Details of Immediate Relief Work

Dead body removal and debris clearance

This was done in all the 62 villages in Nagai and Cuddalore. This was a tough job and most other groups did not want to get into it.  The villages were stinking with the smell of rotting bodies and dirty mud from the Tsunami. This was therefore a priority.  Volunteers in Nagai and Cuddalore worked on this for the first two weeks. At first the villagers refused to go into the village, slowly as they saw our volunteers working, they began to follow them and then began to participate and help out in the clearing process.  Initially the volunteers did this work manually. After a while, we arranged with the government to bring in earth moving machines to clear the bigger debris. Cleaning up their villages also helped in bringing back a sense of normalcy into people’s mind.

Relief Distribution

Every day volunteers would go to each village, note down the names and numbers and bring the relief materials from the stocking points and distribute the supplies. The first few days the confusion over distribution had taught them the need to organize this well and systematically. The needs on the ground were changing every day – and relevant information was passed on to our collection volunteers. We started with supplying blankets, clothes, food, milk powder and water. (Even old clothes – clean and ironed ones – people were very happy to accept. It was just that most people dumped soiled clothes in the relief camps.) As the need changed, we then focused on women and children’s clothing. Within a couple of days, in many places we started community kitchens – several families cooking together.  This allowed the families to get some control over what they ate – instead of the “mass-meals”.