Journey of the Heart - Tsunami Relief

Friday, January 21, 2005
Trip Update from Judi at Journeys !
Today is Friday afternoon, I was earlier in a sari that the young women dressed me in...my first time ever wearing a sari, and I must say, I moved fairly well in it. Later, because we were going into slum areas, I had to change back to my salwar kameez, which is what I always wear in India. I cannot begin to describe everything we've seen and done on this trip...but suffice it to say taht it's been overwhelming and moving and sad and happy and joyful and depressing and, well, you know, it's going to be hard to come home, that's all I can really say...

We've spent a lot of time in teh slum areas inland frmo the tsunami area. The people who live in the slums are more in dire need than the ones in the tsunami area, in many ways.

However, let me begin to tell you about the little island we visited, in Andhra Pradesh's Krishna District, east of Vijayawada. This is in the village of Yetipogaru, which is one of three hamlets of Chinnagollapalem, an island in the backwaters of the Bay of Bengal. There are 430 families who live in this village. All the families there belong to the "backward class" of 'FisherMen Community" as it is called. So these people fish in the backwaters and in the sea. They sell the fish, they also dry the fish to sell. The average income of the family is about 2000 rupees a month, which, given the rate of the falling dollar, is about 48 dollars a month. That's really not as low as some families in the slums of the cities...but since they lost so much in the wave, they need help getting back on their feet so to speak. There are no health services here and not a lot of educational facilities, therefore most kids here do not grow up to go on to higher studies. Once a month a government health worker comes in to treat common problems. But the roads in are so bad, and you have to take a boat across (an Indian version of a pedestrian ferry), that no one comes here very much at all. As some people there told us, the government forgot about them. It's organizations like Care and Share, with help from sponsors in Italy and now in America through our supporters of Journeys of the Heart, that are making a difference. For example, since the tsunami hit, the villagers had no rice, no clean water, not much of anything to eat, so they were living on the fruit of their trees, and some kind of root, I don't know what it is...but that's what has been sustaining them. They have not been able to fish. Typhoid outbreak is a threat, and even Noel, an Indian from here who with his American-born and Italian-raised wife, Carol, started Care and Share, got it last week from just visiting one of the tsunami villages and not even eating anything...somehow he got it and just got sick the day after picking us up at the airport.

Our relief work to this village was the first help that they received since the tsunami hit. We arrived in the morning and spent the day, past sunset. We went along with Carol from Care and Share, (www.careshare.org), some of teachers frmo the school that Care and Share built on their campus in Vijayawada, Dr. Sushila, staff from Care and Share, along with interpreters. Welcoming us was the WHOLE village with the mayor. We were greeted with garlands of jasmine and other flowers, and everyone wanting to touch us and thank us for being there. As we got off, we noticed a number of new boats, and one was freshly painted with JOURNEYS OF THE HEART USA on it!! It was one of the ones we have or are purchasing for the village, which lost 300 boats, and the boat was filled wtih new fishing nets and ropes which we also purchased. How excitign it was for all of us, not just the villagers! To see where some of teh funds which have donated by JOH supporters has been spent was very gratifying for me and for Cathie, my coworker who is with me.

Also purchased with Tsunami relief funds raised by JOH and brought by us to the village was enough rice, dhal (lentils), cooking oil, and fresh drinking water for all the families of the village, plus some from anotehr village nearby. We helped distribute all of that...I have to say that it was an eyeopener for me, because even though I have been to slums in India and other places and seen so much poverty, it was the act of handing out teh basics, the staples, that made me stand back for a moment in awe of how wealthy we are in America, how much we have, how much we take for granted. The endless supplies of food and clean drinking water are things I hope I never take for granted again.

In addition to all this, JOH funds purchased enough vaccinations for 327 people for Typhoid. While the families lined up with their kids, the doctor set up the table with help from her assistants from Care adn Share. The kids were crying even before it was their turn...perhaps it was the glimpse of the needle they saw from where they were standing, or maybe it was the cries of teh ones up front that triggered all the others to begin whimpering and eventually wailing! I found myself clowning around with the kids, hoping to distract them while the needle poked them...it was all over in seconds for each child and thankfully their cries immediately turned to smiles. The doctor also saw many more patients after that who needed to be looked at for various ailments...after all, no medical care had been there in more than a month.

