The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : NGO project for tsunami-hit in Cuddalore

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 12, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

NGO project for tsunami-hit in Cuddalore

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: A group of women from the tsunami-affected region of Cuddalore district have been trained by a city-based non-governmental organisation as community leaders, who could inspire and encourage other villagers to become self-reliant.

Academy for Disaster Management Education, Planning and Training, run by the National Lutheran Health and Medical Board, had formed 20 community support centres covering 51 villages of Cuddalore district after the tsunami tragedy of December 26, 2004. The main objective was to rehabilitate the villagers whose lives were wrecked by the tsunami.

The women will identify alternative livelihood options for the villagers, particularly women and also train adolescent girls on health and hygiene. Dr. Gauthamadas, psychiatrist and coordinator for the project, told reporters that most villagers had not yet resumed fishing, as they were dependent on relief material.

"They have become what one can call tsunami-privileged. Since the men are not going to the seas, the women too do not have any livelihood because they were all employed in fishing-related jobs like fishnet-sewing or hawking fish."

In the first phase, the Academy plans to provide nutritional supplement for 3,000 children in the age group of 3 to 12 years in the villages.

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