Support in Favor of the Tsunami's
victims of South India
Despite the fact that Fair Wings is not
a humanitarian organisation, and considering that some of
Fair Wings’ members were in a Tsunami affected area
on the morning of this 26th December 2004, we decided to
organize a fundraising action in favour of the victims,
and thank ABTOF,
the Association of British Tour Operators to France, Skal
International and Skal
UK, Bill Laidlaw, and the other donors for their financial
support.
 As
you can see on these tragic photographs, taken 3 weeks after
the Tsunami, concrete houses have been washed away all along
the 4 kilometres of the Alappad’s coast in the Kollam
district. A considerable cleaning work has already been undertaken,
and it is hard to imagine the state of the village just a
few hours after the tragedy.
 Considered
as one of the least affected region, the materials and human
impacts in Kerala are not less fighting: 170 dead, about 1600
injured, 3216 houses fully destroyed, and 11165 houses substantially
damaged. Among the three affected districts, Kollam, where
we were at the time of the tragedy, was the most touched,
with 131 dead including 61 children, followed by Allappuzha
with 35 dead including 10 children and Ernakulam with 5 dead
including 2 children.
The government has set up relief centres
in nine of the area's schools, and it is the Amritanandamayi
Devi Ashram, located in the Alappad peninsula, that is
providing those centres with food and other necessities. The
Amritanandamayi Ashram is led by the well-known hugging mother
Amma, who is touring the world to embrace people. Without
wanting to promote the Amritanandamayi Devi Ashram, their
support has been and is just amazing. The Ashram has announced
about 23 million dollars for the various affected areas such
as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri lanka.
 The
government of kerala has taken about 6 months to assess the
needs in order to start the rehabilitation phase and built
new houses. At the time we left in June 2005, the construction
work was only staring despite the fact that the monsoon was
about to start and compromise the whole process.
From left to right; the belongings of a milkman shop keeper,
its destroyed shop & house, and the milkman building a
temporary hut.
  Considering
that we only had a very limited budget, we waited for the
government and large NGOs to start the rehabilitation work
in order to see what left could be done. However, since nothing
happened during 6 months, we had to make the decision to go-ahead
and select a few villagers to be helped. Also, It is to be
noted that unfortunately, our work could not be coordinated
with the other NGOs and governmental agencies and that we
had to blindly choose some and leave others.
 Fair
Wings has therefore concentrated on helping some people going
back to work in order to sustain themselves.
Indeed, even with new houses, people find themselves without
ways of generating income from their original occupations.
Fishermen have lost their boats, their nets, shop keepers
have no more shops, no more equipment, no more stocks…
 Once
again, thanks to ABTOF,
Bill Laidlaw and the others donors, we have been able to provide
a drop of oxygen to a few villagers affected by the Tsunami
and thank them all. We however could not help so many people,
who were still leaving in distress, and hope that the rehabilitation
work would shortly be finished in order for them to go back
to a “normal” life.
Work can
be consulted here
 At
the end of 2006, Fair Wings raised more funds for the Tsunami's
victims, and wishes to thank the main donors, Skal
International and Skal
UK, as well as Bill Laidlaw, who once again raised those
funds for Fairwings. The lessons learned from our first intervention
in the Allapad’s panchayat influenced us to venture
with an existing and structured project and that is why we
developed a partnership with a French NGO called AREED
- Association Réseau Experts Environnement Développement.
Click here
to see Fairwings supported project on water and waste management
in Arattupuzha Panchayath.
French Non Profit
Organisation N°: 0668013238
N° SIRET : 448 839 357 00010
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