May 2005 Tsunami

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Status of the rehabilitation work of SOS Chatnath Homes in Puduguppam Village, Sirghazi Taluk, in Nagapattinam Districts

SOS Children’s Villages of India – Chatnath Homes with back up from SOS India, is going full speed towards the total rehabilitation of 160 families at Puduguppam, a fishing village in Nagapattinam, which was completely devastated by Tsunami.

OUR GOAL

· To Ensure that the Residents of Puduguppam are rehabilitated economically and emotionally in the optimum time

THE MAGNITUDE OF THE TASK

· Nagapattinam district worst affected in Tamil Nadu

· 6000 Dead (estimate.)

· 10,200 fishing boats damaged

· 6,200 engines destroyed

· Puduguppam village –

· 51 Dead

· Entire Village to be rehabilitated

· 160 families covering 550 people

What we have done so far:

We have constructed 143 temporary shelters with water supply, toilets, electricity etc., and the people of the Puduguppam village now have a roof over their heads.
We have built a day care center and equipped it with play materials. 30 children from the community come to the center. We give them nutritional snacks in the morning and in the afternoon.
Provisions of rice, dhal etc., are given to the families till such time the boats are ready and the community gets back the livelihood.

18 children of single parents are being taken care of through a special financial support.

We handed over the first lot of 10 boats along with the nets to the fishermen community on 2^nd March, 2005. We are planning to handover 22 more boats with suitable fishing nets.

Life is back to normalcy in the Puduguppam village:

· A wedding has been celebrated.

· Women have opened small shops in the temporary shelter.

· The fisher folk are mending their nets and looking forward to going back to sea.

· Ilayaraja a student of B.Com., who was terrified of staying in the village is now reconciled to the prospects thanks to the counseling he received. He has now resumed his studies.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

· The temporary shelters have to be replaced with permanent homes

· An activity center where women can meet and form self-help groups to learn alternate skills for viable sustainable vocations has to be built.

· A permanent day care center for children has to constructed

· A building for a small primary health center to take care of the people of the village and those from the area is planned.

· Besides providing infrastuctural facilities, we are also conscious that we have to plan for the emotional well-being of those who have suffered and plan programmes, which will enrich the lives of children. In this we are being helped by Aseema Trust