HELPING DISASTER SURVIVORS RECOVER AND REBUILD THEIR LIVELIHOODS IN INDIA

AND GOD-PARENTHOOD PROGRAM 

Three projects in India have been successfully completed in 2010

The three tsunami relief and recovery projects in India that Mary Mother of Peace-Medjugorje Charity has implemented since 2005 in cooperation with the GlobalGiving Foundation in the US and our partner Jeevana Samridhi (Life in Abundance), the charity arm of Jesus Youth in Kochi, India are now completed (December 2010).

These projects are:

1/ Tsunami recovery in four fishermen villages in Kerala and Tamil Nadu
2/ Tsunami recovery in five coastal villages in Kerala and Tamil Nadu
3/ Bicycles for poor students in India (as this project was so successful, and copied by other bigger non-profit organizations in other part of India, these activities continue to take place on a need and request basis in partnership with JY/Jeevana Samrhidi).

Thank you again to all those who generously contributed and made a real difference in the life of so many families and children in need and to the GlobalGiving Foundation for efficiently promoting these projects for MMP Charity to give them visibility on the Internet!

What has been accomplished ?

Post-tsunami reconstruction has been a long and difficult process. A lot has been accomplished in five years. With more than US$85,000 received in donations (one dollar is going a long way in India) we provided boats and fishing nets to fishermen, shelter for villagers especially orphans, home reconstruction for families, medical/ school supplies help to 25 poor girl students four years in a row, 260 bicycles for poor high school students, emergency medical care, and help to to 425 village families, not counting 10 poor Godchildren sponsored annually by generous families in the US and France under the Godparenthood program still active with its specific budget.

Special attention was always given to ensure that recovery efforts do not exacerbate existing inequities and that all people being helped are on their way to a better and safer development path than they were before. Poverty is still acute in the region, natural disasters such as flooding are frequent and needs for a better life are huge.

  Focus was on four fishermen villages and five coastal villages, four in Tamil Nadu near the disaster area of Cuddalore; and five in Kerala along the coast North and South of Kochi. After completing the first year tsunami relief phase, funding was used for the longer-term reconstruction phase in Kerala and Tamil Nadu with the support of the Global Giving Foundation. When People were able to work again, and orphans and children were back to school, life became 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 took time . Many families needed support for permanent shelter, access to potable water and electricity, health care, paid jobs. Children were sent back to school on a regular basis,  by providing them bicycles (for boys and girls) in some areas in Kerala. Families rebuilt their simple livelihoods the best they could.

Pursuing today and developing the successful God-parenthood program. The God-parenthood program has entered successfully its sixth year of implementation in 2010-11. 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. Many children have graduated from the program along the years but many more are waiting for generous sponsors. We are also supporting talented students in need with scholarships.

One imaginative way to make a difference, is to continue 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.  

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 are also welcome to give to MMP Charity.

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 wherever they are. With a rising number of stronger and stronger natural disasters 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.