Tsunami 2004
At 7.59 AM, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 Richter scale (one of the largest ever recorded), ripped through an undersea fault in the Indian Ocean, propelling a massive column of water toward unsuspecting shores. On boxing day, this monstrous tsunami took a shocking 230,000 lives in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and surrounding areas, making it one of the deadliest tsunamis in history.
The areas hardest hit by the tsunami were the south-eastern coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. When Tsunami hit the Southern coasts of India in 2001, thousands of volunteers under the aegis of the Sewa Bharati, engaged in relief work. The volunteers, in cooperation with organisations like Ramakrishna Mutt in Tamil Nadu, Nair Service Society, Sri Narayana Guru Dharma Paripalana Yogam and Mata Amrithanandamayi Mutt in Kerala and Janakshema Samiti in Andhra Pradesh, set up relief camps in Tsunami affected districts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They distributed thousands of food packets, organised teams doctors and cremated thousands of dead bodies.
What did we fund?
The funds were split evenly to fund the rehabilitation projects in Sri Lanka, India and other affect regions. In India, we agreed to fund three projects and in Sri Lanka, we committed to the building of houses in 5 villages. In all these regions, 5824 volunteers were engaged in relief works.
Initial Relief Activities
- Rescued 115 people from the jaws of death.
- Cleared about 1800 corpses out of the 3378 deaths in Nagapattinam alone.
- Conducted 68 medical camps in 13 affected districts of Tamil Nadu.
- Distributed 93 tons of Rice, 10 tons of Dal and 16 tons of Vegetables.
- Supplied 5,00,000 litres of bottled drinking water.
- Offered 10,000 blankets and 18,000 mats.
- Mobilized 5524 male and 300 female volunteers.
- Performed last rites with dignity for over 1000 unidentified corpses.
- Mobilized 75 Doctors and 5 Ambulances for the medical relief work.
- Operated 15 relief centres on 24 hours basis for nearly three weeks.
- Provided food to 30,000 people daily for fifteen days.
Initial Rehabilitation Activities
- Providing Family kit containing the most essential items for survival to 26,860 families.
- Counselling sessions offered to 113 villages for trauma recovery.
- Special counselling sessions for women and children.
- 1200 Temporary houses constructed at Keechankuppam village by the third week of January 2005.
- Ganga- Mata Yatra conducted from Chennai to Kanyakumari to restore the confidence of the fisher folks and enable them to venture to the sea.
- Numerous tuition classes, tailoring and computer classes in the affected area.
- Helping men and women earn a decent income by providing them with livelihood kits.
- Donation of 5000 fishing nets to fishermen.
- Repairs of over 300 boats that were damaged by the giant tsunami waves.
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