The State of West Bengal is vulnerable to natural calamities like flood, cyclone, hail storm, thunder squall, drought, landslide, erosion and sometimes to earthquakes because of its geo-morphological, climatic and seismic conditions. Floods and Cyclonic storms occur almost every year in different parts of the State and inflict huge loss of life and property causing untold hardships and trauma in the lives of the people. These natural disasters strike at the very root of the economic growth of the state .
Three of its districts that Ahana is working in, Darjeeling and Medinipur (East and West) are already enlisted among eight most disaster-prone districts in the state and has recently suffered from flood and earthquake. The Covid that has caused the most severe economic recession of the last hundred years, with tremendous damage to jobs and savings, has increased the despondency of the people manifold.
Ahana, although formed with a mission to empower women’s lives, could not forego its responsibility of humanitarian assistance that involves relief operations in a time of emergency that are based upon widely accepted humanitarian principles.
Ahana, in association with Amplo Global Inc. and HSWS had started its relief work as a humanitarian response in East and West Medinipur in the aftermath of Yash and in Darjeeling post the recent flood and resultant landslide in the hills.