TTRI - Update 11

3. Updates on Long Term Work as reported in the TTRI follow-up meeting on 25th March 2005
People Present:
Mrs. Lakshmi, Mrs. Angelica, Mrs. Shanthi Krishna of sankashti Foundation, Mr. Nagesh Volunteer of Ramakrishna Mission, Mr. A.L. Rangarajan representing RIM (Rejuvenate India Movement), Exnora and ILP, Mr. Annamalai of Gandhi Study Centre, Mr. Karthik Venkatesh and Mr. Balamurugan of CIOSA Network, Mr. Ram (presenting work of CCD, GSS and others) and Mrs. Rama of Samanvaya.

Karthik Venkatesh on CIOSA's role:
- CIOSA has decided to withdraw from the active tsunami relief and rehabilitation work as it is unable to cope with its existing programmes and the tsunami work simultaneously
- the funds collected by CIOSA to the tune of Rs. 4 lakhs has been distributed amongst 11 NGOs involved in tsunami relief
- CIOSA has organised couple of counseling workshops for NGOs on basic counseling techniques in which about 30 NGO representatives participated
- the counseling material translated into Tamil by CIOSA is being used by various NGOs including the Christian Council
- the volunteers who are getting in touch with CIOSA are being redirected to other agencies

Shanthi Krishna on Sankashti Foundation:
- the Foundation has been constituted and registered as a public charitable trust
- the Foundation will have IT clearance in the next few weeks
- it would concentrate on adopting and rebuilding village schools in the tsunami affected areas
- it is also interested in providing support for students of age 3 -15 rendered helpless due to the tsunami and seeks information on any such cases from organisations involved in the relief and rehabilitation work

Nagesh on the work carried out by Sri Ramakrishna Math and Mission:
- the Mission has been involved in the relief efforts from the day the tsunami affected the coast when it provided immediate food and clothing needs for the fishermen; it had also provided accommodation to the fishermen during the initial days
- the mission also had provided continuous medical help through medical camp in many areas
- it has provided domestic needs including utensils and other needs for more than 7000 families in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Chennai during the first couple of weeks
- since the initial days it has stopped distributing materials as it realised the glut in the relief materials
- currently the mission is concentrating on providing help for the fishermen to revive their livelihood by helping them to procure fishing nets and boats
- the mission has placed an order for 340 fibre boats in Kanyakumari, Nagarcoil and Chennai to replace the boats lost. Wherever there are existing boats or catumarams to be repaired, these are also being undertaken by groups supported by the mission
- he mentioned how the fishermen have very specific requirements and do not accept all boats, some of the issues include the need for the boats to be of certain horse power range, brand of engine for which there are ready spares and repair available in their areas, the kind of boats that are easy to navigate, etc.
- the mission has made it a policy to only provide boats for groups (as it existed earlier) rather than individuals, this is to avoid distribution of too many boats in a single location
- the mission has continuous contact with the local panchayat, collectorate and the fisheries department
- in Vadakkumudasalodai village in cuddalore district, the mission has purchased 10 acres of land about 1 km. from the earlier village location, this land would be distributed and registered in the name of 104 families from the village which have been affected and which need permanent housing to be constructed. Once the government permission is obtained, the construction of houses will commence in the new location.

Lakshmi (she has been independently helping fishermen villages along the East Coast Road):
- the health of the fishermen is going down as their staple diet (fish) has not been available for them since the tsunami
- while the government is still vacillating about the compensation, the waiting game is making the fishermen restless and angry with the government and everyone
- the promotion of women's SHGs and alternate employment among women by NGOs is also viewed with suspicion by some fishermen, they feel that if the women get comfortable doing tailoring and other home based occupations, they may not take part in the more physically demanding fish trading once the fishing activity commences
- the kula Panchayat has decided that it would go on a large scale protest if the government does not make up its mind about the permanent settlement and boats compensation soon enough
- Koonimedu on the ECR is a ghost village with absolutely no relief available thus far
- Alaikuppam is another village with a large fishing community (about 700 families) where no relief material has reached
- it is also disturbing to hear from many fishermen who have ventured into the sea, that the catch has come down in the shallow waters as the underwater life forms (which attract fish) have reduced, and there are large sand dunes underwater; small fishermen cannot venture too far into the sea and any way the trawlers carry away all the big catch in deep sea; ecological restoration of the balance in the underwater life forms has to be initiated

