Date: January 6, 2005

Activity: Field visits with UELCI (United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India)

Objective: Finalize community surveys and compile lists of recipients for relief distribution

Overall, conducting surveys has taken longer than expected because people are just now returning to their villages. For the first 10 days they stayed in feeding camps or nearby villages. If UELCI started the distribution right away, it wouldn't have gone to the people who needed it most. It would have gone to people whose homes weren't destroyed and who stayed in the village after the tsunami hit.

Now that the surveys are complete, UELCI will begin distribution of "Crisis Phase II" materials (utensils, bedding, other household items) and assessment of needs for temporary shelter. In two weeks, they will begin discussions with the communities about livelihood rehabilitation and permanent housing options. Building the permanent housing will take some time because they need to coordinate with the government on location and design.

The UELCI medical team is roving among villages, bringing the injured to the temporary clinic in Cuddalore. The medical clinic is serving about 200 outpatients a day. Approx. 10 patients are currently "admitted" and staying overnight. There have been no cases of cholera or dysentery, although this might change once communities return to using local water sources. UELCI will provide water purification tablets once bottled water supplies run out, but it can't guarantee people will use them properly. Current ailments consist mostly of respiratory infections and post-traumatic stress (inability to sleep and stress-related illnesses). The medical team will train local counselors to address psycho-social needs.

I spoke at length with UELCI staff about three issues:

1. The need to coordinate with the local government and other NGOs to avoid duplication and inconsistent messages to the communities. The Cuddalore "Controller" has been particularly efficient at allocating specific villages to NGOs for both crisis phases and longer-term rehabilitation efforts. The NGOs will need to work closely with the government on housing rehabilitation.
2. The need to slow down and distribute relief materials systematically. A lot of NGOs and local companies have come and simply thrown materials off the back of a truck in the center of the village. This has created conflict within the communities because there is rarely enough material for everyone and simply throwing it into a crowd means some people receive 10 bags and others receive none and there's no way to know if the neediest families received anything.
3. The need to help other groups like Dalits who are often left of government lists or may not have lost a boat but lost their livelihoods because they provide labor for boat owners.

Stories from the Villages

Overall, the wave hit right after the fisherman had returned from early morning fishing to eat breakfast. It's hard to say if this saved lives. It probably depends on how far out they were from the shore. Fisherman in the deep sea reported barely feeling the wave pass underneath them. But if the fishermen were close to shore, they would likely have been tossed from their boats and swept inland.

Unfortunately, having just returned with fish meant many village women were on the beach removing fish from the nets and cleaning them for sale. Those women that weren't at the beach were in their houses cooking breakfast. Because they were either right on the shore or inside their houses, women make up a majority of those killed in the villages I visited. They either had too far to run or too little time to escape their houses.

There are countless stories of people swimming to rooftops or clinging to treetops. In every village, most of the boats have been washed away or damaged beyond repair. In the UELCI villages, there wasn't significant loss of life so most people are anxious to get new boats and nets and return to fishing. They are confident that once they can fish again, they will be able to buy food, replace lost household items, and repair or rebuild their houses.

There are varying socio-economic levels within each village - most likely defined by boat owners vs. fisherman who work on the boats or sell fish in local markets. This is why UELCI will take its time to assess who needs what. Fishing is a relatively lucrative job so boat owners won't need much help once they've replaced their boats. It's an interesting paradox.the boat owners don't need as much help but until they get new boats, they don't provide employment for those that DO need lots of help. So who do you help first? I'm not sure how UELCI is going to tackle that issue, but it's something they're thinking a lot about right now.

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