Called one of the greatest natural disasters of modern history, the South Asian Tsunami wreaked havoc along the coasts of Tamil Nadu. The Family India responded to this tragedy by carrying out a three-year multi-phased relief and rehabilitation programme in partnership with a dedicated grassroots NGO called the Coastal Earthquake Relief Programme. Here is an overview of the Family India’s involvement in the relief and rehab programme.
Immediate Relief: Our teams responded to this immediate need by distributing relief supplies in the form of “Family Relief Packs” to over 6000 affected families in 11 villages, namely Thalanguda, Malumiarpettai, Sothikuppam, Old Town Cuddalore, Mathinapalli, and Sangolikupam in Cuddalore District and Muthaliarkuppam, Bomaiapallayam, Nallavadu and Thanthiyarayankuppam in Villupuram District. These packs included rice, dal, milk, biscuits, sugar, cooking pans, jugs and mats.
Community Boat Project: Tens of thousands of fishermen lost their boats in the Tsunami, thereby losing the one means they had of supporting themselves and their families. Simply giving them relief supplies was not enough. Empowering them to become self-supporting once again thus became one of the biggest needs of the hour.
With the help of local NGOs, lawyers, fishermen, and the boat manufacturing industry, we were able to initiate a “Community Boat Project” which involved providing fiberglass fishing boats to affected villages to be used jointly by the fishermen for the common good of their villages. Concerned companies and individuals began coming forward and providing the funding for this project.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Give a village fishing boats, and you feed them for life.” — That little adaptation of the famous Chinese proverb became our motto for this project that has provided 156 boats to date to affected fishermen in the districts of Kanyakumari, Ramnad, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam.
Emotional Healing: The Tsunami exacted a heavy emotional toll on thousands of children who were left traumatized by the disaster. Many of them did not want to go anywhere near the sea again. Psychiatrists were unanimous in their opinion that one of the best ways to help these children was to play with them, conduct activities with them, let them return to school and just have fun with them.
In response, The Family India conducted a series of Emotional Healing programmes for these children in Cuddalore and Villupuram districts in Tamil Nadu. These programmes involved sports activities, group games, music, clowning and having fun with the kids. The children responded beautifully to these programmes! (Incidentally, Dr. Patch Adams, made famous by the movie of the same name, also employed a similar methodology in helping Tsunami-traumatized children in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.)
Seeing the dramatic impact the initial programmes made in the lives of the kids, the Collector of Cuddalore District officially requested The Family India to conduct as many Emotional Healing Programmes as possible in the villages where there had been a loss of life. In response, we did 17 Emotional Healing Programmes for over 6000 children in 17 villages. At each of these programmes, we gave useful gift items and prizes to every single child.
School Renovation and Rebuilding: The ocean water wrecked the walls of the only primary school building in Thalanguda village in Cuddalore district, thereby rendering it unfit for the children to study in. The Family India had the entire school building re-painted making it possible for the children to go back to school again.
Building Houses: The Family India, with the help of several donor agencies was able to provide 59 new houses to the residents of a Tsunami-affected village in Tamil Nadu called Ponanthittu. The Family India was also able to provide 5 new streets, a community hall and 3 shops to the village. 30 new houses were also built in Pondicherry.
New Schools: We were also able to provide a brand new two storey school building for the children of another Tsunami affected village in Tamil Nadu called Karankadu. This village houses over a thousand families. We have also built a Hostel for Children in this village where 150 students from distant areas can stay and attend school.
Organic Desalination: 60 acres of agricultural land were desalinated in Kandakaddu in Cuddalore district. This land was rendered useless by the flooding of Tsunami salt water. The desalination process was a completely organic process. Five 800 feet deep bore wells were sunk and the farmland was flooded with water that was pumped up through these bore wells. The land is now green and fertile again and growing ragi crops.
Teacher Training: The December 2004 Tsunami resulted in a large number of children dropping out of school and instead helping their families’ fishing businesses. In response, The Family India began a series of teacher training seminars at Tsunami affected schools in Tamil Nadu. The focus of these seminars was to help the teachers to get these kids back in school again. Our teams trained the school teachers in the use of innovative audio-visual learning aids produced by The Family India.
