennai rain causing deluge and ending up in the salty ocean.

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