HARIPAD ROTARY CLUB
REPORT OF THE TAMIL NADU FLOOD RELEAF PROJECT 2015
(Prepared by Prof. Dr. K.Sabarinath)
The REPORT OF THE TAMIL NADU FLOOD RELEAF PROJECT 2015
The crisis and an exigency
The crisis and an exigency
The cloud burst and incessant rainfall in several parts of Tamil Nadu in the month of October 2015 led to heavy floods in Chennai suburbs and neighboring districts. It made lakhs of people homeless and devastated all their belongings. Chennai being a metro city had the maximum damage. It naturally gained the maximum focus of the media and the government. Shaken by the news of this unprecedented catastrophe, people from allover the world started pouring in with assistance of various types to Chennai.
A firm determination to Act
A firm determination to Act
An emergency General body meeting of the Haripad Rotary Club was held on 9th December 2015 at the Meeting Hall of the Club. The main agenda of the meeting was to decide the role of Haripad Rotary Club in helping the flood affected people in Tamil Nadu. After a detailed discussion and evaluation of the relief works in progress at Chennai and Cuddalore, the General Body unanimously decided to directly involve in the relief operation. A task force was setup in the meeting under the leadership of Rtn. Ajaikumar, the President of the Club to plan and execute this task as a special project of the Club, at a war footing.
The Declaration of solidarity and commitment.
The members of the Club spontaneously expressed their solidarity and support to this noble cause and instantly agreed contribute a sum of two lakhs rupees for the immediate requirement. This accelerated the move and fueled the volunteers to act fast.
A decision to lead rather than follow
When all the other charitable organizations decided to hand over their contributions to the news paper agencies who took initiative to take the flood relief materials to Tamil Nadu, Rotary Club of Haripad decided to take a leader's role. In addition to procuring and transporting the relief materials, utilizing it's resources, Rotary Club of Haripad also offered to carry any new cloths , bed sheets, towels, dresses or any other essential articles given to it by any individuals of institutions for the flood relief on or before 14th December 2015. The Club further undertook the responsibility to distribute the same directly to the needy there. Wide publicity was given to this offer through all the possible sources like social media, local dailies, Educational Institutions and Business Houses.
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A pleasant surprise.
To the pleasant surprise of the organizers, the institutions and business houses responded much above the expectations to the appeal with generous contributions of relief materials in a very short notice.
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A look before the leap
The task force conducted a study on problems of the affected people and the relief operations in progress from the press and visual media and with the help of social net works, rotary contacts and other personal sources. The members of the Club, contacted the Rotarians and the Malayalee Associations at Chennai and Pondicherry to identify the locality for the relief work of the Club.
From the study we came to know that Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, which was also devastated by the flood did not get the proportionate media coverage or relief assistance. It was learnt that apart from the death of 49 people, over 50,000 huts have been damaged during the floods in Cuddalore district. Hundreds of families spent weeks together in relief camps in Cuddalore. As flood water rushed in from a nearby river some of the mud houses were completely washed away and others were severely damaged.
We have also learnt that most of the flood affected villages in Cuddalore are occupied by agricultural laborers and their settlement is cast based. The report of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights and Social Awareness Society for the Youth in Tamil Nadu released after the flood states that " Some of the Dalits villages were the hardest hit by the flood , coincidently they have also been excluded from relief operations. Their report based on 8400 houses in Cuddalore District found that out of 1337 houses that were damaged 1276 belonged to the Delits. The report says that the unusual damage is due to the fact that in Cuddalore the Delits settlements are at the low lying areas near revers or canals and a little avery from the main village. The report also states that these villages have the constant problem of flood. They were hit by the tsunami in 2004, the cyclone Nisha in 2006 and the cyclone Thane in 2011
A house damaged by flood
On contacting the Pondicherry Rotary Club (Elite) we came to know that certain isolated villages in the Cuddalore District resided by the Dalit agricultural laborers did not receive any relief materials nor any relief enquiries from anyone during the flood and thereafter.
The lone candle gives maximum light when the night is the darkest.
On the bases of the information received, we selected two coastal villages in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu viz. Maduvan Karai and Gundu Medu, were nobody has visited for any relief work nor made any enquiries. The saying goes that "The lone candle gives the maximum light when the night is the darkest". At the end of the mission we found the saying is true from the brightening of the faces of the villagers we met there.
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Joined hands with the Rotary fraternity at Pondicherry and Cuddalore.
Rtn. D.Jeevaraj, President of Rotary Club Pondicherry (Elite) in the Rotary District 3891was overwhelmed to hear that we have selected Mudavan Kara Village and Gundu Medu Village in Cuddalore district for our relief work and readily offered all the support and co operation of his Club for the execution of this noble task. He also roped in the assistance of Rotary Club Cuddalore (Coastal City) in directing us to the area, safely escorting the relief team to the place and helping in the distribution of the relief materials directly to the deserving people.
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The warning given by well wishers.
We were warned by many well wishers about the looting of the relief materials taking place at many places in Tamil Nadu especially near Cuddalore, before we start from Haripad with relief materials. The news given below was obtained from the net.
December 08 2015
" Cuddalore : Desperate crowds blocked and chased down truks and vans carrying relief materials such as food, water, milk powder and clothes on almost all highways from helpless volunteers.One of the truck driver named Vijay, who transported relief materials from Erode told media persons that, a crowd of villagers threatened to thrash him if he did not switch off the engine. Volunteers on the truck tried to convince the mob not to steal as the materials are going to relief center. But, “They verbally abused us saying instead of distributing it at a relief camp, they could do it right there,” he added.