As we were taking photos and meeting some of the villagers, I noticed a young mom holding a boy abuot seven yrs old who seemed to me to have spastic cerebral palsy. It is something I am aware of and notice easily, since my son Dana, also from India, has CP and I recognize the characteristics. We happened to have a physical therapist with us on staff and I was able to bring the mom and son, and of course the rest of the family and all the neighbors, over to meet the PT and assess this child, talk to the family, encourage the parents to bring the boy back to be measured for calipers (braces or orthotics)and a special chair to be made for him so he doesn't have to lay on the dirt floor of the family's home. They did come back later, and measurements were taken, we talked to the family again, and today we visited the rehab center (which is not like Shriners Hospital), and they have begun making the equipment for this child. It's up to the family to follow through on using the equipment and on doing the exercises wtih their son...I hope that they do....

So, to summarize what we purchased for just this one village (we are not done visiting the villages, and tonight we are off by train to Chennai, where we'll spend six days helping):

one 22 foot boat and its transport from Kakinada, north of here on the coast

six fisher nets

water for 420 familes (10 litres each)

Rice for more than 425 families (actually we had a lot more and we sent it off to the next village)

Dhal, (lentils) 5 kg bag per family (we poured all this...you should have seen all the rice and dhal all spread out on teh tarp, we used pails to fill the bags

sunflower cooking il, 3 kg per family

vaccinations for kids and adults 327 total yesterday

medicines for 275 people treated

plus the transportation costs for all of it and us....

these photos are from carol, waht she took. i am working on uploading mine...I'll send those too if i figure out how.

got to run...taking a train down to chennai tongiht all night! and supposedly mirabi''s parents, she owns evergreen restaurant in downtown corvallis with her husband ali, her parents are meeting me and cathie at teh train station.

Love to all!
Judi
posted by Allan @ 5:02 AM   8 comments   
Photos: Journeys and Care and Share at Yetipogaru

posted by Allan @ 5:01 AM   0 comments   
Monday, January 17, 2005
Photos: Care and Share Pedapatnam Village

posted by Allan @ 5:56 AM   0 comments   
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Photos: Care and Share Manginapudi Village

posted by Allan @ 9:11 PM   0 comments   
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Update from MASOS: Jan 12
Hi Jdui
It was great to talk to you last night. I was in a Andaman refugee camp in
chennai whe u called me.

The kovalam village peoples condition is worse now. Now, as i predicted
before, there are no people to give them food at all. Only one ashram is
sending food regulary since the day of tsunami attack. I have a complete
data of all the families in the village and as i know most of them
personally their condition is worse. They havent started to go to fish in
the sea. Their motorboats are sill damaged. No repair work has been done so
far. I could see the poor fishermen sitting in the streets with nothing in
hand and nothing to do. The condition of the women are even more worse. they
are in tears. As they are always dependant on the male earning member of the
family they have nothing in thier hands too. They are also starving with the
children. Some children have just started to go to school last monday. Now i
see that the fear of the fisherfolks to live near the sea has raised a lot.
They are wanting to move away from the sea. We would be buying the fishing
nets soon and it will be ready to be distributed when u are here.

Thats all for this mail Judi. Will mail u with more updates later.

