Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 9 (IANS): In what is believed to be a comprehensive package comprising education and health, Kerala’s premier education group the Noorul Islam Institute of Medical Science and Research Foundation (NIMS) on Friday met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and offered their services to the Wayanad landslide survivors.
The death toll in the July 30 disaster has touched 413 with 152 still missing and over 11,000 people in over 110 relief camps in the affected areas.
“As a first step we handed over a cheque for Rs 1 crore to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. The second stage of contribution is getting ready with our entire staff engaged in it. And the most important one is a full-fledged education and health services package for the landslide victims,” said MD of NIMS Faizal Khan.
“We will be collecting relief material and will shortly deliver it to the Wayanad authorities,” added Khan.
“On the educational front we will be offering free education to 1,000 students in landslide-hit Wayanad and those interested can get admitted to our various educational institutions which includes, dentistry, engineering, nursing, arts and science colleges,” said Khan.
Dr MKC Nair, former Vice Chancellor of Kerala University of Health Sciences who heads a medical division at NIMS at present that deals in developmental and behavioural aspects of children, said, “Studies after COVID show that it affected 40 per cent of the children and the same would be the case with natural calamities like the one in Wayanad.”
“Our full-fledged team will be in Wayanad shortly and we will work with the children of the affected areas to help them to come out of the tragedy they witnessed. Then we will give the prescribed training to people in the area so that they will be able to take ahead what we do, while we will be available whenever a need arises at periodic intervals,” said Nair.
Scientist Tessy Thomas, often referred to as the ‘Missile woman of India’ who is also the Vice Chancellor of the NICHE University of the NIMS Group, said that technology has to be more fine-tuned to detect disasters, while with the available technology, such mechanisms are getting deployed in some areas.