Tsunami Survivors

Back to Index

Sri Lankan monks pray for tsunami dead

      Peraliya (Sri Lanka): As the sun set, people queued alongside knee-high bamboo fences and lit small clay lamps and red and yellow lanterns while the rhythmic chanting of centuries old Buddhist mantras by saffron robed monks shattered the ghostly silence that engulfed the area. Bells were rung in temples at the exact time the tsunami hit, eight thirty in the morning local time. The Sri Lankans gathered near unmarked mass grave for a solemn ceremony to mark the passing of three months since the tsunami disaster struck the Indian Ocean region. Not far from the mass grave, hundreds of lamps were placed on either side of the railway line where a train was washed off the tracks, killing over 1,000 people. Lamps also lit up three crushed carriages of the train 'Queen of the Sea', now rusting on a parallel track, a shrine for grieving relatives and friends of the people who were swallowed by the giant waves of December 26 here and aboard the ill-fated locomotive. Close to 2,500 people were swallowed by the giant waves in Peraliya alone, the number dwarfed by a death toll of around 40,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's southern, eastern and northern shores. The sea breeze that made the branches of the coconut palms sway gently made the seemingly simple task of lighting a small lamp difficult and frustrating for the mourners.

      The third month remembrance is an important Buddhist custom as the religious service, even the lighting of a small oil lamp can help ease the pain of those who suffered. Many of those who survived the tsunami in Peraliya were living in temporary wooden shacks built by aid workers but abandoned them two days ago and made their way inland to live with relatives and friends following rumours that giant waves would strike the Indian ocean island's shores again on the weekend. "A rumour started two three days ago that another tsunami was coming. People got scared. The people suffered once. They don't want to suffer a second time. So, they took their children and went interior to their friends and relatives houses" said local aid worker Amara Piyasena. The camp for the displaced was empty except for a couple of families who stayed back. "Our future was on my eldest son. Once we lost him we have no reason to live. We cannot commit suicide. If another tsunami comes and kills us all we are happy. So, we are not scared of another tsunami. That is why we stayed back" said H. Kalupahana, a retired government clerk who lost his eldest son, a university student on December 26. Sri Lanka has received nearly a billion dollars in foreign aid pledges but the state has received just 13 million dollars in cash to help tsunami survivors, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The number of people killed in tsunami waves caused by an earthquake which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines across 11 countries has shot up to more than 165,000. In India, 15689 people officially are reported to be killed or missing along the southern coast. WHO estimated that a total of 2260 km of coastal land penetrating 300m to 3 km in South India was severely affected. Tidal waves hit the coast of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and Pondicherry and unto the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Twenty six million people live in the affected area. Thousands of people from affected villages along the coastal belt are still living in relief camps.
- March 27, 2005

Surgery comes to aid tsunami mums missing motherhood   (Go To Top)

     Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu): Like hundreds of mothers on the south-eastern coast, Vasantha lost all her children -- a son and two daughters -- to the killer tsunami waves which struck the Indian ocean nations on Dec. 26 last year. But unlike the others, the 25-year-old fisherwoman has not lost hope. Last month, Vasantha persuaded her husband to part with 20,000 rupees from the 300,000 rupees compensation they received from the government for their three dead children and had surgery to reverse her sterilisation with a hope to have children again. "I just could not live without my children. I want one child at least. Of what use is all this money and wealth if we have no one to enjoy it with? I just can't forget them. After this operation, I believe we will be able to give birth to our children again. Even if it is just one of them," the frail, petite woman said, sobbing over the memory of her lost children. She is one of the six women in Nagapattinam, the district worst hit by the tsunami in the country, who have undergone surgery -- called recanalisation -- to reverse the sterilisation carried out under a government-sponsored family planning programme aimed at controlling the runaway population growth. The women learnt about recanalisation -- in which severed or tied up fallopian tubes are connected again -- from paramedics who cited similar surgeries on mothers who lost children in a fire accident in a school in a neighbouring district last year.

