LONDON (UCAN) – A British charity, SPICMA (Special Projects in Christian Missionary Areas) is supporting efforts by Indian Jesuits to rebuild the lives of villagers still devastated by floods more than five months ago.

It has renewed an appeal for funds for the people of Manvi/Pannur in Raichur district, Karnataka. Most of the homes in 29 villages here were reduced in October last year to little more than rubble, in what the BBC at the time described as one of the worst disasters in the area for decades.

An initial appeal through SPICMA and Jesuit Missions raised £32,000 (US$48,000), which provided food, clean water and medical help. The Jesuits also helped several dalit (former low-caste) villages to build temporary accommodation of wood, reeds and corrugated iron.

But SPICMA says many of the people made homeless are still living in makeshift tents. Land has been bought above the flood plain for new houses, but £3,000 is needed to provide each family a home.

“We appeal again … for these poor people who had so little and lost all,” writes Jesuit Father Maxim Rasquinha, mission superior in the area, in the SPICMA appeal leaflet.