Coronavirus enters Sittilingi

The dreaded virus that is holding the whole world to ransom has now entered Sittilingi Valley! It announced its arrival almost immediately with a death in the village.

As we write this in the first week of June, there have been 6 Covid deaths in the valley and the hospital has seen around 400 fever patients so far. The actual number of infected people could be even higher as many may have never come to the hospital.

Several villagers who were earlier complacent – convinced that the virus would ignore Sittilingi just as it did last year – are now scared and have started observing covid prevention norms more consciously.

Our decentralised classes in the villages have been temporarily stopped since mid April. Our main priority right now is to contain the spread of the virus in the villages. All of the teachers and their spouses are currently involved in supporting the hospital and the panchayat team in their efforts towards preventing community spread and involving the community in supporting the Covid patients. They are talking to people in each of the villages about Covid awareness and treatment, informing the hospital of any fever cases in their villages and helping to isolate and provide support for the fever patients.

Our doctor friends at Tribal Health Initiative have prepared a 15 bed exclusive Covid ward, as well as protective gear, oxygen, testing, medicines etc. Most villagers who were badly affected economically by the first Covid wave are now unable to pay for treatment. We have been helping THI fundraise for their treatment and food. We are truly grateful to Balaji and Asha For Education for their prompt and timely contribution towards this.

The hospital has set up a number of helplines for residents of the valley. Some of us at Thulir have volunteered to run these helplines. We talk regularly to Covid patients who are isolating in their homes and provide them non medical support, including psychological help and guidance.

The good news is that because of prompt and early action, at both the community level and the hospital, many patients are recovering. But we don’t know how things will change in the weeks to come.

Migrant workers in the valley

We at Thulir, have also been busy with a group of migrant labourers who came to the valley recently. There were around 45 of them including many women and children. Though originally from Andhra, they had been travelling around the state selling woven baskets and other small items on pavements and bus stands in the cities. The imposition of lockdown left them with no source of income and with no place to stay. They had been driven out of bigger cities and towns.

After trying their luck from town to town they came here asking to be allowed to stay in some open place where they could pitch their tents. We thought they could stay in the school grounds. We tried to help them along with our panchayat (local government) president. But it was not easy. Some of the villagers were afraid that this group would bring Covid into the village and complained to the superior government officials.

The government officials too wanted these people to be sent out of the valley, to somewhere out of their jurisdiction. Finally we managed to get permission from everyone and organized a place for them to stay on some land between two villages. We have been providing them with groceries, vegetables and some livelihood opportunities.

Before the second wave hit us…

• Varun from Thekambattu conducted Scratch classes thrice a week for teachers and students from February to mid April. Children and teachers discovered that creating their own videos, puzzles and games is more fun than playing games made by others.

• The view of the stars in our Sittilingi night sky is amazing from January to the end of March. This year this view was made even more special by Ramsubramanian, an old friend of Thulir. He brought his telescopes to Thulir and conducted star gazing workshops for parents, teachers and children in the school grounds. Lying on our backs on mats and gazing up at the infinite stars or peering through the telescope while listening to him unravel the mysteries of the universe was a fascinating experience.

• Constructing a store room for construction materials, staff quarters and the dining hall provided a livelihood for around 20 building artisans. This activity has been temporarily stopped during the lockdown.

• Bee keeping and collecting honey has been resumed at Thulir, Thanks to the workshop conducted at Sittilingi Organic Farmers Association, SOFA.

• Vinod, an expert on birds and insects, took us on nature walks and helped us discover the fascinating array of birds and insects we have here!
• Anjana from ASHA bangalore visited us in February. Her site visit report can be read >> here
• Students and teachers from Marudam Farm School, Professor Ravindran and Vanajakka and Balaji from Asha were some of those who visited and cheered us up this year!

Thank you all for being with us. Let’s tide over this storm together!