Tidal Wave in Indian Ocean

Tsunami

To: All my Dear Vincentians.

TSUNAMI RELIEF WORK DONE BY THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF INDIA

 The Tsunami which took place on Boxing Day of 2004 was a tragedy which is well presented in the print, audio and visual media. The well chronicled, unprecedented devastation was there for every one to see.

We are confining ourself to handling of the tragedy by the National Council of India without giving much detail of the destruction as they have already been presented in the media as well as the website of the National Council of India.

On that fateful day very few of us realized the gravity of the situation. Our National Secretary first reported of dead bodies on the road between Thanjavur and Tiruchirapalli. All our affected Central Councils spent that night sending dead bodies to the morgues for disposal, finding shelters for the survivors and giving them the necessities of food and clothing. Twenty Central Councils were affected on the East Coast and the South Western tip of India. Instructions were given to the affected Central Councils to send reports along with photographs for display on our National website. The website of The National Council of India with these reports and photographs was linked by Ozanet, the website of the Council General, the websites of Australia, England and Wales, and USA. Here, we take this opportunity to thank the National Councils of these countries and the Council General for highlighting the problems in India which must have gone a long way in collecting and sending us the huge funds we ultimately received.

The President of the National Council of India Bro. T. Joseph Pandian summoned the Presidents of the Central Councils affected and had an emergency meeting at Tiruchirapalli on 9^th January 2005 to assess the situation.

Immediate emergency funds were sent to fourteen poor Central Councils worth Rs.850,000/-. This was found to be inadequate.

Realizing the gravity of the situation he immediately formed a seven member Tsunami Disaster Relief committee with the National Vice President and Treasurer as the convener and chairman. This committee met at Chennai (Madras) on 23rd January 2005 called for details of aid required from every Conference affected. Applications for relief were received after tapping all sources of government and NGOs which were scrutinized by the Tsunami Committee at its meeting in Bangalore on 12^th March 2005.

With the main aim of getting the affected people back to their normal life and profession the first installment for every conference was allocated to defray the cost of 1995 nets, 596 boats and for rehabilitating a few families costing Rs.6,759,600/-. This was done after setting limits for cost of each item. (i.e. Rs.3000/- for nets, Rs.5000 for country boats, Rs.10,000 for house, etc.). After receiving completion reports with photographic evidence, Rs.4,097,770/- were release towards repair of 603 houses and a few boats. Simultaneously applications for educational grants were called for and Rs.7,634,000 were paid for 3,798 students.

In receiving completion reports for the first two parts of the first phase it was brought to our notice that there were changes in the needs of the affected people, changes in the beneficiaries due to various reasons. Eg it was brought to light that the fishing profession had a very big set back; due to ecological imbalance the fishermen were not getting enough fish, further people also were reluctant to eat fish due to the finding of so many dead bodies in the sea. As Bro. Michael Theo put it when he came to India-The ecological imbalance created a new type of poor within the poor families.

The National Council of India decided to re-assess the situation. At the end of September 2005 all further payments were stopped. Fresh applications were called for. The fresh applications were reviewed at a meeting of the Tsunami Disaster Relief Committee at Kottar, one of the worst affected Central Council on 23^rd October 2005.

The Committee tried as much as possible to limit the sanctioned amount within the balance available funds of Rs.18.866 millions and allocated Rs.20.520 millions for undone house repairs, unsupplied nets, animals and boat repairs, some self help ventures and a small project for marriage of tsunami affected people. To meet the needs of the amounts already sanctioned by the Tsunami Disaster Relief (TDR) Committee there is a shortfall of Rs. 165,400/-, apart from the requirement on the educational front.

To add to our misery the Southern Indian Peninsular has also seen this year unprecedented rains up to December which affected the relief work. This was following the normal monsoon seasonal rain from June to September. There was further misery in the form of the earthquake in Pakistan which affected the mountainous region of North India where we have less than five conferences some of which are still under formation. Despite all this we are still pressing our Central Councils to complete the Tsunami relief work.

Due to this unprecedented unseasonal rains up to December 2005 not only the relief work but the work of checking of the relief work done by our Tsunami auditors was also hampered. A further meeting of the Tsunami Committee is planned in the middle of March 06 to take stock of the situation.

Apart from Rs.709,541/- for Tsunami & Rs. 486,405/- for CGI Disaster Fund collected in India, all the rest of the money has been received from the CGI and our twinning partners. This does not take into consideration the food items, utensils, clothes, school books, stationery items, linen to cover the dead bodies etc collected as donations and distributed by almost all the affected Central Councils.

Through this update we wish to thank the Council General International and all his office bearers for their efforts, encouragement and support given to the National Council of India and to all the National Councils for their support which has gone a long way in tiding over this most difficult situation in the History of the Society in India.

