Malda, India Flood Relief

Hello, my name is Sonya Noor, Iam a vascular surgeon and I now live in Buffalo, NY. I am reaching out to you becuase of devastating floods in my hometown in India. Tucked away in the foot hills of the Himalayas, there is a piece of land on the banks of the Ganges River called Malda, India.  This is where the last few generations of "Noor’s" and “Khan Chowdhury's” come from.  The Noor family tree can be traced all the way back to 1450, when one of our Great Great Grand Fathers came from Persia to settle and is also buried there. We refer to the Old man as Maqdoom baba, and even though he just lays there with his children and Grandchildren, and now my parents.  We find great comfort in knowing that’s where it all started and one day will end.  This is my favorite place in the world, where I would spend my summers and school breaks. They grow some of the best mangos in the world! Unfortunately this area is constantly threatened by floods as it sits next to the mighty Ganges River, in the region known as the “Mahnanda” aka “Mighty RIVER”. 

This year, the damn in the neighboring state “Bihar”, broke. Fed by the monsoon rains,the flood engulfed almost all of North Malda. Close to 800,000 civilians are affected. Half are homeless.  The death toll is already in the 100's.  My sister Mausam is the local MP (Member of Parliament) and is working tirelessly with other relief workers to help these extremely poor villagers who have lost everything. I mean this has washed away EVERYTHING. They are homeless living under tarps to protect them from the weather and rain. They’ve lost all the grain, stock, food supplies and essentials apart from material goods. 

Our family is working on setting up a formal organization that will have a 510C tax exempt status, however that will take time. In the interim, I am asking you to open your heart and donate to these really poor, desolate, helpless people, who need essentials like, food, drinking water, tarps, clothes, and life boats for transport, as the roads are all submerged. This is their immediate need.  In the future, they will need other supplies as meds for malaria and G.I illnesses, infrastructure, rebuilding, schools, etc.

Keep in mind that 1$ USD is worth 65 rupees.  Every dollar counts.  I am planning to visit for a few days in September and am leaving Sept 12th tentatively, I would love to collect what I can and gift it personally. 
Whatever I can collect after will be transferred to the Malda district party fund so my sister Mausam can continue to distribute relief funds.
 

Thank you for your generosity and saving my peeps!

Sincerely,

Sonya