first three days of work at Relief camps
Report generated on 31/12/2004
RELIEF WORK – TSUNAMI AFFECTED VICTIMS
Nagoor:
Out first place of visit of the affected areas was NAGOOR. Even before we could see the relief camps and the affected place we could see that the local groups (one of them Ghoudia association) had taken up the relief work. They reported that they had removed the corpses from the site, taken up cleaning the area. Help was reaching the area but they feared very less was done concerning the health related issues. They asked us if we could provide them with masks and gloves for the local volunteers, DISINFECTANTS, medicines for taking preventive measures against the spread of epidemic.
As Ms.Uma and few other went talking to Mr.Nizamuddin Ex MLA taking note of what was being done we went out to see a part of the affected area.
We talked to a youth there. He said the place was called SILLADI. He claims about 400 people dead in that area alone and even more corpses was reaching the shore as days went from the sea. The railway track was missing to a stretch of 300-400 meters. We also saw earth removers being used for clearing debris and cleaning the area. Bleaching powder was sprayed all over the streets. Water that had entered the village had mixed with the drain and people were trying to clean up the drain and remove stagnant water. We could see the mark left by water on the walls that had entered the village which was about 2 meters inside the village even 1-2 kms from the seashore. Other affected hamlets in that area were Patinachery, Kadalkarai line, south street. The affected were provided shelter in the DURGA at two different places.
Then we drove the BSNL exchange close the Canal at Nagoor.A Bridge that was at least a kilometer inside the shore was damaged. The strong waves had thrown streamliners over the Bridge. Later we were told by a local resident that streamliner thrown over the bridge was could allow very few people run across the damaged bridge to escape the rising water.
Nagapattanam:
As our vehicles drove past the Nagapattanam railway station we could see even big stream liners thrown by the strong tsunami wave, most of them damaged. Here in Nagapattanam we visited only the relief camp than the affected areas. Two days after the disaster very few were anywhere close to their hamlets. People belonging to even the same hamlet were put in many different relief camps across Nagapattanam and Thiruvarur.
Relief camp 1
The first Relief camp (Around 250-300 people) we had a visit was at a temple in VADUGAI POIKAYUR. This was for the people of the AKRAIPATTU panchayat (hamlets: Kallarai, akkraipatti (nadutheru), Poikayur) that had the most number of casualties. Not all of the panchayat were stationed at this relief camp. As we talked to the people, there are a lot of families (most of them big families with 7-10 members) that had lost all their belongings (House, Boats, Nets, their savings and jewelry) apart from few of their family members. SUYAM also found few children who had lost bread-earning member of their family. But we also found many of the children wanting to study. One such girl (16 year old) was concerned about appearing for her X std Board exam. She said that they had lost two teachers of their school and also all their Text Books and notebooks were washed off. The children were so keen that they even prepared a list of notebooks and books that they needed immediately. Their primary school that has classes from 1-5 was also damaged. About 20-30 children are supposedly dead and few missing. SUYAM has decided to take up children related issues and their education. We handed down our contact address at Chennai. Then we realized the need to get the help of a local NGO, a local volunteer from the relief camp to co-ordinate relief work especially for children. The immediate need for notebooks and textbooks were immediately conveyed to the SUYAM office at Chennai.
{Comment: Education (providing notebooks and textbooks, teachers) for children could be taken as a second phase of relief activity. But we the volunteers with SUYAM felt that providing them a temporary school at least could reduce the trauma of the children. All that the children were doing at the relief camps were running behind vehicles coming for help, being part the crowd that were struggling to get hold of something useful to them. }
Before we had our visit to the second relief camp for victims of Nagapattanam we had stopped at a place. We found out they were people who did bear any damage from the disaster. Even then they stopped many of the rescue and relief teams gathering relief items.
