Asha for Education

Project Brief: Asha Chennai has undertaken tsunami relief and rehabilitation work at Urur, Olcott, Odai and nearby Kuppams to help affected families return to normalcy
Project Type: Capex / Infrastructure (description)
Primary Focus: other (description)

Secondary Focus: other

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact: Seattle

Status: completed - requirements ended
Project Steward: Jayashree Janardhan
Project Partner(s):
Other Contacts:
Project Address: , ,,,
Tamil Nadu 
Tel:
Stewarding Chapter: Seattle

Asha Chennai has already been working with the fishing hamlets along the coastline of Chennai. Refer to http://www.ashanet.org/chennai/projects/ururkuppam.htm and http://www.ashanet.org/chennai/projects/balwadi.htm for information about Urur Kuppam and the existing Asha activities there.

The Dec. 26th Tsunami?s effects on Urur, Olcott and Odai Kuppams are as follows,

These Kuppams were spared the worst of the Tsunami and no lives were lost but there was severe property damage.
About 300 families in these Kuppams have either partially or totally lost their huts and their belongings to the Tsunami.
About 75% families were tenants and it is not even clear if they have any proof of residence which will enable them to get government relief. Some of them are currently being housed in the Sastri Nagar Corporation School. Others have moved in with friends, relatives or gone away to relatives outside the city. Some families who have been able to stay on with their owners in the village have also done so. None of these people are fishermen. They work as maids, drivers, watchmen etc. in Besant Nagar.
The other 25% of the houses were occupied by the owners mostly fisherman who were very poor and some people who had lived long enough in the Kuppams. These people as well as owners whose houses were further inland have lost their huts. Many of these people have also lost their catamarans or boats, fishing nets etc., their source of livelihood.
The tenant families are the worst affected in that they have not received any support for rehabilitation from the government. While they have got adequate clothes, food and a decent shelter in the Sastri Nagar Corporation School, what they need desparately is a place where they can stay so that they can go to work, send their children to school and bring their lives back to normalcy. They would require our assistance towards this. They would further require some essential items to restart their household like stove, utensils, buckets, etc.

To help settle these families we expect to provide the families with the following,

The rental deposit for the new house they are renting.
Provisions (typically 3 days? dry rations and 2 litres of Kerosene) for their initial use at the new house.
Some utensils, and stove required for the household.
Clothes will be provided if required from our collection. Money should not be required for this.
Optionally arrangement of bus passes for the children to come to the school for a couple of months. This would be required if their new residence is far away from their old one.
Through our experience we have found that the average family requires about Rs 5000 for the above. Note that families that are better off may take a more expensive house on rent (which would require more advance) but may not need our assistance with provisions etc. Therefore the split between the various items varies. We keep Rs 6000 as the upper limit to be spent on a family as part of this project.