Heat and hard work don't keep workers from removing dried clay, brought ashore by the tsunami, from rice fields. LWR and partner CASA created a food-for-work program to solve this unique problem.

Date: March 23, 2005

THE OCEAN'S SECOND HARVEST.
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF AND PARTNERS GET PEOPLE BACK TO WORK IN GETTING VILLAGES BACK TO NORMAL.

The Indian Ocean is bluer here than at other seaside villages. That's because in Pushpavanam, a small village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the ocean floor is made of clay. Soft, pliable, moldable clay. On December 26th, 2004, the tsunami churned up so much clay that the water was laden with it - which slowed down the force of the wave, sparing many buildings that would otherwise have succumbed to the speed and force of the water, as they did in neighboring villages.

Villagers are toiling with the clay nearly three months after the tsunami flooded their village. Up to eighteen inches of clay covers some rice fields here. Elsewhere it's two and three inches thick. Lutheran World Relief partner, Churches Auxiliary for Social Action, CASA, developed a food-for-work program in response to the villagers' request for help in removing the clay from the fields. "Landowners and their laborers," comments David Pirasithan, CASA's community organizer in Pushpavanam, "must do the actual work in their fields. In exchange, each worker receives five kilograms of rice and twenty rupees per day." Pirasithan explains that to keep attendance in the ten-day work shifts high, the workers receive their payments at the end of the ten days.

Forty-seven year old Anbayhagan has a good rapport with the women laborers who usually work his fields, and who now dig and scoop and haul clay with him in the midday heat. A broad-shouldered, tall former military man, Anbayhagan keeps spirits high, laughs with the women and leaves briefly and regularly to bring them tea and coffee. "I own fifty cents," he says, using the local lingo for half an acre. With amazing dexterity, using their hands and sandaled feet to fill their rudimentary spades, the workers clear an ever-broadening swath through the cracked clay-covered field. They estimate it will take them just a few more days.

"We will test planting other crops here in these fields, papaya trees, perhaps" adds Pirasithan. While salt levels in some fields will render the fields unusable for up to five years in some villages, that may not be the case here, Pirasithan notes. "The clay bound up much of the salt," he continues, which means not as much remains in the soil. We still need the benefit of the rains, which come in June, to wash away what remains. But in the meantime, we will plant trees that will have the added benefit of helping to diversify crops."

Pirasithan adds proudly that this food-for-work program is a grassroots AIDS prevention program. "Often," he says, "after disasters such as this one, women will migrate to the cities, thinking they will find jobs there. When they find that's not usually the case, and with no marketable skills, many turn to prostitution - which significantly increases their exposure to AIDS," he concludes.

Lutheran World Relief works with partners such as CASA that possess this intimate knowledge of small, rural villages, and the conditions that increase their vulnerability to further poverty and diseases such as AIDS. They also look for creative solutions to problems, or opportunities, as in the case of Pushpavanam's clay. "We're bringing in local pottery makers soon," Pirasithan interjects, "to determine if the quality of the clay is sufficient for making pottery. If so, we will teach villagers how to use this abundant resource to diversify their incomes, so they won't be so dependant on fishing and growing rice."

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