Reporting from Chennai about
the Relief efforts on the Tsunami hit areas. Please use the
information here to collect donations,clothes, medicines, write up
proposals for the rehab work, etc.
After the initial shock and
chaos, we are now quite well organized to handle the relief
efforts. A number of organizations have started working
together to handle the relief work - AID, TNSF, Pondicherry cience
Forum, DYFI, Vidyarambam, Pratham and the PHM Organizations. We
have formed a quick informal coalition to coordinate this work.
As of now the state level coordination is being done from the
AID-India office in Gopalapuram Chennai.
We are together
working on relief efforts in Chennai, Cuddalore and Pondicherry,
Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari.
The relief work is planned in 3
phases:
(1) Immediate Relief - food, clothing,
blankets, temporary shelter, medicines and health camps for
emergencies and epidemics
(2) Second Level Relief -
Construction of huts and houses and health needs
(3)
Third Level Relief - Livelihood needs for the families affected -
forming cooperatives and providing livelihood support like boats,
nets etc.
Right now all our focus in on the first phase.
In
Chennai - we have divided ourselves into 3 teams:
1.
Collection and Information Team: This team will handle calls,
receive donations of money, clothes, medicines, blankets and vessels
and send receipts, give information on the current status of relief
work. This team will also give out press releases, send
out email reports and call for further donations based on the
needs.
This is the team that
people from outside must contact.
The
people to
contact:
Bharati/Manohar/Hari (AID office - 044-28350403),
Ravishankar
(IIT Prof) (94440-84910),
Chandra Anil (9382330752,
044-28350403)
Smitha Kalyani (98401-73800)
Vibha Ravindran
(98402-63275)
Balaji Sampath (94440-61033, 28350403(O))
(I
- Balaji - may not be available for the next 4 days as I am going to
Nagai and Cuddalore to help with the field coordination.)
2.
Allocation and Distribution: This team will get the needs from
various field locations, sort the materials collected,
divide it
up for different locations based on the need and send it to the field
coordinators for distribution.
3.
Field Team: In each area we have a team of volunteers who will be
coordinating the relief efforts and distribution of
materials.
In
Chennai we have started the relief work in 5 areas:
Pattinampakkam
(Foreshore Estate)
Tiruvanmiyur and Olcott
Kuppam
Kottivakkam
Royapuram
In each area we have
allocated 2 people to coordinate with the distribution. These 2
people are taking down names of people, family survey, needs
surveyand what is being distributed. The idea is that this
individual rapport that is built will be useful in working with the
people over the next few months - ensuring rehabilitation and
livelihood as well.Every day as the collections are being done, the
field coordinators will go to the relief camps to provide the people
with what they need.
This is the plan everywhere - we work
with a community, get a rapport during the initial relief phase and
then work with them on the house constructions and livelihood rehab
phase.
In Nagapattinam district - which is the worst hit in
Tamilnadu - we have 3 organizations on the field working:
Tamilnadu Science Forum, Vidyarambam and DYFI. We are also trying to
get other orgns and the dist administration
into a joint
coordination effort. Many of our volunteers of who are
from fishing villages have died and so have many of the children
studying in the support centers. Ranganathan from Vidyarambam
left yesterday from Chennai with a van load of clothes and relief
materials. Locally DYFI and TNSF have collected some materials
and started the distribution. We
have sent them some
immediate funds and I will be taking more funds and relief materials
with me today.
In Cuddalore district - we have TNSF,
PSF and DYFI working together. A cholera epidemic seems to be
starting in both Cuddalore and Nagai - we are sending out preventive
information pamphlets and are also taking medicines for the people
there. Senthil Babu has gone there yesterday.
In
Kanyakumari - MALAR is coordinating the relief efforts. Many of
the villages where they are working have been washed away.
We have sent Rs. 30,000 yesterday and will be sending more.
I
am leaving in a truck with Charles, Damu and Jagdish - with the
relief materials collected here today. Will be leaving from AID
office by about 5:00 pm. I will first go to Pondicherry and then to
Cuddalore There we will meet with the local TNSF and DYFI and
other teams to plan the relief rehab work for the next 1-2 weeks.
Damu will stay there to continue helping with the work there as well
as to keeping giving the collection/allocation teams in Chennai info
about what is going on and what are the current needs. Then the truck
will go to Nagai and meet with the teams there - to plan out
a
joint relief coordination and also plan for the long term rehab work
needed. Charles and Jagdish will stay there for at least a week
or ten days and work with the teams there - and also send us back
information about what is happening.
AID Bangalore volunteers
have collected funds and a truck load of relief materials - they will
be coming to Nagai and Cuddalore directly today.
I am sending
some of the photos that we took yesterday at the Chennai relief
camps. You can use these for further collections.
What we need
in terms of collections:
1.
Money - lots of it - for buying quick relief materials as well as for
the long term. There are many people contributing and wanting
to contribute. Please collect it from people and send it to the
AID office:
Cheques can be made in the name of AID-India and sent
to:
AID-India
Old No 132, New No 242,
Avvai Shanmugam
Road
Gopalapuram, Chennai - 600 086
(In the US -
collections are being done by AID-US - you can contact
1-888-TALK-2-AID or 301-209-0508 for more details. Vibha is also
doing collections for this.)
2.
Clothes - particularly blankets
3.
Food - rice, wheat and dal - as grains for cooking and using over the
next one week.
4. Medicines
(antibiotics, ORS, bandages, cotton, etc - basic first aid).
5.
Doctors - people willing to stay in Nagai and Cuddalore and treat
people in health camps.
6.
Vessels
For the second and third phase we are planning on
community groups and cooperatives that will jointly construct housing
and buy boats, etc.
The total immediate relief budget (from my
initial estimate) is about Rs. 20 Lakhs. This may go up to
about Rs. 40 Lakhs. (This is what we need - ourselves and the
other NGOs and community groups that we are working apart
from
what the government is providing.)
The long term relief budget
needed is more than a few crores - but whatever we can get we can
make use of. One boat for 50 people costs about Rs. 1 Lakh.
We will need about 10 boats for each community and will be
working
with about 100 communities - a total of about Rs. 10
crores. Housing will cost about Rs. 50,000. There are more
than 50,000 people who need this help. You can calculate the
total budget required! We will of course also use the
government relief support and try to reach to the most needy. But in
spite of government funds, there will be a lot of need for rehab
support that we will need directly as well. Please use the
information above to raise funds and collect
the materials and to
send out appeals. You can also draft short proposals to submit
to your companies and other groups that may be able to give grants
for the above purposes.
There has so far been a great response
from all our volunteers and a lot of individuals from everywhere are
contacting us with offer for help. People from Bangalore,
villages in Vembakkam and Banavaram, Colleges in Chennai (Stella,
Ethiraj, IIT, etc), volunteers in the US, Software professionals,
people from slums in Chennai, people living in flats, people from
different NGOs, individuals, etc. But the scale of the problem
is so much that we will need all the help we can get.
We will
keep you updated with the information from the field
regularly.
Thanks a lot for all your help. If you need more
specific info please contact:
Ravishankar -
ravia@alumni.cmu.edu
94440-84910, 28350403
Chandra -
chanvish@yahoo.com
9382330752, 044-28350403
Smitha Kalyani -
smithakalyani@yahoo.com
98401-73800
Vibha -
vibha_ravindran@rediffmail.com
98402-63275
Balaji (me - after
4-5 days) - balaji_sampath@hotmail.com
94440-61033
Kalpana -
kalpa@vsnl.com
044-28361033