Diary of a Tsunami relief work (Jan 2005)

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Five different people, one goal in mind - to help the people who lost everything except their lives in Tsunami and bring the livelihood back in their lives.

Suchitra is a social worker based in Bangalore. She worked really hard to set everything up for us including contacting AID (full name – Association for India’s development?), getting requirement, gathering funds and purchasing items for relief work. AID is the organization that..

So far, around a month has passed since the devastating Tsunami struck. Many NGOs and volunteer organizations are helping in providing victims with clothes, food items. We asked them what specific items are needed at this point in time and they told us to get study material for children since the state level high school exams are nearing. So we took around 4 boxes of study materials and some toys for kids.

We started the journey from Bangalore on Friday afternoon around 3pm. We reached Pondicherry around 9:30 in the night. We were going to World science forum (WSF), an organization that is organizing relief work for the Tsunami affected villages. We handed over the books that we had brought from Bangalore to them.

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The volunteer from WSF, Pondicherry guided us to visit M.G.R Thittu and Muddukutturai villages in Cuddalore district. The nearest unaffected village to these two villages is Killai. Most of the relief work starts from here. We handed over the toys to the relif center in Killai. All the people who lost their homes have been given shelter here. We met a girl who survived Tsunami along with her family. She took us around the area to see the destruction and shared her experience. It was such a horrific sight that I will never be able to forget it.

M.G.R Thittu Village

The village M.G.R Thittu, is an island; we went there in a boat. Around 180 people died here during Tsunami. It is completely empty now. As we walked along, we saw broken boats, broken fishing nets, broken boat engines, pieces of brick walls, wooden , pieces of broken huts, lots of coconut tree leaves, utensils, etc. It was clear that these people were living a reasonably comfortable life. They had all modern facilities in their houses including TV, fridge, cane furniture, etc. Now, everything has been ruined. There is no means of any livelihood left.

Muddukutturai village

This is the village, from where you can reach MGR Thittu through a boat. We were able to see the massive destruction with our bare eyes. The water had come up to 4 kilometers inland. Small lakes had formed at several places. All houses made of clay and bamboos have been wiped out. The school was setup in a tent and people moved to their relatives’ and friends’ houses.

A lady shared her survival experience, her house was wiped out and she was buried in mud, covered completely with the broken things of her house, clothes taken away by the Tsunami waves. She had to remove the mud and broken sticks with her hand to come out and someone gave her clothes to wear. According to her, government is giving 6000 Rs and 4kg of rice, 3 kg kerosene, and stove. Everything else is coming from volunteer NGOs. She was asking for clothes for her children. Certain people in the village don’t have any places to stay. The government provided shelter is very small, 6X10 feet, made up of aluminum sheets and prone to extreme weather. The permanent shelter will be constructed next year. These people were very much in shock and not willing to speak to anyone.

We tried our hand at learning a few tamil words like ‘vangi kongu’ (please take it) and distributed some household stuff and goodies to the villagers. I felt very happy to see smile on the faces of children and women.

Vadakumudasolodai village

This is again an island village. According to the people, the sea water rose up to 15 feet during the Tsunami. The water tank was completely broken into pieces. The 7 feet high pump was covered with sand. Still we were seeing lots of sand-dunes near the beach. Main destruction here is they lost their boats and fishing nets. The fisherman's daily life is almost 24 hours in the sea, looking out for a big fish to earn a big chunk of money. Now, they are doing nothing besides eating and sleeping, to bring back their lives back as before Tsunami is a big challenge for them. since, some of them are still afraid to go back near the sea, even if they go, they have to go really deep in the sea in search a big fish, since the waves have taken away lots of sea-lives as well. Biggest question, how they will go fishing? Since their boats and fishing nets are useless right now either broken or completely eaten by Tsunami waves!

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We accepted the challenge to bring livelihood in the fisherman's life and get them back to as they were before Tsunami. First thing in the morning was to meet the village people and talk to them and get the facts straight. How can we help them?