'A boat and a net is all I need'

By Gesine Wolfinger, Diakonie Emergency Aid/ACT International/photo by Orla Clinton

Ravi is one of many people standing patiently in line in the hot sun outside the village community center, which has been turned into an emergency distribution warehouse since the tsunami struck this part of south India two weeks ago.

The warehouse is the base from which Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) is implementing one of its many relief programs for the people whose lives were devastated on December 26. Today, CASA, a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, is distributing tarpaulins to 200 families of K.C. Kulam village near Pondicherry. The families lost everything to the massive waves.

Paul Luther, CASA/ACT's local project officer, explains that those who needed assistance most were identified with the help of the local community leaders, and in this way CASA, with its strong roots in the community, can assist people in rebuilding their lives.

To streamline the distribution process, people received identity cards in different colors - blue for plastic sheeting, for instance. Over the weekend, the families received a food package and non-food items like mats, kitchen utensils and towels.

"We target the poorest of the poor, like female-headed households, orphaned children and people with disabilities," says M. Jebasingh Simeon, a senior staff member of CASA. By adopting a system of cards for the beneficiaries, he says that in this way "we make sure that nobody gets things twice and others nothing."

However, what is clear is that the outpouring of compassion and goodwill by people has a downside, with mountainous piles of used clothing that no one seems to want.

What people do need are the basics to assist them in rebuilding their lives. Ravi, who received a tarpaulin, is the 35-year-old father of three children. He talks about his life as a fisherman for the last 20 years. "But now my hands are tied", he says. "I have lost my boat and my net."

He would need some 80,000 rupees (about US $1,800) to re-establish himself. Now, there seems to be no chance of this happening again. With a boat and a net, fishermen, whose incomes have seasonal ups and downs, can make this kind of money during the good months of the year, but without the essential equipment, there is no way he can resume his work.

But Ravi, unlike many of his friends and colleagues, is not afraid of the sea, in spite of the events of two weeks ago. "If I could, I would go out at once," he says. "A boat and a net, that is all I need to start again." Humanitarian agencies like CASA cannot help individuals by providing such

large items, but Ravi's story is repeated a thousands times over in India alone, highlighting the enormous challenge ahead for the government and the humanitarian aid community.