MANAGING A DISASTER

The village of Levanjipuram, Tirunelveli district, the state of Tamil Nadu. A tiny hamlet with 200 houses, mostly huts. The time was around 1 a.m in the night on the 24th of January 2004, when the entire village was asleep. One of huts caught a fire whose menacing flames threatened to burn the entire hamlet. The resident of the hut, Mohammed Ibrahim came out shouting for help.

Immediately, four young men swung into action: Jaypaul, Velmurugan, Rajadurai and Perumal. Acting with great presence of mind, they quickly moved and pulled down the thatched roof of the burning house with fire hooks and prevented the fire from spreading.

Apart from this, they boldly moved in and rescued the meager belongings of the resident.

A relieved Ibrahim hugged his saviours and thanked them profusely for saving his only belongings. The village Panchayat too heaped praise on these brave men.

But the heros of our story, in turn, thanked Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba who had enabled them to be of some service to the village. They had acquired this courage and these skills as part of the nationwide Disaster Management program that has been undertaken by the Sathya Sai Seva Organizations. The aim is to create vibrant, fully trained, well motivated and equipped teams of Sai youth members in each district of India who will move into any natural disaster affected zones within 24 hrs and render seva to minimize the effects and after effects of such disasters.

Want to be part of this noble endeavour? Contact your local Samithi Convener immediately!