Chennai: If there was an important takeaway from the 2015 Chennai floods, it was the surfacing of humaneness in the people of Tamilnadu, especially Chennai.
People from all walks of life united together after the floods and provided succour to those in distress. This almost grew into a movement.
The recent Kerala floods brought the kind hearts together again and, now, Cyclone Gaja is doing the same.
Since the time the cyclone made a landfall along the coastal districts of Tamilnadu 15 November, it wreaked havoc and plundered every single shelter and crop.
Volunteers selflessly plunged into work and are collecting relief materials. The important thing is ensuring they reach the right person.
Request messages are flooding on WhatsApp and zillion Facebook posts get circulated. During such times, it is challenging to trust the source and coordinate with random unknown volunteers.
A member of Direction for Volunteers, Rajkumar, says, “We have set up a call centre where our volunteers personally call every single number specified in the request message and verify the information. As the cyclone has sabotaged a majority of the communication poles, BSNL and Jio lines still work and we try to reach the victims as best as we can.”
Apart from the preliminary checks, the group also sent four members to ground zero to distribute the collected materials to the those really in need of them.
“As a majority of the hutments have completely vanished, we have decided to provide them tarpaulin sheets for temporary relief. More rainfall is forecast in the delta districts till December. So, till the rain slows down, the sheets can be used as roofing material. There has been a requirement of 2,000 sheets and the first load of about 1,000 has already been dispatched to the collection point – Thalaignayiru in Nagapattinam district,” adds Rajkumar.
ACROSS BORDERS
A native of Vedaranyam, K Chakkaravarthy is now employed in Kochi. He is also doing his bit to help his area bounce back. “I have been receiving first-hand information from my people, which makes my work easier. Since I have been able to supply to my district, people from neighbouring places are also requesting and I have been working with other Kochi volunteers to speed up the process.”
However, Vino, a native of Chennai in Kochi, feels that the issue has not gained enough traction in Kerala.
“It has been five days since the catastrophe struck the delta districts; however, the Sabarimala issue takes prime space in everyone’s mind. We have not received materials in huge amount but I have collected funds with the help of my friends. I have set up a virtual control room to aid the independent groups and NGOs in Tamilnadu, where a unique identification number is assigned to every request after validating the information and another team tracks the response and closes the request.”
Rajkumar can be reached at 9092406162 and Vino can be reached at 9600115429.
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