The last two days Me , Manikandan and JP (from ALAK)along with some other IIT junta were in Nagapattinam helping with the relief distribution efforts in the worst affected villages. We were basicallyhelping with the loading of releif materials into trucks from godowns and sending them off to villages. I thought maybe people wondering how they could help could benefit from our point ofview...
1. People who send old clothes are not helping but greatly hindering the relief efforts. A lot of godowns are filled with old clothes which the villagers will not wear. I was working in the godowns and me and my friends had to tear open bags to check whether they contain new clothes or old. All over Nagapattinam old clothes are strewn around. Again, people in villages wear only sarees and dhotis not trousers and skirts...So useless old clothes just take up space in godowns preventing important material from being stocked and since the quantity is in tonnes and tonnes it is a serious problem. The villagers are also not rag pickers...they have a lot of dignity, in fact when I went to a village with a relief truck, such was their hospitality that in spite of having hardly any material for themselves they made us tea!!! So please ask people not to send old clothes.
2. The big problem is awareness of what is required.There is a lot of relief material but the type is very unbalanced. So far, the stuff sent by the gujarat government was very good because they sent a lot of new clothes and a good balance of toiletries, food, family kits etc. Since they have faced the Bhuj earthquake theyseem to know what is required. I would request would be donors NEVER to send anything directly to any village, but to contact an NGO or the district collectors of Cuddalore, Nagapattinam or Andamans and ask them their requirement. Of course cash donation either to recognised NGO's or Governmental relief funds is actually a good method too. As far as releif material goes people are more interested in labelling the parcels with the donor details, address, phone numbers rather than writing what is inside and how much! It is verypainful to break open parcels and count the things inside and find out what it is.
3. Tamil speaking volunteers are in short supply. Although the placesI visited are rife with volunteers doing a lot of goodwork, there seemed to be a shortage of Tamil speaking people to interact with thelocal officials and villagers. They do not understand english or Hindi and hence interpreters are very much required. Mani and JP had to do lots and lots of talking and convincing the governmentofficials to release more releif and explaing villagers what to take and all that...everyone was happy at the end of it especially the bureucrats:- for the forms and lists which they filled up inTamil!
4. If any one plans to vounteer NEVER and I repeat NEVER land up one day in Nagapattinam and say you have come to volunteer, unannounced.The NGOs and the government are now having a tough time coordinating the volunteers themselves. It is best to get in touch with an NGOworking there and ask them how many volunteers etc are required andonly proceed under their umbrella. Again, there are alot of volunteers available on weekends and a dip in numberson weekdays.
5. During the disaster no doubt the children suffered the most. But its children who are most enthusiastic to move on. When the relieftrucks come to their village, the boys want to know if anyone has sent bats and balls! Toys and games are very very importantto help them move on, because they don't have much to do at this time. THERE IS NOTA SINGLE TOY IN MOST OF THE GODOWNS and the NGO counselling groups are trying to arrange for these.
6. Please do not be discouraged by reports of reliefand cash reachingthe wrong hands and corrupt people and all that. Although we havepersonally seen small time workers flicking a T-shirt here, a biscuit packet there and some people taking away a couple of sacks of foodgrains...it is still very little. As the Nagapattinam collector (whoby the way is an amazing upright lady) said, "even if75% of the stuffreaches the villages it will be way more than enough".So though there is bound to be some dissipation, there are lots of resources and if some people flick something...it is not going to hurt anyone. Myappeal to all would-be donors is, please do not worryabout your money going waste, it all makes a BIG difference.
7. Currently a lot of behaviorial scientists,engineers, professors,and logistics professionals etc are helping out NGOs to chalk out the technical aspects of the rehabilitation work. Scientific organisations should contact NGOs directly and offer their help.
8. Under pain of reiterating myself, I once again, implore people notto be discouraged by reports of aid not reaching the people and all that. There will always be problems and the media loves giving attention to negative aspects rather than the goodwork that is going on. No one for example talks about how there is absolutely no outbreak of even a cold in Nagapattinam and the streets were much cleaner than most cities we live in. The medical camps have quickly and effectively done a thorough job of cleaning everything up and innoculating every single villager. Though most of the drinking water supplies are affected and ground water also tastes salty there, the army has done a good job of mobilising water purification systems andsetting up water infrastructure in many places. Of course it is not all that hunky dory and still some problems remain but things arehappening! Slowly albeit.
9. Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts are in TamilNadu, so aid going to Tamil Nadu reaches the affected people in that state. Butmost people are unaware that towns such as Karaikal are in Pondicherrywhich cannot use the resources from Tamil Nadu, beinga UnionTerritory and all. So NGO's are resorting to buying relief materials in Pondicherry from the market and taking it straight to them, eventhough Tamil Nadu is just next door, overflowing with relief material because of all kinds of governmental and bureaucratic obstuctions come in the way.
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