Thanks and Regards
Balaje Thangavel
posted by Allan @ 10:17 AM   0 comments   
Update from Care and Share: Jan 10
Dear Friends,
I just arrived in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh, India) on Friday evening and yesterday (Sunday) went with the Care & Share staff to Manginapudi and Peddapatnam on Bengal Bay near Machilipatnam with relief donations.
Before the distribution of the things loaded on two trucks, I walked along the beach to see the situation after the Tsunami.
Right after the Tsunami we fed 1000 people for 3 days in Manginapudi and during the following days we gave 25 kg. of rice to some 450 families of the surrounding villages.
On our beautiful and beloved beach of Manginapudi, where our Care & Share adventure started in 1991, practically nothing is left : seaweed and tangled nets. The new small "beach" constructions which were just coming up are all destroyed. On Dec. 26th, 50 people died here. Some bleach powder has been scattered around to avoid infection. Towering over the beach of Manginapudi is a lighthouse built by the British over a century ago. It is the HIGHEST place along the coast.....hence the least affected. On November 19th, 1977 a tidal wave invaded the local coastline killing around 50,000 people. This is also the reason why the people living along the coastline are still so poor.
The proper village of Manginapudi is built near the lighthouse. The sandy beach is about 3 miles wide. The waves went all the way up to the lighthouse hill, so the village was saved. However the nomad fishermen huts were mostly destroyed. All of the men of the area are either fishermen or they work in the salt fields adjacent to the lagoon area behind the village. The boats were thrown by the waves just outside the village and many were lost. All the nets are lost.
It seems that the waves were not of the same height and intensity all over : that depended on the depth of the water close to the shores. As Manginapudi is the highest village along the coast, it means that all the other surrounding areas were more badly affected. It was interesting for me to see bullock carts pulled by oxen pulling in the sand towards the shore the boats and remains of boats that had landed up close to the village. The people of Manginapudi are asking us to help them repair a dyke in the lagoon which the waves destroyed : the dyke protects some 7 villages and also the salt fields which are now under water. Cost of this is 5.000 USD/4.000 Euro).
Because Manginapudi was the least affected area along the coast, we had previously decided to give relief to other villages and on Sunday went to an island called Peddapatnam. Until a few years ago there was no bridge connecting the island to the mainland and there was no school. This was the reason why we decided to help the children of Peddapatnam to study with the sponsorship program in 1991. The island is about 3 miles by 5 miles in size. The village is in the middle of the island. Luckily no one died, but all the fields are under salt water and the crops are destroyed. Most of the boats disappeared and the nets were all destroyed. We gave our help to the poorest of the village : the "Harijans" (word which means "children of God" .....term used by Mahatma Gandhi for the "untouchables"). The Harijans are the most vulnerable people in this situation.
We distributed a little bit of everything to 257 families (916 people) : 10 kg of rice, 1 quart of cooking oil, 1 big aluminium bucket, aluminium plates, mats, 4 pieces of soap, 1 bottle of shampoo, soap for washing clothes, bedsheets, three cooking pots, 10 quarts of drinking water, 1 small bucket for washing and bananas. A list of the beneficiaries is attached. We also donated 6 nets and 4 boats.
Besides the distribution, we also brought our medical team with us who gave typhoid vaccinations to 250 children and 75 adults. We had 3 "Clown Dentists" (a' la Patch Adams) from Italy who performed for one and a half hours in the morning. I don't think the village had ever seen any sort of entertainment like this before. This was really a wonderful occasion to boost their moral. In the afternoon the dentists treated some 20 patients in our medical bus.
As anyone can imagine, the crowd was huge.....but they were very well behaved. The Peddapatnam people know us well and simply waited for their turn with respect. When we left they gave us a touching thanks : "We thank you not only for what you did for us today, but for having educated through the years most of our children, some of whom are even in college now", they told us.
They asked us to repair a wooden bridge which would permit them to go work in fields on the mainland, now that their fields are underwater. They also need a cement platform along the dock, which got destroyed, to sort out their catch of fish once it is brought up ashore. The project would cost some 3500 USD. They request other boats, however in this area there are no construction boatyards .....just individual artisans who get orders for two or three boats a year......so it will take us some time in order to replace the boats for them.
Every two/three days we will be going to other villages. This is a very tiring job for all of us : long trips to get to these remote places on dirt roads and lifting and distributing heavy bags. It also takes some time to retrieve goods in great quantity and it is a problem also to stock them.....so we can visit new villages only every 2 or 3 days.
We will keep you updated on our next expeditions!
A big thanks to all of those who have trusted us and helped us to make this possible. I would like to underline the fact that aside from transportation costs, we do not have other costs, because our staff are volunteering their time and we are also greatly helped by our bigger ex-street boys.
Sincerely,
Carol Faison (Founder)
posted by Allan @ 10:13 AM   0 comments   
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Note to Cassie and others
HI Cassie,
Thank you for writing. At this point I am not able to tell you where to go or what to take. I should clarify, for everyone reading this blog, that the area south of Chennai called Kovalam shares its name with another Kovalam. The other Kovalam is on the Arabian Sea, on the coast of Kerala, near Trivandrum. That's a tourist spot. I just want to clarify that so everyone knows that the village we are helping is the one in Tamil Nadu.
Regards to all,
Judi
posted by Allan @ 4:26 PM   1 comments   
Update from Balaje at MASOS in Chennai, January 4, 2005
Hi Judi
Thanks for your call. And thanks for the dontaions please convey my sincere thanks to the donors. I am sending some more pictures of kovalam kuppam. I conducted a village level meeting yesterday to ask them what they need from now. As many private people are coming in to do some help i thought there was enough rice. But what i heard from the fishermen was all the rice which was donated by the people were rotten and very old. Even though they go the rice in hand they could not cook it. It is a pity.
Second the villagers were very happy about the donation of the nets. I feel if i get the money before you come to chennai, i will purchase the nets and keep it ready for you to distribute when u are here.
Please see if Medical insurance is possible. The villagers requested for this because the children are often falling sick and proper medical facilities is not given by the local government health centres. After the tsunami attack they are all affected by the aftereffects. Fever, Cold some children were drowned and they had to take in a lot of sandy water and the sand is being removed from their stomach. It is very sad to hear what the people say. As i said the medical insurance will cost Rs.600 and will have a coverage of Rs. 25000 for one year. I am sure that these children's health will be affected for the next one year. I am taking a survey of the children and there wil be about 200 children. I have said if at all we can give this medical insurance we can give it for one desrving child in one family. I will tell you the numbers this evening.

