Date: January 12, 2005

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

Objective: Relief distribution in Nagappatinum town

Participated in the distribution of 800 sets to families from five villages in the Nagappatium area. These families came from villages that were either neglected altogether by other NGOs or were not covered completely. For example, there were 50 families from a village where relief distribution had taken place but for some reason these families did not receive any relief packets.

This is a perfect example of the value our local partners bring to the relief efforts. The local contacts (congregations, church and communities leaders) are in the communities talking to people and observing the recovery efforts. From this position they can identify spotty distribution and neglected families/communities and ensure UELCI provides the assistance needed.

This distribution included stoves and suitcases instead of saris and dotis. When UELCI did the surveys of these communities, they found that people had enough clothes but needed a place to store their new household items and a stove to cook with now that the feeding camps were closing. The distribution itself was organized by the church treasurer who is a university professor and cricket coach. The assembly-line style distribution was staffed by his students and players who volunteered to help for the day.

According to Rev. Martin, construction of temporary housing will begin next week, as soon as they get approval documents from the local government and can procure the materials. The government has designed the housing (down to the # of pieces needed) but NGO's will implement construction.

Construction of permanent housing won't begin until May or June due to land ownership and location issues. Right now, the government wants to relocate families inland but NGOs and many affected villagers want to rebuild near the water. Field officers with UELCI (and CASA, for that matter) are confident that those villagers who are still fearful and want to rebuild further inland will eventually conquer their fears and want to rebuild near the water and their boats.

UELCI plans to highlight gender issues within the housing and land ownership components and will request that ownership papers be put in either both the husband and wife's names or only the women's names.

Psychologically, people are coming out of the "shock" phase and into the "worry" phase, according to field staff. They are beginning to worry about how they will cope and support their families. This is one reason for the urgency in starting livelihood rehabilitation and expanding psycho-social support activities.

Personal Story

The driver of one of our trucks filled with relief materials was kind enough to share his story as we barreled down the country roads toward Nagappatinum, honking our horn and swerving in and out of oncoming traffic.

On the morning of December 26 th Amal Raj dropped his wife off at church. Describing himself as "not a church-goer" he and some of his friends decided to walk down to the beach while their wives attended services. He was about 1km inland from the beach when the wave hit. He heard a sound like an airplane landing and looked up to see a wall of black water about 30ft high. He didn't have time to run but knowing he needed to ride the wave to avoid drowning, he managed to stay on top of the water as it washed him inland. He grabbed an old woman who floated past him, trying to keep her above the water as well. Eventually the force of the water separated them but they were far enough inland by then to swim/float to safety. Amal made sure the old woman was safe on dry ground before he found his wife and returned home to their infant child.

The next day Amal went back to the beach to look for survivors. He was surprised to find so few people on the beach helping in the search, but soon realized there were no survivors.only bodies tangled up with nets and debris. For the next two days Amal used his truck to take load after load of bodies to a mass grave outside town. He estimates he carried 200-300 bodies of people who couldn't manage to stay on top of the water like he did.

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