Please find below the narration of our `first hand experience and feedback’ on the tsunami impact and relief work.
After listening to onsite feedback from different people, We have chosen villages around Poompuhar for the initial field work. Poompuhar is about 20 kms from Mayiladuthurai. 8 of us joined from Chennai and travelled to Poompuhar on the New Year day. We carried with us relief material in a truck donated by different individuals and also purchased using the Cash collected.
The first issue faced by us is a new guidelines issued by DSP of Nagapattinam District. All relief material were blocked at the checkpost at the district border and were ordered to deliver the relief material only at Nagapattinam Collector Office or Mayiladuthurai Taluk office. We don?t understand the justification behind this retrograde step taken by the district administration.
We took the truck to the tahsildhar?s office and somehow convinced them to release the truck direct to the village on an undertaking that we would not cause any `law and order? problem. This definitely dampens the spirit of the volunteers.
We made some assessment in the camps and finalized on a village called `Keezhamoovarkarai?. This village is about 12 kms from Poompuhar. There is a small motorable road to the village and one town bus plies from Sirkali. There were about 95 deaths reported from this single village. There are about 500 families affected and are dependent on aid in this village. We could see the devastation of tsunami in this village.
All bodies were removed before we could go over there but household articles were lying scattered for about 1 km from the shore. Such is the ferocity of tsunami that we could see some broken boats at about 0.5 km from the coastline in the middle of the road. Boats, Fishing Nets, Houses were completely destructed. We moved to tears when we saw a small house completely destructed with one family photo lying in the debris.
We could observe that the relief material is `pouring in? from different parts of the country and there is no dearth of relief material. Only problem is the camp management. Most of the camps are administered and managed by village heads and volunteers. There is no organized effort on this front. Relief distribution has the following logistics problems
It is very difficult to distinguish `severely affected? from `not so much affected?. It is `Free for All? normally.
Those who have muscle power manage to get the relief material repeatedly and thus the aid does not reach the needy.
Some of the affected people managed to move to some relatives houses in nearby town and they would also need to be rehabilitated.
Please do not carry any OLD CLOTHES to any of the relief camp.
Camp management in ’Keezhamoovarkarai? is doing a very good work of controlling the crowd and distributing the relief material. They cook food everyday and serve the people. They have also started a new initiative of identifying all the affected, categorizing the affected families and giving a `Roaster book? for all the affected families. The roaster book was made in different colours to show the intensity of the damage. We chose the `Severely Affected? families from the roaster books. We have also delivered some common material to the camp management for `day-to-day? management.
We took some relief material to two other camps in Poompuhar ie `Nagarathar Viduthi? and `Government School?. Both these camps are managed by the government. It was a totally different experience in these camps. When we were downloading some material in the Government School camp, all people in the camp surrounded our vehicle and started pleading for relief material. Slowly, they started begging and then started ransacking the aid material. It was a pitiable scene and also an embarrassing situation. We did not want to create confusion in the camp and ran away from the place. We were helpless in helping them.
We could feel the `overpowering desire? to help from the relief material `pouring in? from different parts of the country/world. Trucks and Lorries are rushing continuously to the affected villages. There is no need for further relief material. What is most essential now is the rehabilitation of the affected people. They are now getting used to live with the help of relief but they should soon get back to their regular livelihood. Government has announced some measures for building houses and also some compensation for the properly loss. That itself is not enough. It is a gigantic task and private participation is very much required.
To speak honestly the private sector enthusiasm remains only for few days. What is required now is long term rehabilitation assistance? There are different requirements for rehabilitation such as Construction of Houses, Buying the essentials like fishing nets, boats, etc, Books & Accessories for the affected children, etc. Most of the relief measures are focused on fisherman but there are many others who were also indirectly affected. Sea Water has come in and damaged crop in some of the cultivable lands. Added to that, these lands would not be cultivable for few more years as Salt Water has damaged the soil. These people would also require help. It is a mammoth task!!
To start with, we have collected the list of about 10 stdents (primarily from 9th and 10th standard) from the government high schoold in the village whose houses were affected by the tsunami. I would try to identify the quantum of assistance required if we have to sponsor the education for these students and how do we reach the assistance to the students. We cannot reach it to them as cash. I would organize the methodology.
We had first hand experience of meeting some `kind hearted? individuals you could help them indirectly.
Mr.Ravi or MNR Traders, Managai Madam village. Affected villagers stayed in their godown for the first 3 days and he fed the people from their own source of income for 3 days. He continues to spend time in networking the relief agencies to the affected people directly.
Mr.Iyyappan of Ambica Stores, Mangai Madam village. He is the primary contact point in Managai Madam to route the relief material to the affected camps around this place and ensure proper distribution of relief material.
Mr.Ganapathi Subramanian. He is a practicing Auditor in Karaikal town. He networks with different relief agencies. He receives the relief material in his place, Lists and Sorts the material and reach the material to the camps as per the requirement. He has a database of different relief camps with contacts and what is the requirement in each of the camp. He contacts volunteers from his database and manage the logistics of getting the relief material.
Mr.P.G.Saravanan(09883674750) He is with the affected people from 26th December 2004. He moves from an affected village to another affected village. He streamlines the relief assistance to all the affected villages.
DYFI. Running relief camps at many of the affected villages. They are doing an excellent work and they have already started measures for rehabilitation.
Vivekanda College. They have done a very good work especially in the difficult areas of Body Removal, Cleaning, etc.
RSS and Sevabharathi . Doing very good work in many of the affected villages especially tough jobs like Body Removal and Disposal, Sanitation, etc.