HELPING DISASTER SURVIVORS RECOVER AND REBUILD THEIR LIVELIHOODS IN INDIA

Current Post-Tsunami Actions.  More than three years after the tragedy, as relief has given way to the long and difficult process of reconstruction, it is essential to continue to support the efforts of affected and/or forgotten communities in regaining some normalcy and rebuilding their shattered lives. Our focus is on Southern India because we rely there on the network of dedicated local volunteers from Jeevana Samrhidi (Life in Abundance) the charity arm of Jesus Youth.

Focusing on five coastal villages, two in Tamil Nadu near the disaster area of Cuddalore; and three in Kerala along the coast North and South of Kochi. After completing the first year tsunami relief phase, funding was sought for the longer-term reconstruction phase in Kerala and Tamil Nadu with the support of the Global Giving Foundation to three specific projects. When People are able to work again, and orphans and children can go to school, life can become normal again except for the impact of the trauma: the suffering is imprinted in the conscience of surviving victims for ever.

Healing surviving families and rebuilding homes and lives take time . Today, many families in India need support for permanent shelter, access to potable water and electricity, health care, paid jobs. Children needs to go to school regularly. Families are rebuilding their simple livelihoods the best they can. Our current focus is to provide technical assistance for livelihoods recovery, medical care, access to school and to continue home reconstruction in disaster affected areas and where recurrent flooding occurs during the monsoon season.

Pursuing and developing the successful God-parenthood program. The God-parenthood program has entered successfully its fourth year of implementation. Program includes medical care to children, access to school and occasional surgical interventions to save the life of a child. A God-parent gives US$550 to support a designated child for a year. A few children have now graduated from the program but many more are waiting for generous sponsors.

One imaginative way to make a difference, is to help boys and girls go to school by providing them with bicycles. You can Make a Gift Online directly to MMPCharity on this site or indirectly through the Global Giving Foundation by using the Give Now button below

Bicycles for Poor Students in India Providing 300 bicycles and shoes to 300 students --150 boys and 150 girls--to help them go to school in poor coastal areas of Kerala, India. Funding Goal: $25,490; Funding received: $9,180; Remaining Goal to be funded: $16,310 Theme: Education | Location: India |

We thank you for your kindness and being there when suffering people need you. A thank you note/receipt is sent to each benefactor. Every dollar has meaning for those in need. Corporate sponsors can also give through Global Giving.

Tsunami Testimonies ( By Amy Waldman, The New York Times ): 'At home, the women of Tharangambadi, a small town in Southern India, had run at the sounds of screams and the sight of the water, taking hold of as many children as they could. For desperate mothers, two hands were not enough. Shanti Kumar, 35, grabbed two of her four children, and lost two'.

'Chinnapillai had taken her grandchildren, Kokila, 5, and Muraganna, 2, to watch the fishing boats come in. When everyone began running, the 60-year-old lady grabbed the children and began running too, not even looking behind her. When the water hit, she landed on a cottage, and the children vanished. Her daughter, Banumathi, 22, had left this village early Sunday morning to go to a temple in her home village 10 kilometers away, resisting her children's pleas to accompany her. Four days later, at the wedding hall that had been turned into a relief center, she cried and cried, flagellating herself with: "If only I had taken them with me instead of leaving them with their grandmother!”. Chinnapillai, the grandmother who survived the disaster was so consumed with guilt that she had stopped eating. Her daughter and grandchildren had come to live with her a month ago at her insistence after domestic strife had erupted in their home. "My children died because I forced them to come to my house", the devastated grandmother said.

'Anandi, 14, was working with her mother in the Sunday morning fish market when the water barreled in. "Our mother could not run fast," she said. "We are young, we ran away faster." The children could see their mother, 35, struggling to keep up. They ran up into an old ice factory as water surrounded the building. They saw their mother trapped in the water, and then watched as a second wave swept her away. Fifteen-year-old Anjali found her mother's body half an hour later'.

Similar stories of helplessness and loss were pouring out from every corner of the devastated regions of South Asia.  Suffering people need our help and prayers. With a rising number of stronger and stronger natural disaters accross the world, we all need to give the gift of hope to each other and save children.

The good you do today, People will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.