To learn about how Ganga Action Parivar is working to bring both emergency and long-term relief and rehabilitation to the devastated areas, and how you can get involved, click here.
In the Service of Uttarkhand’s Disaster Survivors
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The official death toll from the Uttarakhand flood is nearing 1000 but most believe it will be probably several times that by the time the waters recede and the mud/sludge is removed from the roads and hillsides. Each day, more and more bodies are found along the river’s banks, in rubble, or smothered by avalanches. On the 16th – 17th June, Mother Ganga’s waters rose to heights unseen in over 100 years and the roads, homes, towns and villages lining Her banks were no match. One after the other, buildings collapsed into rubble or into the rushing waters. Others were soon completely underwater or smothered by landslides. Nearly 100 dharmshalas, packed full of pilgrims fell into the river. Hundreds of cars toppled off foundation-less roads. Roads were destroyed. Bridges collapsed. Countless lives were lost, as were property, possessions and hopes. It is the month of June, the summer vacation season of India when millions of devotees flock from their homes to the sacred Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage of the Uttarakhand Himalayas to offer their prayers in the four holy temples. Tens of thousands of these pilgrims are still stranded in the high Himalayas. Nearly 11,000 are missing and likely dead. In so many families, a large group traveled together, full of faith and piety, on this holy journey……One or two have survived, having watched their loved ones be taken by the water, the mud and the rocks.
Project Hope was inaugurated at the hands of H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji following the tragic tsunami of December 2004. With His grace, and the support of compassionate donors, wide-scale immediate emergency relief was provided for thousands of homeless villagers, two entire villages were rebuilt, an orphanage, school, vocational training center were constructed and a home for widowed, impoverished and abandoned ladies was repaired and expanded. Hope and faith were restored. Click here for details of that work.
Here in Uttarakhand, with Pujya Swamiji’s vision, dedication and leadership, Parmarth Niketan Ashram, of which Pujya Swamiji is the President, India Heritage Research Foundation and Ganga Action Parivar of which Pujya Swamiji is the Founder are working under the banner of Project Hope to provide for the flood victims.
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