Second visit

We revisited Tamil Nadu in May 2005, to help victims of the tsunami who had suffered emotional trauma, and to give training in contemporary brief therapy methods to Indian volunteers.

We are very grateful to Elysia Natural Skin Care, who paid for our flights; and to the Kinesiology Federation and members, and other generous individuals, who contributed to the £500 donation we presented to Vergal Charitable Trust – a charity based in Kanchipuram which, among other activities, buys children out of bonded labour and supports their education.

The schedule

We travelled from Chennai to the Nagappattinam district and based ourselves in Karaikal and Thirukadhaiyur, near to the field sites. For several long days, in blazing heat, we worked with traumatized individuals in the field.

Again, Vijay Bhaskaram and Nalini accompanied us as friends, colleagues, and translators throughout.

We had intended also to revisit sites nearer to Chennai but, with limited time, decided to devote more time to training.

The training took place in Kanchipuram. The trainees were Nalini and Vijay, and a volunteer who lived in Thirukkadaiyur (Nagappattinam district) called Shiva.

We visited the education centre for children from bonded labour in Kanchipuram.

I also spent a morning with college students at the Centre for Social Intiative and Management in Chennai, talking about therapy.

Therapy 

Among the individuals we visited were:
 
A four-year-old boy who was deeply depressed after losing his sister in the tsunami. 

A depressed fisherman who was having marital problems.

An eight-year-old girl who had become incontinent and was behaving strangely. 

A local volunteer who had developed a kidney stone after long days in the field without drinking enough water, and had an awful fear of death.

A thirty-year-old woman who was starving herself to death after her sister and brother died in the tsunami. Her mother was also utterly distraught and deeply traumatized.

Observations

On the positive side, people were being fed; they did have shelter; life was returning to normal. A town that had been completely uninhabited when we'd last visited had come back to life.

But due to a shortage of money, even the local volunteers were often unable to visit affected people because they couldn’t afford the fares.  

The observations below are, unfortunately, mostly negative. 

1  Seizure of land

There is a widespread belief, reported during our visit in January, and repeated by many during this visit, that fishermen and their families are being encouraged to move away from the shoreline in order that hotels can be built close to the sea. Although this seems hard to believe, according to a report in The Independent, this is already official policy in some parts of Sri Lanka – where the devastation and loss was so much greater.

2  NGO restrictions

Fewer NGOs are now operating in this area, since any NGO working in tsunami relief is required to have capital of 50 lacs (1 lac = Rs.100,000) in order to qualify for government assistance. The organization we previously worked with, Aid India, do not have this amount in capital and so have withdrawn from tsunami relief work.

3  The power of information

It was reported that organizations receive (local) government assistance only when their operations accord with government plans to take fishermen and their families away from the sea. There are organizations providing education about the tsunami and local people’s rights, such as street theatre, which are given no government support. 

During our visit in January 2005 we had insisted at the tsunami-relief meeting of NGOs that scientific information about the causes of the tsunami was imperative to allay fears that it was likely to recur. We were informed that this was influential in the provision of education about the tsunami and its causes which is now given through street theatre and other means.

Tamil Tiger representatives were organizing centres in local villages to give reliable information about the tsunami and changes in sea conditions to counter unnecessary chaos and fear.

4  Prevailing fear

People still fear that the tsunami will return, particularly on the 26th of each month. 
   
5  International relief funds withheld

It was reported on the national news that the government had not yet released any of the relief funds donated internationally, and that these funds were accruing interest.

6  Divide and rule

The fishermen and their families are a strong political unity who believe that boats should be given for the whole community. It was reported that the local government were attempting to divide the communities by giving boats to members who supported the government parties.

7  Inadequate alternatives for farmers

The farmers who have had their land ruined by sea salt from the tsunami have been offered alternative crops to grow, which would not yield sufficient income; or labouring jobs such as road working, for which they are not skilled.

8  Asbestos shelters

Many new dwellings had been built using asbestos. NGOs had built many of these dwellings, but with government authorization. Some of the villagers inhabiting these dwellings were aware of the health risks of asbestosis, and nearly all we talked to complained about the unbearable heat of the materials, the darkness, and the flooding during rain (and the monsoon hasn’t started yet).

In the rehabilitation camp of Tharangampadi in Nagappattinam one resident told us that the asbestos walls were too hot; the thatched roof was insecure and liable to blow away in high winds (a student volunteer told us he’d witnessed children sleeping on the thatched roofs at night to keep them secure); and the floors were too low and they had been flooded the night before.

The Japanese aid organization World Vision have provided temporary homes made of coconut plant (rather than asbestos). But Christian Aid UK have provided full asbestos dwellings (walls and roofs).

9  Policy of replacing thatch for asbestos

As a result of a school fire which resulted in great loss of life, the government is trying to replace thatched roofing with asbestos.

10  Overcrowding

We saw relief shelters, designed for 25–30 families, which were providing a home to 60–70 families.

11 Government & NGOs

It was reported that the government is keen that NGOs do not provide permanent accommodation, since it wants to take the credit.

12  Relief shelters

Temporary relief shelters, supposedly designed to be used only for a few months, are likely to be in use for several years.

In one asbestos shelter, the concrete flooring had already deteriorated (because the ratio of sand to concrete was incorrect) within two months.

In this same asbestos shelter, the resident, the leader of the village, told us that in the afternoon it was too hot to be inside the shelter. He said that they used to take drinking water into their homes at night, and it would still be cool in the morning. Under the asbestos, this water becomes warm by the evening and undrinkable by morning.

13 Lack of consultation

There appeared to have been no consultation prior to construction of temporary dwellings. The leader of one village told us they had not been consulted. In one village a perfectly sound community construction had been torn down to make way for asbestos shelters.

We discovered a street of new, fully asbestos housing provided by the NGO Efficor, New Dehli, with no local inhabitants. In fact, it was inhabited temporarily by students working for an aid organization, who were helping the relief work and experiencing the conditions.