Dear Friends,

I guess everyone by now knows about the tidal wave that struck TN, AP, 
Srilanka, etc.  I was  travelling on the East coast road when the tidal wave 
- lots of people rushed out.  Didn't realize the scale of the problem. 
Then went to the Marina and the slums nearby - all washed out !

In Chennai - 3 places where we are focussing our efforts - Slums near Marina,  
Mylapore,  Tiruvanmiyur - these are the places where our volunteers live and 
where we are starting relief  efforts.

In Cuddalore - KPN has gone to see the level of damage - from news reports it looks like 
a lot of villages in PArangipettai block have been affected badly.  It seems to be 
second largest affected dist.

In Nagai - Vidyarambam (another grp) AID India is working with has most 
of its centers and Mr. Ranganathan has gone there to see what needs
 to be done.  Already about 1000 people are dead in this dist alone.

We still don't know fully what needs to be done.  The current focus is on rescue operations - 
searching for lost people.  The police and army is working on this. 

One thing that is clear when we talked to people affected is shelter - but this is not 
something that we can do immediately.  We will need to work on this over the next
 two weeks.  We have started collecting clothes - they will be needed over the
 next two days.  Food supplies for tonight are being arranged by the govt... possibly we 
will have to start our food relief within a few days. 

Main focus needs to be ensuring govt relief reaches people and also some
 critical areas like rebuilding shelters for the poorest who are affected.

We have started collecting donations for the relief work in Chennai and TN - local 
cheques can be made to AID-Chennai (or AID-India).  Foreign contributions
 must be made in the name of AID-India and sent to:

AID-India
Old No 132, New No 242, Avvai Shanmugam Road
Gopalapuram, Chennai - 600 086
Ph: 044- 28350403, 28115058

Clothes collected can be dropped off in the AID office in Chennai - it will be distributed 
over the next few days.

Thanks for the help.
Balaji Sampath

AID-JeevanSathi