Kerala: As relief pours in, efforts on to stock up for when ‘attention diminishes’

Relief collection centre run by St George Orthodox Church at Meppadi, Wayanad. (Express Photo)

The collection centre is located near the relief camp at Government Higher Secondary School, Meppadi.

“We will start helping them individually based on their specific needs to save a portion of the materials for the future,” Jins said. Perishable items such as bread are not being stored and vegetables are being directly sent to camps, he said.

Inside DYFI’s relief store. (Express Photo)

The support so far has been robust. “A majority of relief camps are currently not facing a shortage of anything, be it groceries, clothes, medicines, and so on,” Jins said.

This centre only collects materials from people associated with the church. “If anyone else contacts us, we direct them to the collectorate, where the government organises relief material collection,” he said, adding that they do not collect cash.

But according to Mirhas, a volunteer with CPI(M)-affiliated  DYFI, relief camps urgently need bedsheets, blankets, innerwear, toothbrushes, soap, basins, cups, and mats as well as groceries.

Relief materials are collected and sorted there, and a digital inventory is kept. (Express Photo)

“We have volunteers across all camps in Meppadi. They routinely enquire and update us about the needs, and we act accordingly,” said Mirhas, who mans a storeroom above the church’s collection centre. He also said they are not distributing old clothes to the victims. “The people who bring this stuff may not know whether there is old stuff. So, we sort them and send only new items to relief camps,” he added.

The government’s relief distribution mechanism is based out of two warehouses in Kalpetta located at the district collectorate and at St. Joseph’s Convent School. Relief materials are collected and sorted there, and a digital inventory is kept.