On 26 December, was not a normal day for many when the Tsunami hit Indian Ocean. The news spread like wild fire, which lead millions in pain and grieve. We Tibetans too felt sad when we knew many of our Indian people were affected by this natural disaster. So many people around the world spontaneously contribute for the relief. So does we as, we have undergone same stage of refuge and mental trauma when we lost our country.
For us it is an opportunity to contribute in whatever we can, for the affected people of India as they were like our family members. We the members of Voluntary Community for Social Service ( Varanasi) organized “Tibetans for the Tsunami Relief” with Nagapattnam in our mind.
After coming to Chennai we contact to the members of TSAM. Through them, we knew Mrs. Aasha Reddy who introduced us to some National NGOs who were working on Tsunami Relief. After discussing with Mr. Pramaswami the president of SMILE we understood the situation of the affected coastal villages clearly. Nagapattnam no more needs relief works whereas some small village on the coastal need. Since many national newspaper reports that there are over flow of food, water, medicines, cloths and money. We decided to go and study the affected areas by ourselves.
This morning we along with Mrs. Aasha Reddy went to a fisher men’s Village at new Kalpakkam. “This village consist of 165 families”said Jagarnathan a local leader. Luckily only a woman and a man was drown by Tsunami others are saved. We saw whole village was deserted by Tsunami. They are other NGOs giving them relief but but what they need is accompany to get rid from the stress and trauma caused by Tsunami.
“ We need your physical help to rebuilt temporary shelter for us” requested Shekar a village member.
With this we changed our project from giving money and materials to living with them building their home and relieving their mental trauma.
We understood this village loves sports and all their sport equipments were washed away by Tsunami. So we decided to sponsor all basic sport equipments for them. We thank all the contributors from Varanasi and we appreciate other Tibetan to come forward for this relief work.
For further information contact
Tashi Dhondup
The President
Voluntary Community Social Service
CIHTS,Varanasi
Cell no: +919884472818
