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In their own words:
Stories of tsunami survivors

The following are stories from UUSC program partner Forum for Women's Rights and Development (FORWORD). Based in Tamil Nadu, India, FORWORD received a relief grant from UUSC which is being used to provide humanitarian assistance to survivors in the region covering 15 affect coastal areas between Marina to Mahabalipuram. These areas have been determined to be among the most neglected in terms of receiving relief assistance. FORWORD is working with women in five relief camps to provide training in alternative economic skills, as well as counseling for trauma victims. They will of course provide emergency clothes, food and medicines as needed but at present FORWORD reports that those supplies seem to be arriving.

"All the areas looked like deserted battlefields…" - Shiamala Baby, director of UUSC program partner FORWORD

A firsthand account of the effects of the Tsunami that torn apart the lives of thousands of people in Tamil Nadu, India by Shiamala Baby, director of FORWORD, a UUSC partner. FORWORD based in Chennai (Madras) fights to defend the human rights of over 7,000 Dalit women working as agricultural laborers and in the unorganized urban sector.

“The 26th of December, 2004, dawned silently like all the other mornings. It was so with the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu. But on that Sunday's morning, all on a sudden, from Marina Beach in Chennai and down to the coastal areas of Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and then down south to Colachel, the coastal area on the west side of Kanyakumary, tip of India, things changed for the worst. In no time, the sea, in a sudden fury, rose high and covered the land two to three kilometres inland with its watery net. In this process thousands of people were taken off unaware into the fold of the sea and killed.

 “When we visited the affected coastal areas from Chennai to Mahabalipuram, that same evening, and the following days, the whole area gave a painful feeling on how the already deprived and the marginalized communities like the fisherfolk get more and more victimized in such calamities, be it natural or human made.

“All the areas looked like deserted battlefields with broken buildings, dead bodies, carcasses of animals, uprooted trees and deserted and lone houses and huts. The fishing boats could be seen damaged and lying in faraway areas up to one to two kilometres away from the sea. The fishing nets were also seen lying stranded. There were cries and wailings everywhere due to the destruction caused by the tsunami. The hundreds of women in the temporary relief sheds were weak and looked traumatized. Children looked frightened and were lying on the ground. Only a few young men were seen walking here and there, thoroughly broken down and in despair.” 

"…We held our children on top of our heads and tried to escape"
 

Ganesan's story
Here is the story of Ganesan, from Karikattukuppam, an affected coastal area near Chozinganallur. “I am Ganesan. I am 32 years old. We are born and live in this coastal kuppam (village). This sea is our mother. She is our livelihood and the sustainer of our life. Since we were born here, we have played in the sea since our childhood.

“We understand the various signs that are seen in the sea to predict the weather. But on this particular day, 26-12-2004, the sea was calm and nothing special could be seen. All of a sudden around 9 a.m., the sea roared ferociously and in no time we were engulfed with sea water. We the people from the 300 houses in of this kuppam were into it without a way to escape. We shouted in panic. But within seconds, the water was up to our necks. In fear and frustration we held our children on top of our heads and tried to escape.

“We carried the elderly and the sick. But then, the walls of some of the houses fell down killing five children and one adult on the spot. We had no time to tarry. We struggled for our life and then ran to the open place. Our elders say that they have never experienced such a terrible face of this sea before, in their lifetime. This is the first time; the provider sea has turned to be our destructor.

“Now, we are on the street, literally. The children and women are staying in the nearby school building for night. Daytime, they stay in the temporary open camps. We stay in the open camps. We are at the mercy of all, because we are deprived of all our means of survival. We have nothing to live on.”

So saying, he wept bitterly. The trauma was still on his face.

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