KANYAKUMARI TSUNAMI REHABILITATION PROJECT

In the early hours of dawn, death and devastation stood hand in hand, washing away life, living and humanity- one by one, bit by bit. Hand in hand, we re-built them- home and happiness, secured togetherness- brick by brick, dream by dream.

On December 26th 2004, a mass tragedy had struck in the form of Tsunami. Thousands of lives were washed away and thousands of homes destroyed. The tragedy had also touched the lives of the people of the coastal region of Kanyakumari.

Swadhina has been working in the Colachel region for past 13 years and following the distress call from the workers of the region it was decided to take concrete re-habilitation steps which would help them re-establish their lives once more. Thus, Kanyakumari Tsunami Rehabilitation Project was undertaken from January 2005 onwards.


Under this project the following activities were undertaken:

1) Re-schooling of children

• Providing School Kits to primary level school children
• Providing Toys and Playing items to local schools
• Arranging Intra and Inter Village Sports
• Providing School Development support to local schools

2) Rebuilding economy

• Providing fishing nets to families
• Providing support for acquiring country boats - catamarans
• Providing support to women's group (SHG)

3) Re-housing of families

• Providing support for houses to repair

The programmes are being undertaken for a period of one and half year. At the end of March 2006 most of the re-habilitation efforts are over and the people have already begun to re-build their lives in a positive way.

Under the Re-schooling of children programme

• 453 children were given school kits comprising of school bags, school dresses, pencil box, tiffin box and note books.
• 5 Games Kit was provided to 5 schools.
• 2 schools were given infrastructure support in the form of furniture, wall painting.
• 4 Sports Meet was organized for 5 villages.

Under the Re-building of Economy scheme

• 202 families were supported with fish-net of three types-Large, Medium, Small
• 148 families were supported with Cattamarans of three sizes- Large, Medium, Small
• 10 SHG groups have been formed where the members have begun to save and have bank accounts.
  The IGP programmes will start soon.

The Re-housing of Family scheme could be used to support

• re-building of 100 partially damaged houses
• re-building of 50 fully damaged houses
  

The project has benefited the people in a number of ways. For instance, the school kits given to the children has greatly influenced them. Just after Tsunami the most affected lot were the children who were psychologically disturbed and terrified of leaving their houses for their school, however these new kits and colorful walls and furniture in their school induced them to shed their fear and start going to the school once more. Not just this, the performance of the students has also shown marked improvement in one year.
The sports programmes have helped them forget their trauma and get on with fun and life once more.

The boats, nets given to the families have ensured that they have a stable economy to re-build and support their family. The Tsunami waves had washed away the boats and nets which are the only source of livelihood for the fisher folk. The support given has ensured that they once again go for fishing and earn income for their family. This has helped provide a stable economy for the families once more.

The Tsunami waves had caused immense damage to the houses near the sea-coast , rendering them unsafe for further use. It was thus necessary to provide them a stable shelter. The re-housing activities have ensured the villagers have a safe abode that is much stronger than what they earlier had. Each newly built house has two rooms and a stable roofing.

SHG groups have been formed to involve women in sustainable income generation efforts. 10 groups have been formed having 188 members. The members have begun to save money and now they have saved nearly Rs. 56780 /- in the bank.

The efforts taken by the team of workers from Swadhina has been praiseworthy and today the people of Colachel, Kanyakumari are able to re-build their lives and dreams, leaving behind the horror of Tsunami.