1) Rambati, a woman from Karkhana Tole village in Sunsari, Nepal, recalls a devastating flood in 1990 when she had just given birth and had to stay in a dangling bed for two days without much food. 2) The village is prone to frequent flooding and other disasters that damage homes and crops. There was no disaster management system previously. 3) With support from a local NGO, the community formed a disaster management committee and began collecting "fistfuls of rice" daily to stockpile food for emergencies. Rambati is an active participant in these efforts.

1. Fistful of rice campaign to secure the food during disasters…...A case of Rambati
Rambati Urawa quivers when she has to remind one of
the awful flood at the time when she delivered her first
child. She had to stay in dangling bed for two days &
nights without having food with the fear of loneliness
and possible snake bites. She wished there was a local
disaster management committee at that time as of now.
In the meantime, she gets excited while showing her
tiny bag with rice hanged in the kitchen to save fistful of
it daily securing the food during emergency situation.
Rambati lives in a village called Karkhana Tole at Narshingh VDC in Sunsari. Eighty-five
families live in this village. The village is located at 1 KM south west from Inaruwa, the
district headquarter of Sunsari district. The village is surrounded by unprotected Sunsari
River in the East. There are two paper mills in the village, and the people are primarily
dependent on subsistence agriculture and labor. Majority of houses are single storey
made of thatches, bamboo and mud. The disasters like flood, fire, windstorm, cold wave
are customary occurrence in the village. The village is flooded almost every year during
monsoon period, as a result houses, roads, schools and crops are inundated, and
peoples have to be displaced for few days to a week in the schools. The livelihoods of
the peoples are threatened as livestock and chickens die, houses crumble, crops are
destroyed. The children fall sick from cold, cough, fever, pneumonia and diarrhea; and
there is difficulty in treatment. There were nobody trained in disaster management and
no provision of any fund for disaster relief before project intervention.
Rambati is the mother of four children-two sons and two daughters. She became single,
when her husband died of sudden chest pain before six years. It was immense
hammering for her since the woman who is illiterate, and had to depend on husband for
livelihood. It became difficult for her to tackle with the problem; however she was given
support in dire needs from her parents. Since her husband died; she is the one who is
taking responsibilities for taking care of her four children. She is hardly managing money
for livelihood through the few acres of land and livestock which she owns. Except
learning to write the name with the help of her friends, she has not attended any formal
schools in her life.
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2. Asking to memorize her filthy situations due to disaster, she says each year there is
problem of flooding and peoples have to be displaced. The incident of July 25, 1990 was
unforgettable to her. She says "After two days when I delivered my first child at the
time, a destructive flood entered in the village at 4 PM. The water level rose to 4 feet
inside my house. My husband fixed the bed with rope to raise it above the ground. He
and other family members carried some of the goods and went for taking shelter in
school. Since I was unable to move in the difficult situation; I stayed two days-nights in
that bed, with immense fear almost without eating except little bit of beaten rice and
salt. It was like dream to think about additional diet required for the lactating mother. It
was her most sad incident in her life." Regarding relief she does not retain information
about government providing any support, however, she remembers, paper mills have
sometime distributed beaten rice and noodles.
UPCA Nepal, a local partner NGO of ActionAid, entered in the community introducing
about the project in July 2009. They made rounds of initial community meetings for
formation of REFLECT centers and disaster management committee. The women,
children, people from disadvantage groups, people with disabilities were given priority
to be associated in the reflect centers, and disaster management committee. There
formed a disaster management committee including women, children, people with
disability, and older people. Weekly session of REFLECT are ongoing with discussion on
various issues related to disaster preparedness, mitigation and other social issues. Three
types of task force were formed: first aid task force, early warning task force and search
& rescue task force. These task force members are trained in first aid and search and
rescue. All the DMC members got trained in CBDRR.
The community people decided to have fistful of rice
campaign for generating relief fund, and take stock of rice
that is needed during disaster. They began to collect rice grain
once in 15 days. There are 48 households who are taking part
in the campaign. Then project provided a small bag to all the
households participating in fistful of rice campaign. Also two
big containers were provided for collecting rice. The
emergency relief fund of amount Rs. 25,000 was transferred
into DMC's account. The committee approached to the local
government-VDC and formally requested them to allocate
some money in their fund. As a result of continuous
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3. coordination and linkage with the VDC, VDC Council allocated Rs. 50,000 in Disaster risk
reduction for the first time in history. VDC is agreed to provide Rs. 10,000 in the Disaster
relief fund from that fund. The community has collected 146 Kg of rice grain till. In order
to mobilize the fund properly with accountability the DMC has prepared the fund
mobilization guideline.
Rice is the main course of food for Nepalese people and a major calories source. It is
easy to store and carry in bulk. Securing rice is primarily securing the food of the
people during disasters.
Asking Rambati what had inspired her to work in the disaster management committee,
she said, "I was sufferer of flood almost every year. Mr. Shivahari Khatiwada from
project came and gathered people. He with other friends clearly describe about what
and how they were going to help the community. However, some of the community
people were not taking it seriously. They argued that many organizations came earlier
and do nothing for the community. They provided lip service and nothing else. But, I was
impressed by the proposal taken by the project people. I keep on actively participating
in the group meeting. Later on I was nominated as the member of Disaster management
committee by the mass meeting. I am regularly taking sessions in REFLECT and took part
in PVA. I took three days CBDRR training."
Rambati is one of the active persons in fistful of rice campaign. She manages her time
for community works with the help of her children in household chores. She is proud of
meeting with new peoples and places through the project. She has given a room in her
house at free of cost as venue to collect rice, Reflect and DMC meeting. She convinces
the villagers to take part in the fistful of rice campaign, and sometime she goes with
group to for convincing. She tells the importance, the uses of the campaign and insists
people to take part in the campaign. She has provided space in her house to keep grains,
store the DP materials.
Asking how she can cope with disaster in future, she is fully confident that she can not
only protect her family but to the neighbors. She further says, "peoples' are trained in
first aid, search and rescue and we have disaster preparedness materials and grains, so
we can easily cope with the disaster in future, and there will be no loss of life and
properties. We have properly managed our important documents while needed to go
out for taking shelters. Government or outsiders may come after 4-5 days to provide
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4. relief but we can instantly manage the relief and response. We will distribute relief as
per the guidelines, decided by the disaster management committee."
As an active member of disaster management committee, Rambati is now an informal
leader in the community, who has tremendous courage, zeal and motivation to work in
the community. She is established as one of the most cooperative and faithful persons
in the community.
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