Relief camp 2:
This was a relief camp for the people of the KAMESHWARAM village at THIRUPOONDI. The relief camp is supposedly giving shelter to 200 families and more than 500 people. One such survivor was a 32-year-old man who had lost his wife (age 28) his two children (age 5 & 1). His wife was carrying a one-month fetus. There were at least 10 seriously injured people in the camp. One had injury in his stomach, groin, thigh and had undergone a surgery. Another had severe patient has been severely injured on his chest. Both of them have been admitted in the nearby Government Hospital. To our surprise we found that they had minimum expectations from the visiting teams. All thy were expecting were basic amenities and nothing more.
We found out that of all the relief camps seen this relief camp at Kameshwaram had the best system in place. The management of the relief items reaching the camp was done by the Youth association of Kameshwaram especially formed for the cause of taking care of relief work. Instead of distributing whatever items that was coming to the camp, they separated and distributed the perishable items(mainly cooked food) and stored the rest. Apart from the food they have distributed bed sheets and cloths just necessary for the time being to each one of the victims in the camp. Provisions, Utensils, Stoves, Cloths and other goods necessary for rehabilitation of a family are being stored and audited. According to them we were 77th to reach them and help them. They had a clear account of everything that they could easily put forth what they had and what was required.
Suyam recognizes this relief camp as a model relief camp. We could clearly identify a leader amongst the victims for future contacts. Having a system in place we could discuss with them second phase of relief work.
Relief camp 3:
The other relief camp we visited was Puthur. W found people wanting most of the material that we had at our disposal. But after talking to different people and a police personnel at the camp we came to a conclusion that there was ample supply of cloths, prepared food packets and other relief items. We supplied them with toilet soaps. We also talked to children at this relief camps. There were even students who were pursuing higher education and they sought SUYAM`s help in taking up their studies. We chose a representative to take care of conveying message back and forth to us and the relief camp.
Bharathi Womens Development Centre:
We had a discussion with the Bharathi Womens Development Centre about making a network of all the NGOs. We were convinced the importance of the local NGOs and role of a representative from each relief camp. There was also a suggestion to put forth a joint petition to the government from all the NGOs after taking toll of the situation giving ourselves one weeks time.
We left with them few of our relief materials before leaving Thiruvarur.
RELIEF WORK – TSUNAMI AFFECTED VICTIMS
Nagoor:
Out first place of visit of the affected areas was NAGOOR. Even before we could see the relief camps and the affected place we could see that the local groups (one of them Ghoudia association) had taken up the relief work. They reported that they had removed the corpses from the site, taken up cleaning the area. Help was reaching the area but they feared very less was done concerning the health related issues. They asked us if we could provide them with masks and gloves for the local volunteers, DISINFECTANTS, medicines for taking preventive measures against the spread of epidemic.
As Ms.Uma and few other went talking to Mr.Nizamuddin Ex MLA taking note of what was being done we went out to see a part of the affected area.
We talked to a youth there. He said the place was called SILLADI. He claims about 400 people dead in that area alone and even more corpses was reaching the shore as days went from the sea. The railway track was missing to a stretch of 300-400 meters. We also saw earth removers being used for clearing debris and cleaning the area. Bleaching powder was sprayed all over the streets. Water that had entered the village had mixed with the drain and people were trying to clean up the drain and remove stagnant water. We could see the mark left by water on the walls that had entered the village which was about 2 meters inside the village even 1-2 kms from the seashore. Other affected hamlets in that area were Patinachery, Kadalkarai line, south street. The affected were provided shelter in the DURGA at two different places.
Then we drove the BSNL exchange close the Canal at Nagoor.A Bridge that was at least a kilometer inside the shore was damaged. The strong waves had thrown streamliners over the Bridge. Later we were told by a local resident that streamliner thrown over the bridge was could allow very few people run across the damaged bridge to escape the rising water.
Nagapattanam:
As our vehicles drove past the Nagapattanam railway station we could see even big stream liners thrown by the strong tsunami wave, most of them damaged. Here in Nagapattanam we visited only the relief camp than the affected areas. Two days after the disaster very few were anywhere close to their hamlets. People belonging to even the same hamlet were put in many different relief camps across Nagapattanam and Thiruvarur.
