Hi All,

Some progress has happened subsequent to the meeting of 09012005:

a)      The total material logistics is taken care of by Yuvaraj and Team with a free pickup also arranged. Yuvaraj can be reached on 98440 54600

b)      The volunteer coordination is being handled by Shrinath. He is reachable on 9845337074

c)      The old clothes have been exchanged for money

d)      A website / communication / media team is in place now for information flow. A web based central information center is being planned to facilitate the flow of information like requirements of volunteer/material, also innovative projects etc., If you want to contribute in some way to this effort. Get in touch with Dinesh 98440 36961 ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Amit Sharma 98440 25743 ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

e)      The media team is being coordinated by Anamika ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Arvind Athreya (98867 72426)

The action points that emerged out of the collective are mentioned under the corresponding heads:

General:

1. Volunteering: Yuvaraj and Shrinath outlined the need for structuring the volunteers into different categories like Tamil speaking, non-Tamil, Indian, outside, technology oriented, medical etc., and also depending on the availability of the volunteers like short term, weekend, non site based, long term etc., Shrinath emerged as the coordinator for local volunteering and Girish for overseas volunteering

1. Materials: There was a discussion on the material requirement and solutions were found for old clothes and the group decided that it would exchange old clothes for money. Also it was decided that since the relief phase was getting over there was no necessity to dump the materials but would be a targeted donation in which the materials would be sent as segregated stuff. Yuvaraj became the material coordinator

1. Website and Documentation: Anamika, a volunteer who came to AID thro’ tsunami agreed to be a key person for website, documentation and media as she has experience in the same.

1. Long term Rehabilitation ideas that emerged out of the Brainstorming of the group

i.                     Disaster Management: It was felt that this was one of the long term measures which could be undertaken with some of us getting training on the mgt of disasters so that mgt of disasters could be easier

ii.                   Education: Some of the ideas on this were:

                                                           A.      Joy of learning classes for the kids affected: Make learning joyful for the kids, but this was discussed not as an immed.

                                                           B.      Running of Support centers: Support centers to be run so that kids could be given tution on the various subjects as the exams were just 3 months away

                                                           C.      Playing with kids: Some people came up with the idea of using drawing, toys, crayons, etc., as a way of playing with children and it was tried out by some volunteers the previous week

                                                           D.      Sanitation in Schools

                                                            E.      School infrastructure and support in which things like notebooks etc., could be got

iii.                Health:

                                                           A.      Community health in the form of sanitation etc., to be promoted actively

                                                           B.      Water issues to be given the importance

                                                           C.      Medical vols to be diverted to do community health training work etc.,

iv.                 Technology Issues:

                                                           A.      People could offline work on the water technologies for purification of water. It was mentioned that a group has been formed for looking at this issue

                                                           B.      People could start working on Construction technology issues

                                                           C.      Facilitate easy flow of Information

v.                  Shelter

                                                           A.      People could work on the technology of low cost shelters for the temporary dwellings etc.,

                                                           B.      It was discussed that there were technological issues involved regarding housing etc., and people need to work on these

vi.                Livelihood issues

                                                           A.      Issue of the boats, fishing nets and catamarans and how to support the efforts in ensuring these are delivered to the people without being an alternative service provider was discussed.

                                                           B.      Alternative livelihood issues for the non-fishing community was discussed

                                                           C.      Also the issue of Self Help group trusts to be formed where people could be provided support in the form of soft loans for livelihood were also discussed (Creation of Post office accounts?)

                                                           D.      Insurance Awareness was another aspect that came up.

vii.                Community Entertainment in the form of TV or games etc., were discussed

viii.              Some of the very important issues which were common and relevant to the ones discussed above were

                                                           A.      The issue of engaging with the government without us becoming the alternative service provider. Dialogue with the govt and establishing relationship with the government officials was also stressed. Some volunteers even volunteered for facilitating the same.

                                                           B.      The Disengagement plan when we would feel that the community is sufficiently empowered to take care of its rights

                                                           C.      As part of the flow of information it was also discussed to do an “Agency Profiling” in which the information is collected as to what the various other organizations are planning to do and create a database of the same.

As we see from the above overall some of the ideas that have come are really innovative and act as the action points to the perspective report of Balaji and the fact that around 35 of us participated in evolving this also adds a plurality to this

That’s it for now

Prasanna

Appendix : First version of how activities can be taken up. Note that more activities can be added as and when discovered.