Thank you

Thank you to anonymous, USA who has donated $150 for Krishna and Kanchan's treatment. Thank you also to Vicky, Mike Mcmillan and family, USA, who have also kindly donated $50 towards this cause.

We are now getting close to half way as we have collected US$230 and need $320 before we reach our target to help this family.

Thank you

Good News! We have received the first donation for the care of Krishna and Kanchan, US$30 from The Prayer Cycle, Belgium. Thank you for support.

Help a family that has suffered a tragedy

The two patients above are Kanchan and Krishna. They were the victims of a household gas explosion that left them with severe burns. Krishna is only 1.5 years old and has suffered severe burns to his face, while his mothers legs were burnt when their cooking gas cylinder exploded.

Krishna and Kanchan are the wife and son of Laxmikant, a school teacher. He works hard to support his family, but, he does not earn enough to cover such big medical expenses and has no insurance.

The bills are significant and the family has no savings. We appeal to kind blog viewers help make contributions for up to half of the medical expenses for this family. We will give them a loan for the other half and we expect that it will take them at least a year to pay it back.

To cover half the cost of Kanchan and Krishna's treatment, the family needs US$550 (Rs 22000).

Please help lessen this family's hardship and suffering. They need your kind support.

To help, contact rupa@fflvrindavan.org

Thank you

Thank you to all the donors who have helped Usha. We were hoping to raise a little more for her but, there are several more cases who need our support. Usha has had the operation and we have paid for most of the medicine she needs. If anyone would like to offer further support for her treatment and after care, please let us know.

Thank you

Thank you to The prayer cycle in Belgium for a donation of US$40 for Usha, making the total raised US$217 and leaving only US$143 that we need to raise to make sure that this old lady can keep walking around in her sunset years.

Thank you

A big thank you to Deepak Sethi, USA, who has responded to our appeal and donated $77 for Usha's operation. We are now needing US$183 to get her leg operated on and pay her hospital bills. Please help.

Thank you

Thank you to anonymous USA who has donated US$100 towards Usha's operation. We know it is difficult in these tough times, but if everyone can just chip in a little, urgent operations for people like Usha will keep getting done.

We are trying to raise US$260 for her before we put the next person on the blog and the line to get on this blog is getting longer every day....Please help.

Help for an accident victim?

This is Usha. She has been living on the street and begging for the last 5 years. Last week, her leg was run over by a bicycle and fractured. Since then, she has been in hospital waiting to have an operation.

As well as needing good food and medicine to get her strength up to the point that she can withstand an operation, Usha also needs a kind soul to sponsor her operation before it can go ahead.

One kind soul has already taken pity on her - Beenabai, a widow who has been living in Vrindavan in a widow's ashram for the last 15 years, took pity on Usha lying on the street crying and took her to hospital.

Beenabai lives on a pension and does not have the Rs 15, 000 (US$360) that the operation will cost. Ram Krishna Mission hospital is looking for a sponsor for this lady and have contacted many charities as it has been very to raise funds for the last few months. We are hoping that one of our blog viewers will come forward to help Usha out...

Incredible India series. Number 1 in the world in road accidents.

Posted Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:29am AEST

New cars and trucks pour on to Indian roads at an ever increasing pace (Reuters: Krishnendu Halde)

The twisted metal of smashed up cars lining highways is a grim testament to India's road toll, one of the worst in the world, with around 100,000 people killed in traffic accidents last year alone.

As incomes rise and the economy rapidly expands, new cars and trucks pour on to Indian roads at an ever increasing pace, squeezing into narrow, congested streets that were never designed for such a massive flow of traffic.

Creaking infrastructure, poorly trained drivers and cars that lack basic safety features due to a preference for cheap, fuel-efficient vehicles by Indian motorists are causing an already horrendous road toll to balloon.

And the toll is not just human. The World Bank estimates that every year road accidents cost India about 3 per cent of its gross domestic product which was more than $1.16 trillion in 2007.

"We're talking about a very serious issue here that also has huge economic implications," World Bank transport specialist Rajesh Rohatgi said.

Road accidents could become the third largest public health issue in India by 2020, overtaking such deadly diseases as tuberculosis and AIDS, the World Bank predicts.

In India, where roads carry almost 90 per cent of all passenger traffic and 65 per cent of its freight, the mortality rate per 10,000 vehicles is 14 compared with less than two for developed countries, the World Bank estimates.

It is easy to see why. Cars and motorbikes - many with four riders astride - share space on narrow roads with bicycles, three-wheeled rickshaws, trucks, buses, the odd bullock cart and pedestrians forced to walk in roads by hawkers on pavements.

With few Indian cities enforcing even basic requirements such as seat belts, it is not unusual to see children sitting in the laps of adults in front seats and overloaded buses with people balanced precariously on the steps or perched on the roofs.

Pot-holed roads, inadequate safety regulations, a scrappy licence system and a lax attitude toward drunk and underage driving are all blamed for accidents that kill an estimated 275 people every day