Join us to Help People in Tamil Nadu affected by GAJA Cyclone
SEESHA
SEESHA (Samiti for Education, Environment, Social and Health Action) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in the year 2003 by philanthropist Dr. Paul Dhinakaran. Headquartered in Chennai, the organization works towards the holistic community development of poor, downtrodden communities across India. Today, we are touching and transforming the lives of more than 3,000,000 lives in the following States in India: Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.
Background
The cyclone Gaja made landfall over Tamil Nadu coast on 16th November 2018 at 1.45 AM, wreaking havoc as it passed the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu. Cyclone Gaja made its landfall with wind speed of 120–140 kph, leaving behind a huge trail of destruction. A major disaster was averted due to the elaborate preparedness measures taken by the government supported by the civil society organizations. Approximately 150,000 vulnerable people were evacuated to relief camps along the coastal areas and fishermen were not allowed to go fishing. Despite elaborate preparedness measures, the wind speed and heavy rains have caused deaths, damages to houses and public infrastructure.
Most of the areas were not accessible due to fallen trees and uprooted electricity poles along the roads. Government authorities are working round the clock to restore electricity in the affected districts. The roof tops of the houses blew away due to the wind speed and most of these houses could not withstand the wind speed and fully destroyed as many of them are modest thatched homes. Currently, most of the people took asylum in the relief camps. The electricity was cut off and started to restore from November 21st. According to the data published by the government of Tamil Nadu, an estimated 1.17 lakh homes are fully damaged which includes 30,328 thatched houses. 45 people were killed and around 250,000 people were displaced from their homes on the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
150,000 vulnerable people
45 lives lost
Dr. Paul Dhinakaran, Founder of SEESHA along with SEESHA Humanitarian relief team personally took the time and effort to visit the affected villages and comforted the people. Despite the bad weather, he ensured along with the team to visit the badly affected interior part of the villages by walking in slush for more than two kilometres, interacted with the cyclone affected families, inaugurated medical camps and distributed relief materials as part of rebuilding their livelihood and restoring health.
Electricity was cut off
250,000 people displaced
Humanitarian relief
117000 homes damaged
150,000 vulnerable people evacuated
SEESHA under the leadership and vision of the founder Dr. Paul Dhinakaran has proposed to support the cyclone affected people in reconstruction of concrete houses, health care, individual household toilets, safe drinking water facility, alternate livelihood support, road renovation facilitation and educational assistance thereby ensuring holistic sustainable community development. It is planned to complete the 1st phase of implementation within next 4-6 months.
How we are Helping
SEESHA has adopted Thopaditheru village, Thiruvarur District to start with and plan to rebuild 34 houses in that village and extend the support to adversely affected families in adjoining villages too. It is proposed to build 100 homes with concrete roofs and toilet facilities along with access to potable water for all of them and help them restore their livelihoods which have been completely lost due to complete agriculture loss and damage.
To further support the Gaja cyclone affected people at Thopaditheru village, new clothes and provisions were distributed in the village on 28.01.2019. Around 200 men and women from Alangudi panchayat and neighboring villages received new sarees and shirts. These people are awaiting newly constructed houses as many families have lost their homes to the Gaja cyclone.
Rebuilding a devastated community
The following activities are proposed for the Cyclone Gaja affected people:
- Construction of 100 concrete houses
- Providing safe drinking water facilities
- Facilitating the renovation of roads
- Ensuring safe disposal of human excreta through construction of individual house hold toilets
- Alternate livelihood support through providing livestock
- Continuous health monitoring through regular medical camps by SEESHA medical experts
Sustainable development through Community Advancement measures in the areas of Health, Education, Livelihood and Environmental Sanitation