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Report of Consultative Meeting of 04-01-2005
for the Relief and Restoration of Normal life to the Victims of
Tsunami Tide.
Participants:
1. Mr. S. John Bosco – President
2. Mr. B. Ravi Kumar David – Vice President
3. Mr. N. Paul Sunder Singh- Director Karunalaya
4. Mr. V. Arun – Member
5. Dr. Elizabeth Negi – Development Consultant
6. Mr. Senthilathiban – Development consultant
7. Dr. Pavithra – Lecturer and Activists
8. Ms. Poornima Arun – Teacher and Activists
9. Ms. Mijke van Gijn, - Dutch Volunteer
10. Ms. Loes Wevers, - Dutch Volunteer
11. Mr. Gijsbert van Holland – Dutch Volunteer
12. Ms. Pien Reyers- Dutch Volunteer
1. One minute silence for the
repose of the souls of those who are affected by the Tsunami Tide
on 26.12.2004
2. Introduction
The President of Karunalaya Mr. John Bosco presided over the meeting,
Mr. Ravi Kumar David, Vice President of Karunalaya chaired the meeting.
The Director of Karunalaya Mr. Paul Sunder Singh introduced the
members present for the meeting and how they are associated with
Karunalaya. He also explained in detail what has been done so far
since 26 December 2004 Karunalaya has been working for the protection
and development of children and women in the fishing communities
of North Chennai since 1995. On the 26th December 2004 the unexpected
Tsunami tide washed away many lives, property houses and rendered
thousands of families homeless. Karunalaya also lost 3 nonformal
education centres at Anna Nagar, Pallavan Nagar, and Powerkuppam
Pallam areas.
1. Immediately after the disaster, Karunalaya set up a kitchen
in the premises of Karunalaya and provided cooked food for the
people in the above areas continuously. About 650 kgs of rice
cooked each day.
2. A quick assessment of the damage situation by the staff team
was done on the 27th December 2004
3. Collection of old clothes for distribution to the people is
being done
4. We have also dispatched about 22 boxes of clothes to Nagapattinam
district where more loss of life and damage has occurred
5. Mr. Paul Sunder Singh attended a meeting called by the Collector
of Chennai and the District Social Welfare Officer on 29.12.2004
at 11.am and appraised of the relief work and the disparity in
providing government relief to victims, and the discontent in
the service delivery of government machinery - ground realities.
6. Coordinating with other active NGOs in motivating many people
to support the relief work.
The primary level of relief was completely undertaken. Many volunteers
and philanthropists came forward to support our initiatives knowing
that we are working on relief efforts. Involved many volunteers
in the relief operation some such volunteers are worth mentioning;
1. Ms. Mijke
2. Ms. Loes
3. Ms. Elena
4. Dr. Elizabeth Negi
5. Mr. Senthilathiban and team (Sparks Development Group)
6. Mr. Shanmugam and team (BSAC)
7. Dr. Pavithra
8. Dr. Sailakshmi
9. Mr. Henry and Ms. Shailaja (Genuine Computers)
10. And the whole staff team of KARUNALAYA involved in the relief
operation
11. Children in the shelter home of Karunalaya are involved in
the relief operation
Some of the philanthropists who extended immediate
support for relief work
1. Dr. Elizabeth Negi – Rs. 5000/-
2. Fr. Josh – 2 bags of rice
3. Fr. Gerard – 5 bags of rice
4. Dr. Sai Lakshmi – Rs. 1000/-
5. Dr. Pavithra – Rs. 275/- and clothes
6. Mr. Badhri – Rs. 5000/-
7. Dr. Dilip Metha Hospital Pvt Ltd – 800 food packets
8. Mr. Andreez – 1 rice bag
9. Virtual Text – Rs. 2500
10. Mr. Ravi, Rathna Traders – Rs. 500
11. Office Tigers – Rs. 3000
12. Mr. Henry and Ms. Shailaja, Genuine Computers – Rs. 600
+ 6 bags of rice
13. Wheels India Ltd, Padi – 300 Kg rice + Dhall+Oil+ spices
etc..
