Calamities
Beside its usual programmes and routine activities, Volontariat and its staff have always been involved in relief activities, as soon as a natural disaster or a family tragedy happens: cyclonic storm, flood, fire accident or arson, accidents or suicides. The main recent natural disaster obviously was the Tsunami which hit many countries, the coast of South India and the archipelago of Andaman & Nicobar on 26.12.2004.
These relief activities are a part of our duty as social workers and our slogan is to “leave the door open to any distress situation”.
Cyclonic storms and floods
They occurred quite frequently during the sixties and seventies, causing heavy human and material damage. Strong winds, heavy rains flooding the villages, sometimes tidal waves (we still remember the one which hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh in 1977 where 55000 people died).
Pondicherry and Uppalam in particular, suffered from several cyclones during these years. Most of the thatched huts collapsed, coconut trees fell on the huts, leaving the people without a roof and soaked to the skin. That’s why, when Volontariat built the Community Centre, in the middle of Uppalam in 1968, the full first floor was dedicated to the rescue of the people of Uppalam, in a cyclonic disaster. The last cyclone which hit the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry coast occurred in November 2008 [see this website, News, hurricane Nisha].
Huts fire
Until recently, only the city, inside its boulevards, had permanent houses with bricks, tiles and cement.
The families which cannot afford to have or rent a house, live in the outskirts or slums, like Uppalam of the sixties, in thatched huts (structure with bamboos or casurina wood, roof made of coconut tree leaves, walls made of dried mud). When the roof is drying under the sun, especially during the summer, April to July, only a spark can set fire to one hut and all the huts around, in a very short time. Many such accidental fires or even arson have happened at and near Uppalam in the past. [See on this website, NEWS, huts fires in July 2006 and 2007 at Vandrapet].
For all these disasters, either by rain, wind or fire, specially when it happens at or near Uppalam or/and when the families of sponsored children are involved, our intervention is very quick: the doctor and nurses treat the wounds, the social workers counsel the adults and children, food and water are distributed to all (several hundreds) as long as necessary. A coordinated action is made with other helpers, governmental or private, in order not to duplicate the services or neglect basic needs.
The families which own the plot on which their hut stands, may receive Governmental assistance when they rebuild a permanent house. When the family has a sponsored child, Volontariat also assists in the construction cost.
Accidents and suicides
They too occur frequently and Volontariat has to do counseling, look after the children that we often place at Amaidi Illam, aged people acting as grand parents, then we place them in our programme of Nila Illam at TTK. With the family, we try to find a solution for the children and the remaining parent (if any). Priority is always given to the care of orphan children.
Post Tsunami programmes
The disaster, on that day of 26.12.2004, was not the worst one that hit India, on account of the number of victims, but surely the most terrifying for the people, as many who suffered from the waves are still alive and will remember it for all their life. Also the damages were spread in hundreds of km along the coastal areas of South India and all the Islands of the Andaman Archipelago. Today in 2010, all the post- Tsunami rehabilitation programmes, at Pondicherry, Karaikal, Nagapattinam, Andaman & Nicobar islands, and other minor places, have been achieved and archived!
For all these calamities, individual or collective, the period of relief is quite short, so the relief has to be done very quickly, sometimes within an hour, and with efficiency. It is what Volontariat tries to do, at its level of responsibility and means.
