Brief Report on Four days at AID India’s Tsunami Relief Camp at Perumalpettai

(From Dhanada) 

Sunil and I boarded the Coromondol express on the 11^th January from Bhubaneswar with a manual interlocking block machine headed for Channai. We arrived in Chennai on 12^th 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 14^th 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.