The Hindu Business Line : NGOs play a vital role in tsunami rehabilitation

More than 400 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other service and voluntary organisations from various parts of the country and abroad swung into action and played an important role in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations immediately after the tsunami disaster in all villages in the 187-km-long coastal belt of Nagapattinam district.

J. Radhakrishnan, Collector, took effective steps and formed a district co-ordination committee with the NGOs immediately after the tsunami and carrying out rehabilitation work in the tsunami-hit areas that is being monitored by Ranvir Prasad, Additional Collector (Relief and Rehabilitation).

The NGOs put up temporary shelters and donated fibreglass boats with nets to the fishermen besides fulfilling their basic needs including protected drinking water, sanitation, essential commodities and utensils. Besides, free medical camps and counselling were conducted for the tsunami-hit people.

Nagapattinam district is the worst affected in the tsunami in the mainland in the country claiming 6,065 lives of men, women and children, mostly from the fishermen community, of which nearly 4,000 people are from Akkaraipettai, Nagore and Keechankuppam coastal hamlets.

The NGOs built 11,625 temporary shelters and the Government constructed nearly 2,000 temporary sheds.

Besides the Army and the Navy, hundreds of volunteers from several service organisations such as NCC, NSS, Rotary and Lions clubs, Seva Bharathi etc., removed dead bodies lying along the coast and took them for mass burial.

The Rotary International put up a hundred stylish-looking tents with the British and Rotary flags painted on them. The Rotary Districts in India and United Kingdom had recently retrieved 53 huge mechanised boats that got stuck up in the marshy lands during the tsunami off Pazhayar coast at a cost of Rs.17.5 lakhs.

A large number of NGOs including the World Vision India, the SOS Children's Villages of India - Chatnath Homes, Chennai, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, and TMSSS, built temporary shelters and donated more than 500 fibreglass boats to fishermen.

The Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology at the Centre, has provided 39 community sheds in seven coastal villages and donated 50 fibreglass boats to fishermen.

The Exnora International and the Nagapattinam district Exnora with USAID support provided skill training for more than 400 fisherwomen in tsunami-hit areas. Exnora International appointed eight change makers to conduct skill training programmes in the coastal villages.

According to V. Ganapathy, Advisor, Exnora, more than 80 youths were trained in making cement rings and squatting slabs at Akkaraipettai, Kallar and Serudur.

The Society for Community Organisation and People's Education (SCOPE), Tiruchi, that conducted the training programmes, also taught carpentry to construct superstructure for lavatories. The CARE India had approved the construction of 20 model individual `Ecosan' toilets and UNICEF team lauded the functioning of Ecosan toilets.

Dr. M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation established a knowledge resource centre in Akkaraipettai coastal village near Nagapattinam, the worst hit in the tsunami.

The Tata Relief Committee, which had sponsored the centre, is providing information to fishermen and farmers on the availability of fish, starting micro-enterprises and fish processing.

A group of lawyers and law students from Madurai, led by A. Sahaya Philomin Raj, an advocate of Madurai High Court bench, rendered free legal services to tsunami victims with the approval of the Madurai District Legal Services Authority.

A 10-day `puppetry yatra' from Kanyakumari to Chennai for providing `psycho-social care' for the tsunami survivors was organised jointly by the Social Need Education and Human Awareness (SNEHA), Nagapattinam, and Centre for Social Education and Development (CSED), Coimbatore.

Volunteers from social welfare organisations in Punjab, Chattisgarh and Bhuj set up community kitchens and prepared every day thousands of best quality `chappatis' and `dhal' and personally served to the tsunami victims.

A number of religious and spiritual leaders including Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Shiv Shankar and others visited the tsunami-hit villages and provided relief to the affected people.

Five desalination desalination plants were set up in the coastal hamlets of Akkaraipettai, Keechankuppam and Serudur and best quality drinking water was being provided to the people.