The undersea earthquake that occurred near Sumatra islands spread over thousands of kilometers far and wide and caused widespread damage to lives, livestock, property and belongings in many countries of South East Asia and even Africa. The death toll due to Tidal waves has crossed 170 thousand people with still many more missing and unaccountable. Damage to property exceeds billions of Dollars.

In India, the east coast areas of the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Southern Kerala have suffered. Out of that the entire east coast belt, Tamil Nadu has suffered very severe damages which bore the brunt of the Tsunami waves. The entire coastal belt, on the east of Tamil Nadu has been washed out. Thousands of pilgrims died at the famous catholic pilgrimage centre of the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Velankanni which is one of the worst affected centers in Southern India.

When loss to human life is stated to be around 8000, many more thousand people are reported missing and they are as good as dead. When many families have been totally wiped out, some have been terribly disintegrated.     Lot of children - dead and orphaned, ladies - widowed, men-bruised battered and maimed so goes the woes of misery.

Loss to property is worth over billions of dollars as they have lost everything including their houses, properties, vehicles, belongings, trawlers, mechanized boats, fishing boats, catamarans, fishing nets, hutments and their lifetime savings in property, ornaments  etc.  Their life has been wildly thrown back by 20 years if not more. Those who survived the calamity are just left with the clothes they were in and nothing else and have to start their lives from scratch. There are no words to describe their plight. It is terrible and mind boggling!

Our Vincentian brothers and sisters in the vicinity are the first ones to reach out to the scenes of disaster and have been rendering physical assistance and those far away are rendering spiritual and financial assistance. The Catholic Church and priests and nuns along with our Vincentians have been toiling day in and day out in rendering physical assistance to those rendered homeless, by providing shelter in our schools and convents; providing food, clothes, water, emergency medicines, etc.

 As of now the Government of India, the respective State Governments, agencies like the Church in India, the Indian public, the International community and voluntary organizations are in the field doing what they can. We Vincentians are involved in conducting an in depth survey of the casualties and damages and as a first step are trying to give them essential requirements of food, clothing, water and shelter and having the losses registered with appropriate authority, so that survivors stand to get the benefits announced by the Central and State Governments in India. We are also undertaking counseling work to the traumatized. But all this appears to be meager.

The reconstruction involves rendering short term relief and plan out long term relief measures of multifarious activities. All Central Councils and each and every Vincentian in India has been called upon to rise to the occasion and donate what best they can.

A National level Tsunami Disaster Relief (TDR) Committee has been formed to assess, guide and monitor the rehabilitation work.

Proposals and recommendations of the TDR committee, giving an idea of the quantum and extent of relief works to be carried out in the affected areas by S.S.V.P in India have been sent to the Council General International and all our twinning partners.

We look forward to the support and prayers of all our dear Vincentians.

Yours fraternally.

T. Joseph Pandian.

President,

National Council of India,

Society of St. Vincent de Paul..

Chennai 25th January 2005.

TDR COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION TAKEN

  RECOMMENDATIONS :-

1^ST Meeting held in Chennai 25^th January 2005.

 a)      The responsibility for TDR work should be placed with the Conferences under the direction and control of the President of Central Councils (CCs) and his C.C’s TDR Committee consisting of i) President of the C.C ii) Secretary of the C.C iii) Treasurer of the C.C  and iv) NCI office bearer belonging to the C.C.

b)     The request for TDR work should be made after taping all the local sources, including government, other NGO’s etc.

c)      The TDR committee recommends no aid for boats as most of the boats are insured.

d)     Catamaran / Country boats being poor mans boat should be considered for aid.

e)     Proposals for TDR request should originate from the Conferences affected by the Tsunami and should benefit only the poor and needy including poor affected Vincentians. All limitations like amounts, periods etc will not apply to Tsunami relief projects.

f)     Write to the Council General for use of Rs. 50,00,000/- remaining balance in the  Gujarat Earthquake Relief work and Rs. 4,31,000/-  ( revised figure after further collection = Rs. 4,85,305/-) collected by NCI against the Council Generals  International Disaster Fund.

g)      Orphaned children should be adopted by good hearted people overseas.

i)       Special scholarship should be given for Tsunami affected children. NCI is in the process of formalising scheme for the same.

h)        All S.S.V.P run home for the aged in India should accommodate Tsunami affected elderly people. Additional funds to be provided by NCI to such homes.

i)     S.S.V.P India should endeavor to have project for orphaned children.

j)       We request overseas Councils to increase twinning grants for Conferences affected by Tsunami disaster for a period of three years.

k)   National Council of India (NCI) should be liberal in granting funds to the needy and poor affected people.

