Beloved Baba Memorial Fund: Cyclone-COVID Relief
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Beloved Baba (R.P.Chatterjee) Memorial Fund for COVID/Cyclone Relief. Kolkata. 2020
This memorial funding initiative honors our father's deep sense of justice and practical compassion (see below for who Baba was). It will support individuals and families who are bearing the brunt of two catastrophic forces that have hit Kolkata in 2020: the COVID Lockdown and the Cyclone.
Even a small amount adds up! Currently $1=74Rs. If you can spare $10, it will matter!
· $200 is literally the monthly income for a domestic worker (if she can work in that many houses) in one flat complex.
· $1000 can repair a roof.
· $100 could buy life saving medication for a person for a month.
If you are currently in India and would like to donate in Indian Rupees, please contact me at [email redacted].
Which communities will be supported? The Beloved Baba Memorial Fund will support two sets of communities:
❶ Baba’s neighbors, communities of workers, who live in precarious housing conditions just adjacent to the flat complex that we live in. This area is called the Sahapur colony area and is comprised of both migrant and non-migrant families who serve the apartment complexes in the area. Most are daily wage earners—many women work (as dishwashers or floor cleaners) in multiple apartments to earn a total of Rs.15,000 ($200) a month, if they are fortunate to get that much income. Their husbands might be drivers or have migrated elsewhere for jobs. Many families have come to the city from peri-urban villages. With the lockdown, people are living at subsistence level. I have been told that 25% of 250 families are living far below the poverty line (BPL) and I suspect this is a far larger number. We are doing a small informal survey but the process we will ask for is a small application of what is most urgently needed (see photos).
❷The work of Parichiti (called Kolkata Initiatives) which supports daily wage workers, particularly elderly women, who have lost all means of livelihood because of the lockdown. (See https://www.parichiti.org.in/)
The Accountability Ethics of Disaster Relief Funding. Because the ethics of funding “disaster relief” can be tricky, it is important to be clear about what this is, and is not. The initiative is an informal micro-effort and as such the scale is small-- and oversight will be open to all those who donate. The process for disbursing funds will include a small application for funds with some details of the needs (house repair; food; medicines). My family members and I will make those decisions. There are no over-head costs—and it will worked through a personal bank account. Priority will be given to women daily wage earners in the neighborhood. Everyone who donates will get a report of who received the funds and what those funds are being used for. These are relief funds so they will be a one-time donation, which certainly limits the consistent impact—though ofcourse, Parichiti’s work is ongoing. However I have selected to focus on our immediate neighbors because of the intimacy and geography of baba’s, and our family’s, connections with this neighborhood for over two decades.
Who is Baba? This fundraising initiative is in memory of our beloved baba, Rama Prasad Chatterjee, who was born on March 19, 1927 in Faridpur (now Bangladesh) and who died on April 20, 2020 in Kolkata (India). Baba’s spirit of generosity was quiet and humble. He was a refugee who ended up being a banyan tree, sheltering many—close family, relatives, friends and colleagues. His acts of compassion and generosity were many, but often hidden. He was funny, kind and fierce—and though we fought across our own faultlines—he was deeply honest about his life choices and lessons he learned from personal loss, displacement--- and his own privilege. He also had this incredible gift of being fully present with each person he met. Perhaps, most powerfully, he never closed his heart to his own vulnerabilities—and, remained till the end, open to the vulnerability of others. Baba also taught me the most important lessons about my privileged life and education—and to always remember those who paid the costs of that privilege, individually and collectively. He was, and remains, my first and most precious, teacher. —Piya Chatterjee (daughter).
If you have any other questions, and would also like to help me build this work, please contact me at [email redacted]
This memorial funding initiative honors our father's deep sense of justice and practical compassion (see below for who Baba was). It will support individuals and families who are bearing the brunt of two catastrophic forces that have hit Kolkata in 2020: the COVID Lockdown and the Cyclone.
Even a small amount adds up! Currently $1=74Rs. If you can spare $10, it will matter!
· $200 is literally the monthly income for a domestic worker (if she can work in that many houses) in one flat complex.
· $1000 can repair a roof.
· $100 could buy life saving medication for a person for a month.
If you are currently in India and would like to donate in Indian Rupees, please contact me at [email redacted].
Which communities will be supported? The Beloved Baba Memorial Fund will support two sets of communities:
❶ Baba’s neighbors, communities of workers, who live in precarious housing conditions just adjacent to the flat complex that we live in. This area is called the Sahapur colony area and is comprised of both migrant and non-migrant families who serve the apartment complexes in the area. Most are daily wage earners—many women work (as dishwashers or floor cleaners) in multiple apartments to earn a total of Rs.15,000 ($200) a month, if they are fortunate to get that much income. Their husbands might be drivers or have migrated elsewhere for jobs. Many families have come to the city from peri-urban villages. With the lockdown, people are living at subsistence level. I have been told that 25% of 250 families are living far below the poverty line (BPL) and I suspect this is a far larger number. We are doing a small informal survey but the process we will ask for is a small application of what is most urgently needed (see photos).
❷The work of Parichiti (called Kolkata Initiatives) which supports daily wage workers, particularly elderly women, who have lost all means of livelihood because of the lockdown. (See https://www.parichiti.org.in/)
The Accountability Ethics of Disaster Relief Funding. Because the ethics of funding “disaster relief” can be tricky, it is important to be clear about what this is, and is not. The initiative is an informal micro-effort and as such the scale is small-- and oversight will be open to all those who donate. The process for disbursing funds will include a small application for funds with some details of the needs (house repair; food; medicines). My family members and I will make those decisions. There are no over-head costs—and it will worked through a personal bank account. Priority will be given to women daily wage earners in the neighborhood. Everyone who donates will get a report of who received the funds and what those funds are being used for. These are relief funds so they will be a one-time donation, which certainly limits the consistent impact—though ofcourse, Parichiti’s work is ongoing. However I have selected to focus on our immediate neighbors because of the intimacy and geography of baba’s, and our family’s, connections with this neighborhood for over two decades.
Who is Baba? This fundraising initiative is in memory of our beloved baba, Rama Prasad Chatterjee, who was born on March 19, 1927 in Faridpur (now Bangladesh) and who died on April 20, 2020 in Kolkata (India). Baba’s spirit of generosity was quiet and humble. He was a refugee who ended up being a banyan tree, sheltering many—close family, relatives, friends and colleagues. His acts of compassion and generosity were many, but often hidden. He was funny, kind and fierce—and though we fought across our own faultlines—he was deeply honest about his life choices and lessons he learned from personal loss, displacement--- and his own privilege. He also had this incredible gift of being fully present with each person he met. Perhaps, most powerfully, he never closed his heart to his own vulnerabilities—and, remained till the end, open to the vulnerability of others. Baba also taught me the most important lessons about my privileged life and education—and to always remember those who paid the costs of that privilege, individually and collectively. He was, and remains, my first and most precious, teacher. —Piya Chatterjee (daughter).
If you have any other questions, and would also like to help me build this work, please contact me at [email redacted]
Organizer
Piya Chatterjee
Organizer
Riverside, CA