Meeting

Disaster victims – we have to recognise their aspirations and capacities and not just show their vulnerabilities and fear while talking about them” – from the Red Cross web print out on the notice board.

Father Yesu Antony is the Director of the CRDS. Simple, dedicated and kind. His short speeches in the two day Orientation meeting (for Tsunami rehab workers) are highly motivating. Just enough to push you through the tough day and still feel happy for being there. I consider myself lucky to land just in time for the meeting. Sitting among the different people who have been working in the relief and rehab work, I feel a little useless or bad for not being there when they needed volunteers the most – during the first few weeks after the disaster struck. These are the people who were providing food, water, shelter and kind, solacing words, which the government could not provide for weeks to come. I notice that more than half of them is women – mainly from the fishermen community. There is Mangai and Selvamani who are secondary counselors , and Lakshmi who is a night school teacher in Sadraskuppam (Sadurangapattinam).

I am learning as much as I can in these two days so

that I can hit the road soon.

I might have less time in hand, but lots of hope and desire to help.

Photos:

Top: Meeting room

Right: The nice hut where we had lunch