      As news of the surgery spread in the community, dozens of women have registered at government clinics in fishing villages to undergo recanalisation and state authorities have offered to perform the surgery for free at state-run hospitals. About 200 women are expected to undergo operation at the Nagapattinam district hospital from next week, says head doctor N Swathandran. "In the fishermen area many people have lost almost two or three children during the tsunami. Now they are without any children, now their main (quest) is to have at least one child for their future. That is the main request asked by the people," Swathandran said. The tsunami waves killed at least 6,065 people in Nagapattinam district alone, more than a third of them children. Among the dead were Sindamani's boys, aged three and five. The 27-year-old fisherwoman says she can't wait to undergo surgery and try to conceive again. On the cardboard wall of Sindamani's dingy shack in a relief camp is a large garlanded photograph of her older son with candies and grapes placed as offerings in front. "I can't bear it when I see children from the neighbourhood going to school or returning home. Every time I see them I cry, I can't bear. Please help me get my voice to the government. I want to have at least one child," she said. A fairly complicated surgical procedure, recanalisation has a success rate of less than 50 percent in women in their active reproductive years. Much also depends on the health and size of the fallopian tubes, gynaecologists say. For most women it may be a slim chance, but it is still a chance.
- March 26, 2005

Three months on, tsunami survivors still awaiting fast relief (Go To Top)

     Nagapattinam: It's been weeks since the fishermen here got their swanky new fishing boats - a much-awaited gift expected to have spinned them back to normalcy but three months on, nothing great has happened and life is still only limping back to the mainstream. The fishermen are yet to take their boats to sea as none of them has fishing nets. The men spend hours sitting on the coast, cleaning and re- cleaning their boats. Most having lost their wives and children and nothing to look forward too, are desperate to get back to work, faintly hoping that the rigours of fishing, their long trusted vocation, would help dull the pain of loss. Tired of the sheer inaction in their lives, - food comes aplenty at the relief camps and the day ends with them sleeping or at least attempting to sleep in their makeshift quarters - the men say they are losing sanity. Devendran, a young fisherman, who used to work 18 hours a day, says the relief is too slow and appealed to the government to give them nets. "We have boats now, they are being repaired but we have no nets. Till the nets don't come we cannot get back into the water. The government is yet to give us any nets," said Devendran, who has camped alongside his new boat in Cuddalore. The Dec. 26 tsunami hit country's fishing community hardest.

     About 80 percent of the nearly 8,500 people killed on the mainland were from fishing families. The tsunami also destroyed thousands of houses. More than 10,000 homes were fully damaged and another 1,000 were partly damaged in Nagapattinam district alone. The camps here are bursting at their seams and families are worried about the dwindling supplies. Though food right now is plenty, there is acute water shortage and not all families have a roof above their head. The initial money packages are also being sapped up and frantic survivors are rushing to hoard what they can save. Desperate for permanent livelihood and homes, they are restless and itching to move out of the camps. "I need a livelihood, I need my boats to get back to work. Second I need a proper home, a place to live and our greatest need is money. The government gave us 4,000-5,000 rupees to tide over these three months but now we need more to get on with our lives," said Arugam, a fisherman. The over-burdened government on its part says it's moving as fast as it can and as part of its rehabilitation plan, is fully funding the cost of new catamarans -- small, canoe-like boats that cost about 35,000 rupees and building new tsunami-proof homes. J. Radhakrishnan, district collector of Nagapattinam, said locals are panicking and want the surety of immediate cash while the government is working towards ensuring long-term stability, which was probably resulting in the lacunae. "The desire of the government is that there should be asset generation and not just giving away money as cash. So that is perhaps the reason for the slight lag between the money, which the 7,000-8,000 people have obtained and actual utility," he said. The number of people killed in tsunami waves caused by an earthquake which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines across 11 countries has shot up to more than 165,000. In India, 15689 people officially are reported to be killed or missing along the Southern coast. WHO estimated that a total of 2260 km of coastal land penetrating 300m to 3 km in South India was severely affected. Tidal waves hit the coast of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and Pondicherry and unto the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Twenty six million people live in the affected area. Thousands of people from affected villages along the coastal belt are still living in relief camps.
- March 26, 2005

Lankan tsunami survivors rebuilding lives from scratch (Go To Top)

     Colombo: Nearly three months after the killer tsunami waves hit the Indian Ocean's shore and killed nearly 40, 000 people and displaced another 500,000 in Sri Lanka, survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives. A handful of fishing boats are seen along the coast in the morning, and many jobless fishermen rush to help the lucky ones who can still work. In return, some of them receive a small bag of fish, which they can either sell or eat themselves. One such fisherman is Saeed Mohammed, who lost his wife, his three young children, his home and his boat in the tsunami. With just a tent over his head, and a small bag of donated fish a day, Mohammed sits in his tent for hours, haunted by the memories of the devastating day. "From the government, I received coupons, five thousand rupees in the first month and two and a half thousand rupees in the second month. I am waiting to see what happens now," said Mohammed.

