---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Two Truck load of relief materials were off-loaded at Sirgazhi with supply of provisions for the community kitchen being managed by the volunteers team there and medicines for the field work. This kitchen is feeding about 600 people. 2. The Thiruvarur
team has been assessing the village level damage and will come up with
the numbers for the village restoration in the next few days.Shamaj Shilpis
volunteering with the Tiruvarur base camp have also been assisting other
NGOs in the region in damage assessment and counselling work. 5. Shanmuga in Chennai has information on the kind of vaccines required for volunteers along with where to get them same done and the costs. Volunteers for the field, particularly for construction and other physical activity are advised to consult the local groups regarding the vaccine needs and they can contact Shanmuga (09444183955) in Chennai to get vaccinated. 6. At Chennai, the entire day has been spent by a large team of volunteers in segregating, packaging and labelling the collected relief materials. Though there has been an earlier request to avoid sending old clothes and repeated media projection of the old clothes being thrown away, these keep piling up at the Gandhi Study Centre. Some of these is being exchanged for utensils now. 7. There has been a stream of requests for volunteering today from many individual, some of these have been routed to the chennai sorting of relief material, whereas those who wanted to commit long duration have been requested to stay in touch so that they can leave for the field work. 4 IIT students who have accompanied the earlier trucks will stay and work in Sirgazhi for a couple of days. 8. Sri. Vijay, who is volunteering on a short term mission of looking out for dead bodies and giving them a burial in Poompuhar has managed to discover 4 more dead bodies amidst the water logged town. He has also utilised some earth moving equipments to make way for water to drain back into the sea so as to look for more dead bodies. 9. Late in the evening Sri. Sathyamurthy along with other NGO leaders has had a meeting at the Collectorate and they have informed that this network of organisations will work in about 12 village panchayats (further details awaited) for relief and rehabilitation work initially. 10. The offer to help from across the world is really overwhelming. There are too many people reaching out and it is very difficult to even start listing the hundreds of phone calls and e-mails many of the team members have been receiving. All we can say is a big thanks to the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. IMMEDIATE:
Government have approved for community kitchens to be managed by NGOs.
At Tiruvarur, the team has requested for the following requirements in
3 villages. . The Requirements are
as follows: 2. Bharathi Women
Development Centre has identified the following relief measures immediately
apart from initiating field assessment. Food packet for a family of 4
for 15 days for a total of 250 families, totalling in all about 1000 beneficiaries.
3. The Sirgazhi planning
team consisting of Mrs. Subhashini Sridhar and Bhuvan Pathak has estimated
a temporary shelter / hut based on locally available natural material
can be erected at a cost of Rs. 2500/-, including labour. Though this
is a budget on the lower side, this team is confident that if the locals
were to participate in re-construction activity this is not impossible.
They have the following construction of temporary huts / shelters: 2. Ms. Uma from Suyam Trust has called us for relief. She and her team are working in Akkarapattu Panchayats in Nagapattinam, she has set-up a community kitchen and she has adequate rice and volunteers, but is short on other provisions. She is soon sending us a request on the exact list of provisions that she requires. 3. Suyam Trust has also declared its intentions to be involved in reviving educational activity on the field. They have a team of 20 volunteers who are trying to visit the relief camps and involve children there in some educational activity. They also want support in procuring educational material for children. 4. Ms. Mercy (9444318400) of CESVI contacted us and would like assistance in getting tents (about 1200 out of which for 500 she already has sponsors at Rs. 750/- a piece), trunk boxes, utensils. She and her team are trying to work in Poompuhar, Semponnar Kovil, Vellakovil, Trancobar, Chandrapudli, Kadeindiyoor, etc., 5. Sri. Shanmugavadivelu
and his team from Thirutharaipoondi have initiated village level survey
of damage and assessment. Their earlier request for household kitchen
vessel sets are being packaged and kept ready at Chennai. However, he
has requested for these to be sent a couple of days later as by then the
villagers would start to move back towards their villages. Prayer Meeting for the health of the surviving victims of the tsunami is being organised in Chennai by the Kanchi Kamakoti Peeta Bhaktar Samajam. Prayers will be offered for the health and welfare of the surviving victims of the tsunami and also prayers offered for the departed souls. Date and Time: Sunday,
2nd January 2005, between 4-6 p.m. This Samajam (our
field coordinator Sri. Sathyamurthy is also the coordinator for this Samajam)
has provided immediate relief for over 500 people in 4 villages beyond
Kovalam on the ECR, consisting of blankets, vegetables, clothing, vessels
for the community kitchen. Currently the Samajam is trying to organise
for the fishing nets for these families of fishermen so that they can
resume their normal life within the next 2 weeks. |
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