Angelika (she has been directing funds from Germany directly to fishing communities along the ECR where she lives):
- Rs. 13 lakhs money disbursed for boats and nets for different fishing communities so far
- she has mobilised and sent support for institutions and organisations genuinely involved in relief and rehabilitation work such as the Sarada Ashram, Ulundurpet (doing work in the Cuddalore District)
- she has also been visiting and helping the villagers in Koonimedu in Villupuram District; it was decided at this point that Shanthi Krishna through the Sankashti Foundation would try and help in the revival of the educational activities in the school at Koonimedu
- she is also helping the Ekkikuppam people with building of toilets for their houses
- she opined that it would be best to support individual volunteers who want to work with specific village communities rather than organisations that look at long term involvement in a village
- she also mentioned about some villages where community kitchens have been set up. At this point Nagesh mentioned about the villages where community kitchens based in public places and temples have been functioning successfully in many parts

Rangarajan (heads the RIM work in the tsunami hit areas and also advises other agencies including ILP and Exnora):
- RIM is working with the network of NGOs formed in the early days of the TTRI initiative, about 8 of the 14 NGOs based in Tiruvarur continue to work together with advise and support from RIM
- Round Table India has made a Rs. 6 Crore project to reconstruct schools in any of the villages in the affected areas, they would consider the cases in collaboration with the Directorate of Schools and will repair the schools during the summer holidays (which is normally between mid-April and June)
- RIM will be involved in long term rehabilitation work in 10 villages in the tarangambadi taluk in nagapattinam district, out of which 6 fishing villages and 4 are agricultural villages
- as there are long term issues in agricultural villages, there needs to be a long term commitment from the NGO involved
- 40% victims of the tsunami are non-fishing communities, this is often not factored in by those who are involved in the relief work
- RIM is looking at relief measure in different phases, it is supported by an Ireland based funding agency GOAL, in all 841 families have been identified and surveyed
- family relief packages worth Rs. 3500/- each, to the tune of Rs. 35 lakhs have been distributed
- he highlighted a case where the fishermen through their community Panchayat have stalled the distribution of relief material to non-fishing communities
- in the rehabilitation phase, RIM will be involved in education, providing special bridge course for school dropouts in the fishing villages where the dropout rate is high
- RIM will also provide awareness on disaster management for vulnerability groups in the villages (RIM is organising a national level seminar on disaster management in April 19-20 in Chennai)
- it would also provide infrastructure and other supplementary help on a case to case basis to educational institutions
- it would also work on providing livelihood through community enterprises of CBOs
- RIM would work on promoting alternate livelihood through women's SHGs in villages as a supplementary income
- it would also be involved in providing eGovernance in villages and early disaster warning system through IT
- RIM will be involved for the relief and rehabilitation activity in the next 2 years, about 5 youth from the villages have been identified to lead the operations, they will be provided training and orientation over a 2 day programme in Chennai on the 1st and 2nd of April
- India Literacy Programme (ILP) maybe taking up livelihood related work in the coastal villages of Tuticorin in Vembar village, where though there is not much life and property damage, livelihood has been affected
- the RIM field team consists of 10 full-time members
- Exnora (with a 32 people field team) has been providing inputs on sanitation and solid waste management in all the villages in collaboration with various NGOs, it has also been providing livelihood based skill training in the villages across the state on a need basis, these include boat engine repair, coconut thatch making, etc.

Ram (is involved with the CCD initiative in Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari):
- 3 organisations on which we have some information:
1. CIKS, which was involved in the early days of the TTRI work may take up some activity for long term agricultural land reclamation in one village in the Nagapattinam District
2. MCRC, cattumarams (made of high density polypropylene) are in display in different collectorates and NGOs and groups involved in providing help for getting boats are welcome to take advantage of this and contact them
3. GSS, a Gujarat based NGO currently camping and working from Sirgazhi has been organising after schools in 10 villages in the Sirgazhi block, they intend to work in these villages till the end of June and then withdraw from the tsunami relief efforts. However, they are willing to support any group interested and willing to work in afforestation and conservation initiative in the coastal region