Boats are being reparied by other Big NGOs and the engines are repaired by an Ashram. It will take another 3 months for them to return back to normal life.
I wil post you more updates as and when i get them.
Thanks and Regards
Balaje Thangavel
posted by Allan @ 1:11 AM   0 comments   
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Damage Assessment from Care and Share
Care and Share - MANGINAPUDI - BANTUMILLI RELIEF EFFORTS

About a 1000 people from the fishing community of Manginapudi are taking shelter in the Care & Share Gioia School. Starting tomorrow (29th) we will begin feeding these people two meals a day for the next three days. This is estimated to cost us about Rs 90,000. All their huts have been blown away and many of their boats and fishing nets are destroyed. The Government has advised them not to go out into the sea over the next days.
Our staff have been visiting the area to get first hand news of the disaster. They confirm that all the sponsored children and their families are safe. Official figures put the dead from this area as 85. But many are reported missing and this number will rise.
The areas around Machilipatnam and Bantumilli have been severely affected. A brief description of the loss suffered:
Manginapudi Beach – 5 kms from Machilipatnam : The fishermen’s village destroyed, boats and nets lost…
Peddapatnam– island 10 kms from Machilipatnam : No casualities reported. Fields and fish ponds submerged under sea water. 7 nets and 2 boats destroyed…
Nidamarru – village near Bantumilli : 2 Boats and 5 Fishing Nets lost. Fileds around submerged in sea water. Loss of cattle and standing rice crop reported. Drinking water wells filled with salt water and silt…
Padathadika – village near Bantumilli : 10 Fishing Nets and 2 Boats lost…
Varlagondithippa – village near Bantumilli : 4 Boats and 10 Fishing Nets…
Feeding at Manginapudi : 1000 people for 3 days = Rs 90,000
Estimated cost of a Boat : Rs 10,000 x 10 boats = Rs 100,000
Estimated cost of a Fishing Net : Rs 10,000 x 14 nets = Rs 140,000
Desalinating and cleaning a well : Rs 5,000 x 25 wells = Rs 125,000
25 kgs of rice per family x Rs 15 x 1000 families = Rs 375,000
Utensils and Household articles : Rs 500 x 1000 families = Rs 500,000
Repairs of Huts : Rs 1000 x 1000 families = Rs 1,000,000
TOTAL ESTIMATED COST = Rs 2,330,000
posted by Allan @ 1:43 PM   0 comments   
Photos: Care and Share Rice Distribution at Nidamarru
Note from Care and Share: Tsunami relief ... Nidamarru is a village near Bantumilli on sea coast. There are 100 families here. Today we distributed 25 kgs of rice to each family.

posted by Allan @ 1:16 PM   0 comments   
Monday, January 03, 2005
A New Year's Note from Thangavel at MASOS
This came on December 31st, evening. I am only now catching up with so many emails! This is really meant for everyone!
Dearest Judi,

May God bless you a fruitful and SERVICE packed New Year 2005.This is my first mail addressed to you in this New Year 2005.I am very happy about it.

On behalf of our children and fishermen commu
...