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| Dec 28, 2004 11:29 am |
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Going beyond the reach of money - Helping the Disaster victims |
Govind Srinivasan
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Hello WCFC members,
Yesterday (Monday - 27th Dec.) evening was almost a washed-off day for the WCFC meeting, courtesy the weather and political rumours floating in the city and many large offices were closed in the afternoon itself and the smaller ones too closed well before the usual time.
So, there was no meeting. I still had gone over to the Woodlands Drive-in and didn't want to disappoint at least myself. I also convinced myself that, while considering the kind of holocaust suffered by the sea-shore citizens in the east coast, other perceived risks didn't have any meaning at all.
I met a single soul in Woodlands Drive-in, by name Loganathan, who was not even a membe of this Network and neither had any idea about Ryze. He was deputed by a good friend, Mahalingam from Tiruchi.
Well, I knew that it could prove to be very difficult to organize people and chalk out a programme that would enlist the personal participation of individuals. People may even liberally contribute money and materials in such disaster times. But a large number of people, aggressively volunteering to render post-disaster help to the families of the dead victims and direclty to the surviving victims is something that doesn't happen in the normal course.
Moreover, the character of Tsunami is that it affects only the sea-shore and not engulf the whole residential area. Somebody in Ashok Nagar side of Chennai like me would not have even felt the impact of the Tsunami-disaster even remotely. Why go so far? Take the case of Bells Road, which is so close to the Marina Beach, which didn't have any direct impact of the disaster.
Consider the phenomenon this way too. Most of the victims were from the lower or lowest economic strata of the society. To be precise, most of them were fishermen and their families. Most hinterland residents don't even know most of them and never would have had a chance to interact with them. Tsunamis have a likening to devour poor people and that too in less than 15-20 minutes.
Let me share another illustration. The Gujarat earthquake disaster relief works, in which thousands and thousands of people participated, so spontaneously, were spread over large geographical areas. The visibility of the disaster had a huge spread-over effect.
So, compassion and fellow-feeling are something that require to be articulated among wider unaffected unaudience, so that the impact of the disaster sinks into the thought of a large number of people who would offer their personal physical assistance and NOT just money and materials alone.
The number of relief agencies, which are spearheading to collect money and materials are fairly adequate now. But, people to do the strong human interface tasks like handling the dumb-struck and surviving victims are NOT adequate, for the reasons I have spelt out here.
All organizations DON'T NEED to end up collecting money and materials alone. In fact, I find that there is a lot of misplaced enthusiasm and zeal to give appeal by first-time grouping agencies and associations of people, socliciting money and materials donation. It is better to leave the collecting job to organizations, which have got the experience in distributing and disposing the collected to the the really-needy. AMMUCARE, IDL FOUNDATION, AIDINDIA and a few other organizations have been doing a wonderful job, I think. The front-runners of these organizations are also well known in Ryze Network.
I strongly feel that a long term plan requires to be worked out, wherein typical people from normal walk of white collar life are depended upon for rendering personal service to the surviving victims of the Tsunami disaster.
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It is now proven that India is not a safe country from Tsunami attacks. Once Tsunami tastes a particular region, it has a tendency to revisit it now or later, with lesser or greater impact. Japan has learnt to live with Tsunamis since long. So, we all require to learn the rope trick of long term rehabilitation.
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Rescue and initial relief are a must. But what about rehabilitation? Relief is never planned for a long term, but rehabilitation is. Rehabilitation requires planning. We require a good lot of people to get into rehabilitation tasks.
"WE CARE FOR CHENNAI" need not duplicate the efforts of some other organization, which is already doing a good rehabilitation job. Banners have little meaning and there is no need to show one-up manship here or put a "We are unique" stamping on our activities of this kind. Identity has lesser meaning before what is ultimately delivered to the right kind of people. But, if the momentum does not pick up for rendering a long term service to the suffering humanity, we require thousands of "WE CARE FOR CHENNAI" to make things happen.
Do let me know what do you feel. We will meet, if there is an overwhelming desire to rope in people for the kind of work I have chalked out here - Rehabilitation and long term care.
Govind Srinivasan
91 93810 00516
Moderator
WE CARE FOR CHENNAIPrivate Reply to Govind Srinivasan (new win) |
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