     Farheena Tharssim also suffered terrible losses in the tsunami tragedy. "All lost, my family, my brother, daughter, son everybody too much lost, and my home lost, three-wheeler lost, everything is lost," said Tharssim. When Tharssim isn't cooking for her family, she spends a lot of time praying with her husband and two surviving children. Tharssim is anxiously awaiting news of a house, and feels helpless with all the red tape issues she hears about in the press. Her husband, Bakir, who once drove a three-wheeler taxi, now sits at home. He says he feels helpless, as since the initial monetary aid, he has heard little more from the government. "Government only give Rs 5000, Rs 2500 and ration card, only," said Maulana. He says he needs much more, but they have not reached out to him. Sri Lankan Member of Parliament, Sajith Premadasa, who works for the United National Party of Sri Lanka, and manages several Sri Lankan NGOs, says there is a gap between the promises and the actual rebuilding of lives. "Well, there are a lot of reports, and a lot of press statements, press interviews, television news items, which tells a lot of tsunami victims in Sri Lanka that a lot of money has been raised by a lot of well wishers throughout the world, but if you look at the ground situation, the hard facts, they do not indicate the fact that the funds have arrived to the real victims," said Premadasa. He added that the political situation was making it very difficult for work to be done. "It is a matter of stopping one capable politician doing the work, just because they might get popular, a lot of personalization of the tsunami relief program, a lot of labelling, a lot of authorship that many politicians try to give to relief programs. Premadasa says the politicians should focus their efforts on immediate concerns and needs such as infrastructure. The government says that the delay in re-construction is due to delays in pledged donor aid reaching affected areas. They estimate 1. 8 billion dollars will be needed to rebuild the battered coastline, but only dollars 100 million has come in so far. The number of people killed in tsunami waves caused by an earthquake which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines across 11 countries has shot up to more than 165,000. In India, 15689 people officially are reported to be killed or missing along the Southern coast. WHO estimated that a total of 2260 km of coastal land penetrating 300m to 3 km in South India was severely affected. Tidal waves hit the coast of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and Pondicherry and unto the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Twenty six million people live in the affected area. Thousands of people from affected villages along the coastal belt are still living in relief camps.
- March 24, 2005

Life after Tsunami, full of pain and agony (Go To Top)

     Puttur (Tamil Nadu): The death of her three sons and a daughter came as a nightmare for Laxmi, it took her weeks to believe the fact that half of her family has been swept away by the deadly Tsunami waves. Slowly, but as a matter of fact, the tragedy sank in nearly three months later. But by then she was down with depression, which was further supplemented by the asthma attack s. The 30-year-old, who left eating after the shock sank in, was admitted into a small private hospital this week for treatment. "My four children have died, I cannot eat. How can I eat? How can I live without them?" she mumbles sitting on the bed of her hospital ward in Puttur village, staring at the blank walls. Laxmi and her husband Kolandavelu blame themselves for being unable to save their children from the giant waves. On the 26th of December, when the deadly waves struck India three of Lakshmi's children were playing in front of their shack on the beach and drowned. Lakshmi tried to flee with her two-year-old son, Subhash, but the waves proved to be stronger than her motherly affection and snatched her kid from her. Luck favoured another of the couple's offspring, 10-year-old Saranya-the fifth child of the family, as she her aunt dragged her to safety at the last minute. Now, neither Laxmi nor her husband wants to let Saranya out of their sight. Saranya is giving company to her mother in the hospital, sleeping besides her on a metal cot. The 10-year-old is not going to her school to look after her ailing mother. Kolandavelu, is now rather reconciled now, he is trying to forget the last glimpses of his kids who were playing on the beach before they were swept away by the waves. The family is even not having a photograph of the kids, they lost nearly everything they had to the waves.

