Building Kaaya, Building Community: The 2013 Kedarnath Tragedy
In June 2013, the monsoon brought a calamity to the Kedar valley that took thousands of lives. It called for a humanitarian response unlike anything these mountains had seen. Kaaya was very young then: a few mud buildings in Tilwari, still being built.
The roots of Kaaya lie in Rudraprayag district, where Himvikas, the organisation Kaaya grew out of, was based. Those were our own valleys and our own people. We, at Tilwari, could not stay apart from it, and we were among the few who were able to respond early.
Finding the gap
We asked ourselves where we could be of use. Families in the affected villages would need food to tide them over until relief from other sources arrived. So we reached out to friends for support, trusting that it would reach those who needed it most, through a chain of volunteers who were local and knew the region well.
Many people in Tilwari gave in person. Some gave money. Some volunteered to carry relief material through very difficult terrain. We could act at all because of the trust that had already formed between Kaaya and its neighbours.
The centre became a relief point
The half-built Tilwari Centre turned into a place for disaster response. The community came together to measure, pack, check and recheck what each family would need. A truck was flagged off from Tilwari. In the affected region, volunteers carried supplies on their backs, crossed rivers, and helped build log bridges so that villages could be reached again.
When the volunteers returned, they shared what they had seen. The children of Tilwari decided to join in. They wrote letters to children in distress, and sent them with the next batch of volunteers.
Then, the children
The second phase of the response focused on children, together with our partner at the time, AVEDA. Volunteers were trained, and books and stationery were packed into trunks and carried up on mules. Reading camps in the affected villages created a joyful place to learn, which helped children come out of their trauma and back towards school. Parents made a point of sending their children, even across broken bridges.
https://youtu.be/wEFvBbdBmao?si=2XyOGckwOa78DRQR
In the film, Kaaya's co-founder looks back on the response.
Looking back
It was not that we had money to start with. Local contributors played as important a role as those from outside. Looking back, this is where the Tilwari Centre found its foundation as a collaborative place: Kaaya was being built, and a community was being built around it, at the same time.
We hope to keep responding in this way, whenever the need arises. Our thanks to AVEDA, and to everyone who was a partner in this effort.