PROCEDURES SUGGESTED:-

1. The N.C.I should reassess the immediate needs of each of the Central Councils (C.C’s) affected by tsunami.
2. Immediate funds should be made available to all the C.C’s affected by the Tsunami.
3. After all the sources are tapped, Conferences should submit Tsunami Disaster Relief (TDR) requests which should be sent to the N.C.I through their Central Council President.
4. All TDR requests should be processed by the TDR Committee of the NCI as expeditiously as possible i.e. maximum within four weeks of receipt of the requests.
5. When funds are received from foreign N.C/C.G.I, payment should be made to the C.C immediately to start the relief work.
6. N.C.I should appoint TDR monitoring officers to oversee all the TDR works.
7. All the paper work relating to the TDR should be centralized at and controlled from H.Q.
8. Completion reports and photographs should be sent to Overseas Councils/C.G.I.

ACTION TAKEN :-

1. Special forms were designed and sent to the affected Central Councils for distribution to affected conferences along with guide lines. 
2. A deadline of 5^th March was set to receive all the forms duly completed by the conferences to be sent to NCI HQ through the Central Councils.
3. Accordingly 196 TDR applications were received from 19 Central Councils for a original total requirement of Rs. 118,641,110/-.
4. The TDR committee which met at Bangalore on 12^th March 2005, scrutinized all the application and funds were allocated on the following basis:-

i)   1^st Part of 1^st Phase.

1)                  The 1^st part of phase one to be taken up for supply of nets and repair of

            country crafts/catamaran. Preference given to only the adopted families

            and poor affected Vincentians.

2)                  Accordingly the number of nets to be paid for in the 1^st part was scaled

            down.

3)                Cost of nets was worked out at Rs. 3,000/- per net or amount claimed by

           conference which ever is lower.

4)                  Country Crafts / Catamarans were also given the same treatment as in 1

            & 2 above.

5)                  Cost of Country Crafts / Catamarans was worked out at Rs. 5,000/- each.

6)                  Accordingly funds were given to all Central Councils which provided the

            TDR request forms complete in all respects including names of beneficiaries.

7)                  All Central Councils have been told that the next installment will be given after        

            completion of the 1^st part of the 1^st phase.

8)                  Their completion report should give :-

                        1) A statement of Tsunami a/c of money received and spent.        

                        2) Photographic evidence with names of beneficiaries.

                        3) Receipts from beneficiaries.

9)                  The funds allocated for the 1^st part of the 1^st phase is Rs. 7,181,300/-.

            Most of the money is already remitted to the affected Central Councils.

ii) 2^nd Part of the 1^st Phase

        1)      This comprises of repairs to houses.

        2)      Preference given to houses of adopted families and poor affected

              Vincentians.   

        3)      Accordingly the number of houses were scaled down.    

        4)      A limit of Rs. 10000/- per house was set.

        5)      The funds allocated for 2^nd part of the 1^st phase is Rs. 7,954,770/-

        6)      Payment for the 2^nd instalment will be sent only after receiving completion

              reports for the 1^st part.

      iii) 3^rd Part of the 1^st phase.

1)      This comprises of supply of life stock, sewing machines, computers etc.

2)      Preference should be given to houses of adopted families and poor affected Vincentians.

3)      A limit of Rs. 10,000/- per animal was set.

4)      The funds allocated for 3^rd part of the 1^st phase is Rs. 1,496,600/-.

5)      Payment of the 3^rd installment will be sent only after receiving completion reports for the 2^nd part.

    iv)  4^th Part of the 1^st phase.

            1)      This instalment is allocated to 50% of all the remaining items requested

                  ie nets, House repairs, boats, animals, other equipments and will

                  depend upon availability of funds.

            2)      The fund for 4^th Part of the 1^st Phase is Rs. 10,841,700/-.

            3)      Payment of the 4^rd part will be sent only after receiving completion

                  reports for the 3^rd part and will depend upon availability of fund.

NOTE:  THE FOLLOWING HAVE NOT BEEN CONSIDERED AS YET BY THE TDR    

              COMMITTEE.

            (WILL BE CONSIDERED IF FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE)

   1. Requests for net, boats, houses etc left unpaid after the 4^th part of

    Phase total up to Rs. 10,470,900/-.

2. Projects requested by Central Councils Rs. 13,714,200/-.

e) Phase II.

1. This will comprise of (a) building new houses (b) education scheme and (c) some project (d) adoption of orphans.
2. Application will be called for construction of new houses after all the local resources such as Government; NGOs etc. have done their share of constructing houses.
3. We had estimated 670 houses at Rs. 70,000/- per house. The fund requirement for houses is therefore Rs. 46,900,000/- viz.
4. For education we have estimated an annual outlay of Rs. 6,400,000/-.

a)            Primary education to 1200 students at Rs. 2,000/- per child per year.

b)           1000 higher education at Rs. 4,000/- per student per year.

c)            For a period of 5 years this amounts to Rs. 32,000,000/- on education.

5.  Adoption of 200 orphans @ Rs. 600/- per month works upto Rs. 1,440,000/- annually. 

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