{"id":151680,"date":"2015-08-20T05:32:51","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T09:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/?p=78293"},"modified":"2015-08-20T05:32:51","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T09:32:51","slug":"san-francisco-bay-area-manipuri-community-and-friends-salute-flood-relief-volunteer-groups-and-freelance-photojournalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/2015\/08\/20\/san-francisco-bay-area-manipuri-community-and-friends-salute-flood-relief-volunteer-groups-and-freelance-photojournalists\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Bay Area Manipuri Community and Friends salute Flood Relief Volunteer Groups and Freelance Photojournalists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Volunteers<\/a><\/p>\n

Volunteers of Disaster Relief Forum Manipur<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIn times of adversity we really discover who we are and what were made of. \u201c – Howard Schultz. Adversity and misfortune is what Manipur is facing today. \u00a0In the midst of a social crisis and imperiled livelihood for the poorest of the poor, Manipur was hit with the flood of the century.\u00a0 It has devastated several parts of the state washing away homes and villages.\u00a0 Many families and whole communities have been rendered homeless leaving them in desperate need of humanitarian support. \u00a0In such a time of acute need, volunteers and common people has proven the true spirit of Manipuris\u2019.<\/p>\n

Among all the bad news coming out of Manipur, these are the glimmers of hope.\u00a0 When the photos of the massive flood taken by freelance photojournalists spread through the internet, the scale of the destruction became apparent to the world.\u00a0 Many good Samaritans in Manipur and elsewhere wanted to donate and help but they found no channels, either NGO or government, for disaster relief.\u00a0 \u00a0Volunteers in Manipur took it upon themselves to help our brothers and sisters in need by raising funds, procuring essential goods and distributing humanitarian aid through any feasible means.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the effort of the volunteers in Manipur, a group of \u00a0friends who play football on weekends in Sunnyvale, California, got together to help in this effort in the only form they could by raising funds.\u00a0 Many had been contributing on their own through their leikais and family in Manipur.\u00a0 Manipuris and their friends from around the San Francisco Bay Area contributed generously and raised more than Rs 1.2 Lac. \u00a0The collected funds were sent for immediate use to Flood Relief Manipur (FRM)<\/strong>, Helping Hands Manipur (HHM)<\/strong> and Volunteers<\/strong> for Disaster Relief Forum(VDRF)<\/strong> to deliver relief, clean water and medicine.\u00a0 They shared ideas to field-assemble water filters using gravel, sand, charcoal and other common household goods both for home and community use in a sustainable way.\u00a0 \u00a0While it is a drop in the ocean in light of the overwhelming need of the hour, these volunteer groups have transparency for their funds and every rupee reaches the needy.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/a><\/p>\n

San Francisco Bay Area Manipuri Community Flood Relief donation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It is unfortunate that there was no immediate massive mobilization of resources from the state and central government several days into this calamity.\u00a0\u00a0 There has been no large-scale effort to assess and provide relief to those affected in far-flung areas in the critical days after such a major natural disaster.\u00a0\u00a0 Volunteers on ground have highlighted the urgent need for aid in those areas that are cutoff from rest of the state. Roads and bridges have been washed away. We urge the state and central government to allocate all available resources to provide urgent relief, rehabilitation and in the reconstruction of roads and bridges.<\/p>\n

We are in solidarity with the people affected by the recent flood. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. We salute the volunteers on the ground from all parts of Manipur who have taken upon themselves to help those in need.\u00a0 We appreciate the efforts of fellow Manipuris around the world who came together in this global effort to aid the affected people.<\/p>\n

Warm regards,<\/p>\n

San Francisco Bay area Manipuri Community<\/p>\n\n

Read more \/ Original news source: http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2015\/08\/san-francisco-bay-area-manipuri-community-and-friends-salute-flood-relief-volunteer-groups-and-freelance-photojournalists\/<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  “In times of adversity we really discover who we are and what were made of. “ – Howard Schultz. Adversity and misfortune is what Manipur is facing today.  In<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[604,43,330,606,2410,100,2826],"class_list":["post-151680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kanglaonline","category-news","tag-flood","tag-k-featured","tag-kanglaonline-2","tag-manipur-flood","tag-manipuri-diaspora","tag-press-release","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151681,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151680\/revisions\/151681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}