     After the waves, the family was relocated to Seruthur, in a temporary one-room arrangement, with a handful of groceries and some basic utensils. The family had got some more clothes, besides some utensils and 400,000 rupees as compensation from the state government for the four dead children. The Central government is also due to pay them with a compensation of another 400,000 rupees, a huge sum for someone who worked as a labourer on a fishing boat and earned barely 3,000 rupees a month. The family, however, is not happy with the initial relief, 30 kg of rice and a thousand rupees in cash, for expenses per month. Kolandavelu, now is worried about the means to take care of the family after the monthly relief comes to an end in April, as the only source of income for him-fishing, is yet to resume as most damaged boats have not been repaired or replaced. He is happy that her wife is better now, but the pair is not going at their best. There is discord brewing between the pair, with Lakshmi trying to adopt some orphans, an idea which is not going down well with Kolandavelu. "Adopted children will not have the same blood. When they grow up, it's not the same blood. We should have our own children. I have hope we will have more children," he said. Doctor K. Dakshinamoorthy, head of the private Nagai Hospital where Lakshmi is admitted, said she had a mild asthmatic bronchitis. "She has a psychological background because she has lost four children to tsunami on 26 December. I am also under the impression that she is under a psychogenic shock. I think she is recovering well. At present she has one female child alive but still she has to come out of that tsunami shock," he said.
- March 24, 2005

Tsunami victims dream of building up life anew  (Go To Top)

     Chinnakalapet (Tamil Nadu): Sixty seconds was all that it took for three generations of Vella's family to be wiped off the face of the earth. It is such a great tragedy that she probably can never come to terms with but the 42-year-old widow is at least trying. Finding support in prayer and her only surviving grandchild, the gutsy grandma is a symbol of thousands like her in the country who have fought extreme grief and pain to clutch on to life. Living in tiny ramshackle shanties at a relief camp in Chinnakalapet, barely few kilometres from the rubbles of their homes, she, like many others, is struggling to maintain her sanity and now wants to be back in the safety and warmth of a home. Though the government has been quick in providing relief to these people, rehabilitation has been slow with only a fraction being able to get back to work. Others just while away their time at camps, unable to settle into a routine or even plan for the future of those who are left. But the grandma seems to be made of different stuff. Vella saddled with the responsibility of her grandson and illiterate daughter-in-law is keen to start an eatery, send her child to school and also undertake a much-wanted pilgrimage. Though the memories of those gone, especially the last minutes of her helpless child, screaming and shouting to be saved off the killer waves, still fill her with tears and Vella says she is willing to give life another shot but simply needs some help. "We are living in great difficulty, all we have are tents. We want homes. All people here like me only want a house. This is not safe. The children are sacred to even go near water they say the tsunami will come and take us away. We have lost everything," she said. Sadly, Vella is not alone in her tragedy. Hundreds more like her have lost families and many of the sole survivors lead a life of sorrow, agonised that they have been left behind.

     Over 60 lives have been lost in Chinnakalapet alone and nearby villages have fared no better. Battered to ruins by the killer waves, 600 homes across the three hamlets have been completely destroyed, 50 lives lost and hundreds of fisherman left without boats and nets -- their only livelihood. Subramanium, who lost his wife, spend hours walking aimlessly on the coast. Suffering from insomnia, common fallout after grief, he is desperate to get a boat and get back into the sea. Asked weather he feared about the killer waves striking again, the otherwise steely-faced fisherman breaks into a cynical smile. "Three months on I have no work. I want a boat. The government is giving me food but with no work how long can we survive like this," Subramanium said. Pegged to cost over 1.2 billion dollars, reconstruction of the Indian mainland are going to be anything but easy. The queues are long and Subramanium knows it. Patiently waiting his turn, he for now finds solace in the giggle and chatter of tiny children in the camp. The first to bounce back to normalcy, the toddlers have been the biggest healers with their sheer innocence and zest for life giving hope to thousands like him. The number of people killed in tsunami waves caused by an earthquake which devastated Indian Ocean coastlines across 11 countries has shot up to more than 165,000. In India, 15689 people officially are reported to be killed or missing along the Southern coast. WHO estimated that a total of 2260 km of coastal land penetrating 300m to 3 km in South India was severely affected. Tidal waves hit the coast of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and Pondicherry and unto the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Twenty six million people live in the affected area. Thousands of people from affected villages along the coastal belt are still living in relief camps.
- Mar 24, 2005

---