Disaster Relief & Rehabilitation Work

Biradari often renders its humanitarian services through a battery of committed volunteers spread in many states of India. Some of the work undertaken by the organisation is as follows (in chronological order):

• Rehabilitation of devastated families after the massive flood in Morvi (Gujarat) in the late 1970s

• 40,000 clothes were provided to the riot victims of Assam in 1983 through Dr. Bhupen Hazarika

• Essential commodities like clothes, medicine, food etc. besides financial assistance was provided during the large-scale communal riots in Bhagalpur (Bihar) in 1989-90

• Relief measures were undertaken for the flood affected people of Raigad (Maharashtra) in 1990-92

• During the communal riots in Mumbai in 1992-93, Biradari arranged for food, shelter, essential goods and emergency health facilities (including blood donation) for the needy people, and assisted various government agencies for establishing normalcy and peace in affected areas

• A high intensity earthquake hit Marathwada (Maharashtra) and devastated thousands of homes causing huge loss of life and property and threw normal life out of gear for many months to come. Biradars were among those who reached there at the earliest, and provided essential commodities and food or the affected people for 21 days by opening a food centre (bhojanshala) at Ganjan Kheda. Injured people at Latur and Osmanabad were transported by Biradars to nearby hospitals. At Solapur, 800 injured people were provided meals for 21 days. This activity was carried out with the support of Amitabh Bachchan. On this occasion, Biradari volunteers like Sandesh Jadhav, Eknath Shinde, Raju Kane and Chandrakant Mishra worked with great sensitivity and courage.

• The organisation extended essential commodities to the earthquake affected students of Kutch (Gujarat) in January 2001

• Sanskaar Aahaar Kendras were established in the drought hit Kumthe and Uplavi villages (in Sangli, Maharashtra) in 2004, with the cooperation and patronization of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan. 700 children and aged were provided meals for 31 days and an educational-cultural workshop was organized for children. Work at Uplavi village was undertaken with financial assisatance from M K Ambole, D S Wader and Jayprakash Deshpande.

• In August 2006, Yuvak Biradari and UNDP along with 50 qualified personnel trained 250 youth in the area of disaster preparedness and disaster management to combat natural disasters like earthquake, floods, famines and man-made disasters like bomb-blasts. This training took place with the support of Milind Deshmukh, Dr. Prakash Tamhane, Ashwin Oza, Sanjeevan Joshi and the Directorate of Civil Defense.