Just to give an idea of the diverse kinds of things collected and distributed, the following list was made by a volunteer involved in the collection drive:

Blankets, Bedsheets, Mats, Blouse Bit, Chudidar (12-20), Dhotis, Ladies Bra (32, 33 size), Lungis, Saris, Nightie (Free Size), Panties (Ladies), Petticoats, Shimmies, Shirts (size 42/41), Slippers (Children - all size), Adult Slippers, Towels, Chilli Powder (250 gm pkts), Coconut Oil (100ml), Dal (1 kg pkts), Biscuits (boxes), Oil (1L), Rice (1 kg), Rice Powder, Salt (1/4 kg pkts), Satthu Maavu(1 kg), Sugar (1/2 kg packets), Tamarind 200gm packets, Aluminium Panai (small), Annakudai (Aluminium), Ariva Manai (knife for cutting vegetables), Irumbu Saladai, Kodam / Pitchers, Muram, small Tiffin box, Stainless Steel Plate, Stainless Steel Tumblers, Stoves, Vettu Aruwal, Bleaching Powder, Buckets, Phenol (liters), Tooth Brushes, Tooth Paste, Tooth Powder, Washing Soap, Ink Pen, Long size note books, Pen, Pencils, School Bags, Toys, Color pencils, Crayons, Asbestos and Asphalt Sheets

Earlier we had collected Gum boots and gloves for the volunteers working on debris clearing, cameras for documentation, cell phones and old computers for the field volunteers for coordination and communication, and later medicines and chlorine tablets, etc.

Because of the volunteer strength we had mobilized we were able to identify individual needs and requirements before supplying.  If some local group had distributed rice in a village, we would accordingly change what we supplied – and just provide them with dal, oil and sugar. This way we were able to optimize the donations of relief materials that we had collected. 

Donations of Relief Materials and Funds

It is hard to estimate the total value of the relief materials collected and supplied. The materials paid for, purchased and supplied is easy – this was about Rs. 30 Lakhs.  But much much more was directly collected and sourced from various donors. Volunteers went house to house to collect materials. In many places people locally collected the relief materials from all the neighbors and called us to collect these.  In many colleges across the city students formed groups and collected materials and helped load these into trucks. We estimate the value of the relief materials collected from individuals, colleges and small companies in Chennai to be about Rs. 45 Lakhs.

In addition to this we had great help from a number of businesses and companies.  Mr. Parthasarathy from Tirumalai Chemicals mobilized direct sourcing help from a large number of local companies (manufacturers and marketing companies) – to directly supply kitchen kits (vessels, stoves, plates, spoons, etc), buckets, sintex tanks, kodums, women’s clothes, chappals, biscuits, mats, bedsheets, etc. In all they supplied at least Rs. 50 Lakhs worth of relief materials.  In addition, through theosophical society they organized supplies of medicines. (Later, Tirumalai Chemicals independently also set up water desalination units (through reverse osmosis plants) in a number of villages which they have been running and maintaining.)

Several companies donated their products in bulk quantities. Colgate gave a huge number of toothpastes, toothpowders and brushes, HLL supplied grooming kits (soaps, shampoo, comb, powder), Motorola and Airtel donated a number of cell phones, sim cards and free airtime. Transworld provided a huge amount of rice, groceries and complete household kits. Apart from these bulk donations, volunteers from companies like Dupont, Standard Chartered, SCM Microsystems, Infosys (Sneham), Hexaware, Ashok Leyland, Accenture, Newgen, Airtel, Iflex, Citibank, CTS, KPMG, Satyam, Fedex, Lapiz digital, HCL Technologies, Tupperware, Wipro, etc would get lists of requirements from us each day and collect and supply us with the relief materials.  AID volunteers working in companies in Chennai and Bangalore and Hyderabad, also organized collections in their companies - Groceries, Kitchen items, bedsheets, mats, Instant foods, etc.  Together they supplied relief materials worth about Rs. 80 Lakhs.