Over the last few days unusually heavy and prolonged rainfall has caused the Kirshna River in Andhra Pradesh, India, to burst its banks and subsequent massive flooding has ravaged the region, causing widespread damage.

Learning for Life and our partner have been providing basic education and healthcare to the impoverished and vulnerable communities of Andhra Pradesh since 2006. Over the last few days six of our Education Centres situated on the banks of the Krishna River have been devastated by the flood. The advancing flood water is rising rapidly; by Sunday evening (October 4th) four of our Education Centres had been completely submerged and yesterday the advancing waters claimed the other two.

Almost 400,000 people from Vijayawada City and the surrounding suburban areas have been evacuated. Initially our school buildings were used as shelters for those who had already lost their homes but by Sunday lunchtime it became clear that soon the schools themselves would also be submerged. People have since been forced to take shelter on the road sides, footpaths and road dividers. However, the situation continues to become even more desperate as today the water level has increased even further and some parts of the national highways have now been submerged, meaning people are running out of places to shelter. The weather forecast predicts that waters may continue to rise even further for 3 more days.

The people with whom Learning for Life have worked with over the last four years have lost everything to the flood water, including their homes, businesses, clothes, cooking utensils and food supplies, they have no electricity or access to clean water and sanitation.

Over the next few days we propose to offer immediate relief support for those affected by the floods by providing food, clean drinking water, blankets, cooking utensils and oral rehydration saline solution used to combat the effects of diarrhoea.

The flooding has directly affected 1180 children, we propose to offer immediate relief support for all 1180 children and their families, of which there are 1000.