At the office of Real Image Technologies, Balaji Nagar, Chennai
Contact us at: bhoomikaindia@yahoo.co.in
Participating Organizations
Bhoomika Trust, Real Image, The Banyan, Indians for Collective Action (ICA) USA, Association for India’s Development (AID) USA, The Hindu, IRCS (Red Cross), Smile, Ila Kitchens, IIT-M, TTK-LIG,and many other concerned organizations and individuals.
Our Overall Objective
Plan and Coordinate Relief and Rehabilitation efforts in Tamilnadu.
Goals
Channel our emotions and sympathy into meaningful interventions that focuses on the expressed needs of the affected communities, work with the authorities where we can, listen to the views of people experienced in relief and rehabilitation where useful, and avoid duplication of effort. We are not in competition!.
Outcome
Tell us what you are already doing; learn what others are doing, consolidate the needs, and walk away with a clearer picture of where and how you can help, leave your e-mail/ contact telephones. |
Review relief efforts to date
(Bhoomika Team Leaders: Sudha, Dr. Lakshmi and Vaishnavi) |
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May we ask each group to quickly report what that have done so far and where? |
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What has been the feed-back? |
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And what have we distributed or collected so far?
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| Latest Priorities |
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10-day Ration Kits (see typical ration kit composition below) |
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Biscuits (in great demand!!) |
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Milk Powder |
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Mats (Payi) (in great demand!!) |
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Water (some places good water is being provided by local authority/ trucked water going from Chennai) |
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Bedsheets |
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New Lungi/ Banyans |
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New Sarees/ Blouses |
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Cooking Utensils kit/ Plates & Tumblers |
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Kerosene (may be available locally) |
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Stoves |
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Petromax |
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Firewood (procure locally) |
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Matches (procure locally) |
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Medical supplies (see separate list of needs attached) |
Typical 10-day ration kit per family (high priority!) Approx cost Rs 500-700
Any group should be able to prepare such kits and deliver to the two Collection Points in Chennai (see Real Image and Ela Kitchen addresses in the end). If you wish, you may enclose a self-addressed post card that the recipient family can mail back to you with their names and village (in tamil). |
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| Rice, 10 Kgs |
Sugar 1 Kg |
| Thoor Dhall, 2.5 kgs |
Tea / Coffee 500 gms |
| Oil 2 Lts |
Milk Powder 2 Kgs |
| Tamarind 1.5 Kgs |
Chilli Powder 250 gms |
| Mustard Seeds 50 gms |
Dry Red Chilli 250 gms |
| Channa Dhall 50 gms |
Turmeric 100 gms |
| Oorad Dhall 50 gms |
Potatoes (buy locally?) |
| Salt 1 Kg |
Onions (buy locally? |
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Food Packets (not a priority as local citizens are doing this on the spot)
Blankets (may not be as important as bedsheets)
Used clothes (new clothes preferred-in some places there are no takers for used clothes)
In some places used clothes and food packets are piling up unused but in other places, judging from TV reports, the demand may be still there, so we must not generalize. Coordination and even distribution may be the immediate problem, just like during Gujarat E/Q. |
More formal needs assessment
(Bhoomika Team Leaders: Vanitha, RK, Elka, Vandana, Brindha) |
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Let use hear from each group on what they have found out about the needs in Chennai area as well as in the South:
..Bhoomika
..Smile
..AID
..ICA…etc.
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Earth moving equipment and debris clearing and recovering bodies. Need at Nagapattinam was expressed, and the need fulfilled immediately with one earth mover shipped from TTK at Pondy (has already arrived at Tharangambadi and started clearing by Dec 29 morning) |
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Must discuss organized rations distribution with the concept of signed receipt by family: name of person, village from, date (this is very important for assessment) |
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Do not hand out arbitrarily to groups without recognized local person like panchayat leader, local NGOs, or collectors’ reps |
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Make people stand in line with an organized method and get people to sign their names and villages |
Some thoughts |
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Labeling packages with contents and qty is extremely important! |
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When you hand off packages to others keep a record of who you gave it to and which place |
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Send in a phone report to the Bhoomika InfoCtr (tentative nos: 098401-73553; 098400-61184 ASAP so we can update the Master Board. |
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Must coordinate with other groups in the South (e.g. Trichy) and Bangalore. Within Chennai, must coordinate with ActionAid and others. |
Long term rehabilitation
(Bhoomika Team Leaders: Geetha, Dr. Lakshmi (Vellore Christian Medical – Disaster Management Team) Some requirements stated by the victims already:
Mechanized Boats, Fishing Nets, Catamarans, Caps, Torch Lights, Umbrellas, etc.
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Let us discuss |
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Shared experiences from other disasters: - move to self - cooking quickly, get them to do own work (food for work), avoid huddled tent camps, 'in-situ' rehabilitation where we can |
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Counseling needs (Major meeting with experts in counseling and rehabilitation planned in Chennai Saturday, Jan 1st, place to be announced) |
| • | Need to designate someone to coordinate with the Corporates and the Government agencies on this important issue (Toyota, FICCI, etc.) For now: 098400-61183 Jayendra |