14. Rotary club through Siga Animation Centre – 20 boxes
of clothes
15. Ms. Mijke, Ms. Loes, Mr. Elena – 500 Kg rice, 200 Kg,
Dhall, 100 kg oil, packing covers, knifes, vegetables, and continuous
support
16. Guild of Service, Egmore 250 litres of milk
3. Purpose of the meeting.
During the relief operations Karunalaya appealed to many people
to extend a helping hand. Responding to our requests one of our
Funding Partners CORDAID in the Netherlands expressed postive reply
to support our relief efforts and approved one crore rupees in Indian
currency, (196,000 euro) for relief and to restore "normal
life" of the Tsunami victims. Therefore it was highly important
to discuss how to implement the "Tsunami Relief and Restoration
Project" in a responsible and effective way hence the emergency
meeting of the board with volunteers and development consultants
was held on the 4th January 2005. The goal was to find solutions
and answers to problems, what leads us towards a reliable and efficient
plan.
The Relief Plan
One of the members present gave a short outline of the levels of
relief operations which was refined and presented below
The Primary stage of relief work was immediate
- Rescue of people
- Sustained Food and water supply
- Shelter, distributing collected cloth
- Medical aid
The Secondary stage of relief work, was
4. How shall we go about the implementation
of the projects?
4a. What are the concerns in the implementation of the project.
- The areas are part of the CRZ- The Coastal regulation zones.
Building permanent houses is not possible.
- The temporary houses are not fire proof. So the people are very
afraid for fire
- The fisherman families are very attached to Kasimedu areas.
While people with other professions would like to move. How do
we deal with both groups?
- Do we need to support the other areas as well?
- Do not create dependency of the people on us
- Find out the Fishermen and non Fishermen families in each area
- How can we avoid the support taken away by the mafia?
- How can we make sure that all the support will go to the victims?
- Can we offer the victims protection?
- The fishers that work with trawlers might need longer support,
because it will take some more time to restore the boats.
- Other people might take photos, and collect money without supplying
it to the victims.
4b. What measures to be taken in the
course of action.
- Karunalaya should be coordinating all the support in the areas.
If other organisations want to do relief work, they first have
to discuss with Karunalaya, to avoid personal profits.
- Karunalaya has to be sure that the people are well protected.
- Karunalaya has to cooperate intensely with "self-help groups
" of the fisherman’s communities.
- Karunalaya including with the help of the self-help groups should
document precisely who the victims are and what kind of relief
they need.
- Karunalaya should have frequent meetings with the self-help
groups, and it is very important to document what is discussed.
- And, very important Karunalaya has to make a good developed
plan, so that the organisations, who gave financial support will
be convinced that the support is well used
- The safety of the volunteers and the staff members should be
guaranteed at all time.
- The staff of Karunalaya should be trained to give psychological
support.
4c. Who all need to be involved at the
moment and later in the next phase
- Input from developing aid experts.
- Self-help groups from the fisher areas.
- Relief support of volunteers.
- Staff of Karunalaya.
- Government for land and protection.
- All people and organisations that like to give support without
any profit.
5. What changes should be made in the
proposed activities
- It is now time to restore "normal life" of the victims,
so to rehabilitate the community.
- To involve the fisherman communities, the self-help groups.
- To restore life hoods, with the input and responsibility of
the fisherman’s society.
- To involve aid developing experts.
- The temporary housing need to be looked into if we can do it
fire proof
6. Reporting- monitoring mechanism
Due to monitoring and reporting you can reduce the chance of miscommunication.
So it is important to document and report all the meetings.
- It is very important to monitor and report all the meetings
with the self-help groups of the fisher areas.
- Involve the people to monitor the activities for effective implementation
and to have shared responsibility
- It is very important to monitor end report all the meetings
with the staff of Karunalaya.
- It is very important to monitor and report any meeting with
external experts.
7. Participatory process.
- There should be a detailed list of action what includes the
involved participates.
- Let the planning be a participatory process so the people need
and priorities comes out in the plan
- The victims should be well informed about the process of action.
- All participants should well inform Karunalaya about their activities.
8. What should be our policy level changes
to take the issue?
- The organisational policy shall be amended by including the
disaster management activities as an area of priority of Karunalaya
and take holistic rehabilitation of the people including construction
of housing, livelihood restoration, relief measures and training
on disaster preparedness to the community people etc.
- There should be one overall detailed plan of action.
- Every participant should well know their role in action and
should take their responsibility very seriously.
- Every day there should be a meeting to evaluate the progress
what contains the progress of advance as well as the problems
and solutions.
- The entire meetings should be well documented.
9. Any other matter to be considered
Since there was no other matter to discuss, the chairman summed
up the lively discussion and said that the decisions will be implemented
systematically and shall meet after some progress is made in the
present project.
10. Votes of thanks
Mr. Paul kindly thanked all the people for their valuable input
and time.
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