The Stories

Tsunami: 5 years on

Through the combined efforts of our partners, local churches and our team of disaster experts, Tearfund was able to help more than 840,000 people in India, Indonesia, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Sesu Raj was attending to his nets on the Indian coastline when the tsunami struck and smashed his new fishing boat to pieces. He escaped with his life but his livelihood was in ruins. He owed money to the bank for the boat and his family no longer had a breadwinner.

The day after the tsunami, Tearfund partner Discipleship Centre began recovery work in the area of Tamil Nadu where Sesu lived. Working closely with local churches to identify those most in need, it started feeding 5,000 people who had lost all means to provide for themselves and providing solace for those in mourning.

In tsunami-affected areas in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Discipleship Centre provided emergency relief aid, such as food, clothes, hygiene kits and cooking utensils to more than 19,000 families in 75 villages.

Debts paid

Later staff turned their attentions to the long term. Sesu was given a new boat and fishing nets and soon he had paid off his debts. Before long he was saving money to pay for his children’s education.

In all Discipleship Centre supplied 950 new boats and a similar number of nets and engines to the devastated fishing community.

Setting up self-help groups was another approach to restoring livelihoods taken by our partner, the Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA). These groups bring people together to pool their skills and finances to develop sustainable micro-businesses generating regular income.

Better future
They proved valuable for families who had lost the head of their household and therefore the primary source of income.

One self-help group member called Perna, who lives on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, said of her project: ‘It’s helped us a lot by providing us with the skills to make handicraft items.
‘As a group we save some of the profit made from selling our products so it can be used to help one another financially when there’s a need.’

Gladstone R Rajesh Kumar, EHA’s project manager, said, ‘The women who were involved in such groups showed a change of attitude from loss to hope for a better future.’

You can watch more from this partner here.

India response summary

• Discipleship Centre provided relief aid, new fishing boats, ran cash-for-work programmes, built homes and schools. Its worked helped more than 19,000 families.
• Eficor provided immediate relief aid, trauma counselling, built shelters, repaired and rebuilt houses, ran cash-for-work schemes, helped restore damaged farming land and provided livelihood support.
• Emmanuel Hospital Association restored livelihoods and gave communities a voice with the authorities. It mobilised the local church to come alongside people and help them overcome problems.
• Evangelical Social Action Forum taught women new skills to run businesses and generate income to help families affected by the loss of fishing boats, nets and equipment.
• The Salvation Army built homes, provided household items, sank new wells and provided fishing equipment.

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