Relief camp 1
The first Relief camp (Around 250-300 people) we had a visit was at a temple in VADUGAI POIKAYUR. This was for the people of the AKRAIPATTU panchayat (hamlets: Kallarai, akkraipatti (nadutheru), Poikayur) that had the most number of casualties. Not all of the panchayat were stationed at this relief camp. As we talked to the people, there are a lot of families (most of them big families with 7-10 members) that had lost all their belongings (House, Boats, Nets, their savings and jewelry) apart from few of their family members. SUYAM also found few children who had lost bread-earning member of their family. But we also found many of the children wanting to study. One such girl (16 year old) was concerned about appearing for her X std Board exam. She said that they had lost two teachers of their school and also all their Text Books and notebooks were washed off. The children were so keen that they even prepared a list of notebooks and books that they needed immediately. Their primary school that has classes from 1-5 was also damaged. About 20-30 children are supposedly dead and few missing. SUYAM has decided to take up children related issues and their education. We handed down our contact address at Chennai. Then we realized the need to get the help of a local NGO, a local volunteer from the relief camp to co-ordinate relief work especially for children. The immediate need for notebooks and textbooks were immediately conveyed to the SUYAM office at Chennai.
{Comment: Education (providing notebooks and textbooks, teachers) for children could be taken as a second phase of relief activity. But we the volunteers with SUYAM felt that providing them a temporary school at least could reduce the trauma of the children. All that the children were doing at the relief camps were running behind vehicles coming for help, being part the crowd that were struggling to get hold of something useful to them. }
Before we had our visit to the second relief camp for victims of Nagapattanam we had stopped at a place. We found out they were people who did bear any damage from the disaster. Even then they stopped many of the rescue and relief teams gathering relief items.
Relief camp 2:
This was a relief camp for the people of the KAMESHWARAM village at THIRUPOONDI. The relief camp is supposedly giving shelter to 200 families and more than 500 people. One such survivor was a 32-year-old man who had lost his wife (age 28) his two children (age 5 & 1). His wife was carrying a one-month fetus. There were at least 10 seriously injured people in the camp. One had injury in his stomach, groin, thigh and had undergone a surgery. Another had severe patient has been severely injured on his chest. Both of them have been admitted in the nearby Government Hospital. To our surprise we found that they had minimum expectations from the visiting teams. All thy were expecting were basic amenities and nothing more.
We found out that of all the relief camps seen this relief camp at Kameshwaram had the best system in place. The management of the relief items reaching the camp was done by the Youth association of Kameshwaram especially formed for the cause of taking care of relief work. Instead of distributing whatever items that was coming to the camp, they separated and distributed the perishable items(mainly cooked food) and stored the rest. Apart from the food they have distributed bed sheets and cloths just necessary for the time being to each one of the victims in the camp. Provisions, Utensils, Stoves, Cloths and other goods necessary for rehabilitation of a family are being stored and audited. According to them we were 77th to reach them and help them. They had a clear account of everything that they could easily put forth what they had and what was required.
Suyam recognizes this relief camp as a model relief camp. We could clearly identify a leader amongst the victims for future contacts. Having a system in place we could discuss with them second phase of relief work.
Relief camp 3:
The other relief camp we visited was Puthur. W found people wanting most of the material that we had at our disposal. But after talking to different people and a police personnel at the camp we came to a conclusion that there was ample supply of cloths, prepared food packets and other relief items. We supplied them with toilet soaps. We also talked to children at this relief camps. There were even students who were pursuing higher education and they sought SUYAM`s help in taking up their studies. We chose a representative to take care of conveying message back and forth to us and the relief camp.
Bharathi Womens Development Centre:
We had a discussion with the Bharathi Womens Development Centre about making a network of all the NGOs. We were convinced the importance of the local NGOs and role of a representative from each relief camp. There was also a suggestion to put forth a joint petition to the government from all the NGOs after taking toll of the situation giving ourselves one weeks time.
We left with them few of our relief materials before leaving Thiruvarur.
posted by JC @ 11:43 PM
0 comments