The same crowd also stopped several trucks on the same path. The mob took away the needed and thrown the unwanted materials on the road. The problem persists since Saturday and hence local authorities deployed police constables for the protection of the vechicles that bring relief materials at the entrance of Cuddalore itself at 7 km from Madapattu National Highway turning towards Panruti."
Prevention is always better than cure
Being given to understand these state of affairs, we wanted to prevent all these hurdles and directly reach the needy and help them. With this end in mind we adopted the following strategies for our mission.
The strategies:
Rotary Club of Haripad adopted the following strategies to face this Threat.
1. Instead of taking relief materials in a public carrier , we took it in the Ambulance and Private cars.
2. Instead of tying the banner of the relief operation on the vehicle we kept unfolded in the vehicle till we reached the spot.
3. Vehicles carrying relief materials were well escorted by the vehicles of the members of Cuddalore and Pondicherry Clubs.
4. Cuddalore Club ensured the support and assistance of the village heads in the respective villages, to have control over the crowd and identify the people, for the distribution of the relief materials
5. Tokens were issued to the heads of families on the basis of ration cards and queues were formed before the commencement of the distribution of materials to avoid confusion and stampede.
Later we realized that it was these strategies that helped us to distribute the relief materials directly to the deserving.
Enthusiastic sendoff by a good gathering.
Ambulance loaded with the relief materials including medicines was escorted by another private vehicle with the team of volunteers from the Haripad Rotary Club. The team was lead by Rtn.PHF Ajaikumar, the President of the Club. Rtn. PHF Omanakuttan, the secretary , Rtn. Rajanikanth, the Treasurer, Rtn. Prof. K. Sabarinath, and Rtn. Rajeev T.P were the members of the team. The mission started from the premises of the Haripad Muncipal Office and the vehicles were flagged off by the municipal Vice Chairman Mr. M.K. Vijayan at 7 p.m on 14 th December 2015. Municipal counsellor Rtn. PHF PAG Baburaj , Rotary Past Presidents Rtn PHF T.P.Sugathan, RTPHF Benefactor Jacob Samuel, Rtn. MPHF DAG Murugan Palayathil and many others members of the Club and some prominent citizens of Haripad were present during the occasion.
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Services of the Pondicherry Kerala Samajam was significant
Pondicherry Kerala Samajam is known for its charitable activities from the time of the French settlement there. They were also involved in the relief operations after this flood. For effective time management we sought the help of the Pondicherry Kerala Samajam to purchase certain essential articles for flood relief on our behalf, from Pondicherry at cost price on 14th December itself. They purchased them and handed over to us in kits by the time we reach there on 15th December and we settled their payment for the articles. The volunteers of Pondicherry Kerala Samajam was always readily available for any service while we were doing the preparatory works at Pondicherry, for the supply of articles at Cuddalore.
The Pondicherry Kerala Samajam Office Bearers who came to support us.
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Helping hands of Pondicherry Rotary Cub (Elite) for re-packing.
The bundles of material brought from Haripad are being repacked in separate kits for supply to the affected families in the two villages at Cuddalore . Pondicherry Rotary Club provided the required big shoppers for making kits. They have also provided some volunteers to assist us in completing this job.
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Hospitalities and fellowship of Rotary Club of Pondicherry (Elite) District 2891
In the evening on 15th December, Rotary Cub of Pondicherry (Elite) offered us a warm and generous treat at Hotel Annamalai. It gave us opportunity to mutually share our experience in service and to develop fellowship among the representatives of both the Clubs.
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Partnership in service across the states with a cordial hand shake.
The presidents of Haripad Rotary Club in Rotary District 3211 and Rotary Club of Pondicherry (Elite) in the Rotary District 2891 hand in hand with the fellow Rotarians for the accomplishment of a noble humanitarian service.
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Distribution in the Madavan Karai Village
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Distribution in the Gundu Medu Village
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Enjoying the synergy of a group effort.
The volunteers from Rotary Club of Haripad belonging to Rotary District 3211 and the Rotary Club of Pondicherry Elite and Rotary Club Costal City of Cuddalore, belonging to the Rotary District 2891, joined in no time and merged in to a rotary team to accomplish this great task. On completion of the task each one complimented the other and hailed the spirit of rotary. They posed for a photograph for a memory before bidding farewell .
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After the successful distribution of the relief materials to the villagers, the volunteers of the the three Rotary Clubs involved thanked the village heads who assisted us. We were moved by the tears of joy found from the recipients of relief. We all thanked each other for the co-operation and forgot the thirst, hunger and fatigue for a while in the complacence brightening the faces in the two village at least for a short while.
Haripad Rotary Club In the press in Tamil Hadu
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Back to home town to celebrate the success
The members of the Haripad Rotary Club were kept informed about the progress of the mission from time time throughout the period. They were extremely happy to hear that the plan was carried out perfectly as expected by the members .They in their jubilance organized a warm reception to the team that retuned after the successful completion of the mission.
The members of the Club rejoicing the return of the volunteers after the mission
The Feed Back
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At the end of the day we feel complacent that, Five lakhs rupees worth of relief materials carried by us from the cost of Arabian sea could bloom many lakhs rupees worth smiles on the faces of the water marooned and distressed villagers of
Karai and Gundumedu at Cuddalore, situated at the cost of Bay of Bengal.
