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AID Orissa team visits Chennai. |
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Brief Report on Four days at AID India's Tsunami Relief Camp at Perumalpettai
- A report by Dhanada Mishra
Sunil and I boarded the Coromandal express on the 11th January from
Bhubaneswar with a manual interlocking block machine headed for
Channai. We arrived in Chennai on 12th evening and headed for the AID
office in Gopalpuram. We found ourselves in the middle of a very busy
Tsunami relief coordination center in company of volunteers from all
over India and abroad as well as full-timers of AID Chennai. After some
initial discussions with Balaji Sampath, Ravi Shankar and others, the
plan was to board the first truck the next day with relief materials
and volunteers headed for the Pondicherry relief camp and then on to
Thirukadayur in Nagapattinam district.
The next day, several of us loaded the truck first at the AID office
and then at the ware house with relief materials until there was just
enough space left for 6-8 of us which included Morgan and Cathleen from
Canada, Peter from Germany and a couple of American volunteers. The
driver who spoke barely any English was our only guide. We left Chennai
late in the evening and arrived in the Pondicherry office around 10 Pm
or so and immediately headed for Thirukadayur where we were to be
received by my good friend Peter Bakos (AID Orissa full time
violunteer) who had already camped there for over a week.
We arrived at Thirukadayur in the wee hours and woke Peter up from his
well-deserved rest and got ourselves accommodated in a local lodge
after unloading the materials in the truck. In the morning, we loaded a
jeep with our block making machine and left for the village
Perumalpettai about 7-8 kms away. This was on the 14th of January -
already close to 3 weeks from the day the Tsunami hit. As we closed in
on the coastal settlement, the devastation was all around us to witness
in spite of the significant efforts that had already gone in to the
massive clean-up operation. Roads had been cleaned up as had been the
houses - partially or fully damaged. The temporary shelters were under
construction at a fast pace at each of the villages we passed by.
Electricity had been restored as had been the water supply. The
Tamilnadu state government must be given the full credits for moving in
quickly with the massive relief and rehab effort.
Perumalpettai is a village of about 300 odd families with about 1200 or
so people. Thirty Two precious lives had been lost in the village
including several children and women. The devastation to property in
form of houses, boats and other infrastructure was clearly visible all
around. It was a prosperous village for sure. More than the physical
damage, the psychological damage was enormous and would take much
effort to repair. Clearly the worst part of the rescue, relief and
clean up was almost at its end. We were in the beginning of the phase
II and that is the rehabilitation phase. One could still feel an ever
present need for being with the people to help them re-build their
lives and contribute in ways whatsoever small may be as a way of much
needed counseling and trauma mitigation.
Peter had already started working with a small group of enthusiastic
youngsters of the village who had enrolled themselves to get their boat
engines repaired and in the process improve their own skills. This was
after reassurance by the administration that their compensation for the
damages would not be affected even if they chose to repair their boats
and engines on their own and even resumed fishing on their own.
Progress was slow but steady and more importantly kept the youngsters
busy with something constructive, which was so essential. The first
engine that came back to life was such a morale booster for all of us
after much drama and several attempts. The team kept the engine running
in the background to use the engine noise as background music to
motivate them to work.
After taking a stock of the general village situation and talking to a
number of key people such as the village head - Mr. Rajashekharan, we
set up the block-making machine in front of the make-shift repair shop
that Peter had established. Mr. Rajshekharan was a prosperous fisherman
who provided the much-needed support to the village in terms of
storage, transport and marketing of their catch. He had lost a lot in
way of infrastructure he had built up over the years including his
warehouse, residence etc. But he was lucky to have had his family in
tact and grateful for the same and made sure he was available to
provide help to all the villagers as required. As he described the
morning of the Tsunami and how he was a bit further away from his house
and saw it being washed away along with his family even as he was
trying to run across the fields to reach them, his eyes were moist and
so were mine. In that moment of sincere empathy, I felt my trip had
been worth it if only it had given the man a moment of solace.
More than any immediate help, the block making activity was meant more
as a way of assisting the local in building some level of self-reliance
in terms of building materials which will be necessary in large
quantities for the upcoming re-construction phase. The interest in our
activities was instantaneous and we were surrounded by curious
onlookers and eager youngsters keen to find out more about this
alternative building block technology and lend a helping hand. While a
few of us went around setting up the production of blocks, Cathleen
played with the children and later on Peter and Morgan took up digging
of pits for temporary toilets. Sunil and others fixed up a hand pump
near by so that water could be available for our activities. By day 4,
we had successfully made about 20 or so test blocks and repaired the
hand pump, dug a couple of pits for temporary toilets and played with a
lot of children and talked to many of the villagers. The administration
represented by officials, politicians, government engineers had been
appreciative of our work and had even promised all necessary help to
promote this kind of alternative building technology. Several youth
signed up to be trained in Building center activities and
enthusiastically partook in production activity.
As I prepared to leave Perimalpettai against my own desire, I left with
Peter the drawings for the machines so that more can be locally
fabricated with the assistance of Alok - AID volunteer with good
mechanical engineering skills who was expected shortly. I was sad to
part company with strangers who had become close friends and shared
beds, lunch, dinner, jokes, digging mud and much more. I would miss the
kind face of Danny - the Belgian Buddhist Monk, Terry and Jennifer -
the American couple with adventurous and ever optimistic tells to share
at the end of each day, Anand, Shyam and others from Bangalore who
provided much needed Tamil interpretation support while at the same
time lending a helping hand as and when required and most of all our
energetic, hard working DYFI volunteers who were ever so helpful to
meet all our needs.
I am sure that these four days have been as much of learning for me as
it has been an occasion to give a little back to a community in its
darkest moment of grief. I hope that AID will continue as planned to
work for months if not years to come in these chosen few villages that
we have adopted and build with peoples help programs that will benefit
the community in the long run. For Perumalpettai particularly I would
like to suggest the following;
? Boat Engine Repair Workshop and SHG of Mechanics
? Building Center and SHG of Trainees
? Establishment of a small nursery
? Undertake plantation in all strategic location between the sea and the village
? Build up the sand mound with appropriate vegetation as a barrier against Tsunami and high tide etc
? Undertake remediation of saline soil and suitable plantation such as Casurina or Jatropha etc.
? Set up village sanitation program including toilets and compost pits
? Other AID programs such as Children's activity center, science promotion etc.
Click here for images of the visit.
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