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Disaster survivors rebuild their lives with ‘tsunamika’

Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Sun 11 Dec 2005 04:02 PM PST  

Gulf Times
Dohar, Qatar
Sunday, 11 December 2005

Disaster survivors rebuild their lives with 'tsunamika'

CHENNAI, India


It’s only made of used cloth and thread, but once it leaves the hands of fisherwomen, the materials have been transformed into a “tsunamika” or “child of the tsunami”, a doll that is empowering the lives of its creators.

The December 26 tsunami has pressed the fisherwomen of seven villages in Tamil Nadu state to come up with innovative ways to get their lives in order and earn a living again, and adversity here has become the mother of innovation in the form of the dolls.

“We were finding it difficult to pick up any work till we started rebuilding our lives with tsunamika,” said Seetha, at work near the  Auroville township. “She has been a source of pride and courage for us.”

Ipsita Sarkar of the Upasana design unit in Auroville, which supports the programme, said 474 women were trained in handicrafts in the area.

Now Upasana makes a monthly payment to the women based on the number and quality of the dolls they produce. The dolls are then given as gifts across the world by volunteers who invite the recipients to participate in the project.

“Tsunamika has had a great response,” Sarkar said. “Many who receive the tsunamika help through their time and resources or financial contributions. At the same time, several women are earning up to Rs3,000 ($60) a month, a significant amount in local terms.”

The volunteers plan to distribute a million tsunamikas across the world by next year.

As a result, many other women are joining the project in Tamil Nadu, the state that accounted for 8,000 of India’s 12,400 tsunami dead.

“Rather than just give them money, it is a great joy to see them earn their livelihoods by using skills and taking self-respect in the work they do,” Sarkar said.

Fishermen are also taking up alternative professions - turning to seaweed cultivation or farming crabs and mussels.

Seaweed is grown on rafts and is matured in just six weeks, when it is sold for food, fertilizer or to the medical industry.

“Nearly 800 families from five villages are working to move from their primary profession, fishing,” said Ashok Prasad, spokesman of Oxfam, which is overseeing the project. “These alternatives are lucrative and would become their main source of livelihood.”

The Nicobarese in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have also started anew. They suffered extensively in terms not only of lives lost - accounting for 75% of the islands’ 3,500 fatalities - but also of livelihoods gone.

Traditionally dependent on coconuts, the islanders are now farming vegetables for consumption and sale.

“Agriculture is being diversified, particularly in tribal areas,” said Janak Digal, in charge of relief and rehabilitation for India’s island territory.

Digal said vegetables such as gourds, okra and green leafy vegetables like spinach were being grown by members of the ethnic group. The administration provides them seeds and is also paying them for labour.

Although the tsunami turned the lives of survivors upside down, many are finding their new livelihoods a success, and the tsunamika project has even garnered worldwide attention. – DPA

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