Tsunami One Year on: India
26/12/2005
SOS TSUNAMI RELIEF WORK IN INDIA
Many towns and villages on the south coast of India were flattened by the tsunami; the people who lived here lost everything. SOS Children has reconstructed over 800 simple but functional family homes, and the new owners are very pleased with them.
Two new SOS Children’s Villages will provide loving homes to children who lost their parents on December 26th. One will be constructed in Pondicherry Town on India’s east coast, and will become home for 140 children. Construction is beginning this month and the village will be completed in 2007. The second will be built in Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: land allocation is currently underway.
As well as rebuilding homes and villages, SOS Children runs education programmes for both children and adults so people can have a better quality of life. In Murtypudukuppam, a village near Pondicherry Town, we have been running tailoring and handiwork classes for women, and primary education classes for children. Work on permanent facilities for these classes will be completed shortly. In the Karaikal District a day care centre offers young children play activities, trauma counselling for those affected by the tsunami and hot meals, while their parents are out at work. A vocational training centre will be constructed on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to provide the teenagers there with the skills needed by the local labour market. Young children will also benefit from a brand new SOS nursery school.
In the towns where SOS Children has undertaken extensive reconstruction programmes, there are SOS community centres which run adult education classes and also have medical and day care facilities. Medical services include community nurses and a dispensary. After the community centres have been fully constructed, they will be handed over to the local communities to manage and run.
This article is part of the tsunami one year on review.
Relevant Countries: India.