| 30th December, 2004 |
DPG 2ND NOTE |
To all partners & friends,
Thanks for your e-mail acknowledging my earlier FIR. I now give below the latest news on the result of Tsunami. I submit DPG’s tentative Plan of Action along with an appeal for grant-in-aid.
1. Tamil Nadu Scene :
| As per the latest report, the death toll in Tamil Nadu is expected to cross 6,000 people lives. 6.82 lakhs people were affected by the sea’s fury, out of them, 85% were fishermen. About one lakh fishermen lost their houses. Nearly 7,000 mechanised boats including out-board and in-board motor boats, 30,000 country rafts were either fully or partially damaged and 32,000 nets were destroyed. |
- In Chennai, 188 persons were washed away, including early morning walkers and children playing cricket on the beach.
- The heaviest toll was in Nagapattinam district, where close to 3,000 people were feared dead
DEATH TOLL
| TOLL AS PER OFFICIAL FIGURE |
OTHER COUNTRIES |
| DISTRICT |
DISTRICT |
Sri Lanka - 22,000
Indonesia - 32,500
Thailand - 1,538
Malaysia - 162
Bangladesh - 285
Maldives - 340
India - 12,500
Confirmed deaths from Asia’s Tsunami catastrophe pushed past 80,000 today. With 80,763 dead, rotting corpses, smashed sewers, contaminated water and a lack of food and shelter, along with mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria, could wipe out weakened survivors in their tens of thousands, United Nations and other experts warned. |
| Chennai |
198 |
| Kancheepuram |
108 |
| Tiruvallur |
12 |
| Cuddalore |
586 |
| Villupuram |
42 |
| Nagapattinam |
4500 |
| Thoothukudi |
3 |
| Tirunelveli |
6 |
| Kanyakumari / Colachel |
1248 |
| Thanjavur |
5 |
| Total |
6708 |
| Tentative as on 29th night |
|
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration has completed a survey of survivors of all the inhabitated islands and the death toll in Sunday’s Tsunami strike is not officially put at over 10,000 – dead or presumed dead. More than 72 hours after the killer waves came and went, authorities have lost hope of any of those categorized as “missing” being found alive. “If any of them were alive, they would have returned by now”, says the Inspector-General of Police, S.B. Deol.
Nagapattinam District is the worst affected area. The death toll crossed 4,500 with nearly 2,000 more bodies extricated. Colachel is the thirdly badly affected area in the entire State. So far 665 bodies have been extricated from Colachel, a coastal town in Kanyakumari district.
According to Government report, senior offices have already taken up positions in all affected districts as “Zonal Commissioners’ to oversee the relief activities. Now, a battery of revenue officials from all over the State has been redeployed in the affected areas to quicken the pace of operations. Simultaneously, junior IAS officers are being rushed to Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari districts in particular so that each of them can take charge of relief work in a cluster of five or six villages. A senior official told that 382 relief centers were set up and about 3.08 lakh people accommodated there. Enough supply of food and other essentials was arranged for the displaced. Nagapattinam district accounted for the lion’s share of 96 camps with over 91,000 people, while Kanyakumari had 59 camps with 39,800 people. Chennai had 25 camps with 30,000 people.
Voluntary agencies and non-government organizations are still complaining that there is “no co-ordination” at the district level. Quite often too many organizations are taking food to the same people. |
2. Rationale for DPG’s involvement
The Governments and civil society must do everything in their power to heal wounds, provide relief and rehabilitation on a huge scale and help to reconstruct the lives, livelihood and assets of the mostly poor people. A massive re-housing programme is a top priority. The loss of livelihood must be specifically addressed and women and children be provided with safe shelter and sustenance for their living.
3. Target Area
We, at Development Promotion Group (DPG) (See Appendix-I for details about DPG) have now decided to get involved in Development intervention in two neglected pockets in 4 / 5 villages in Kelayur block of Nagapattinam District and in COLACHEL Municipality town in Kanyakumari District which is the third largest affected area in the State. It is reported that more than 1200 people were killed in DPG selected places. There was also extensive damage to livelihood of the poor in the area.
Four days after the tidal waves devastated the coast of Kanyakumari district, no correct figures are available of the dead. While no one is ready to hazard a guess, the information office here put the figure at 1200 throughout the district. But people in the affected villages claim that the number may be much more. The worst affected in Kanyakumari district is the coastal fishing town of Colachel, which lies 22 kms. away from Nagrcoil, where Municipal Chairman Mr. A. Nazeer claimed that over 600 bodies from the town had been sent to the Colachel hospital till 11 a.m. on Wednesday and more bodies are still being brought in. A visit to Singaravelan Colony, Kottilpadu, Sambasivanagar, Maramadi, Anand Nagar by our representatives revealed only heaps of rubble and debris, where once huts stood. The whole town of Colachel is shrouded in a pall of gloom with young men walking like zombies, wearing face masks and transporting the dead to the hospital and then to mass burial grounds.
The Administration and well-known organisation’s intervention is presently confined to Velankanni and other areas in Nagapattinam district. DPG partner NGO have already established relief support in 5 villages in Kelayur block. We intend to continue in this areas for long term Development work |
4. Target Area Selection Process
| We have already sent our representatives to both districts. They are now in the place, assessing the damages and are also making a study of the efforts made by the Government and other civil society organisations in reducing the sufferings of the people. We sent telegrams to the District Collector and to the Colachel Municipality Chairman so as to get their consent for our operation, as DPG would like to do the job in co-ordination with the Government / local authorities. This will help us to be more transparent in our operation. A meeting with the Municipal Government officials and with the few representatives of the target group is scheduled in the first week of Jan. 2005 in order to identify the most needy and neglected pockets / villages. |
5. Target Group
| Hopefully, within next week, DPG in consultation with the local Block Development Officer and Municipality will find out 350 - 500 – 750 families in each district, where DPG can take up the second phase of relief cum development work. The second phase of relief work will be mostly confined to reconstructing houses, creating livelihood opportunities, creating community based organisations & strengthening and also in few cases procuring basic household asset. |
Goal
| RESETTLEMENT OF 1000 MOST AFFECTED FAMILIES IN TWO LOCATIONS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, LOCALS AND GOVERNMENT |
|
Objectives
- To resettle the badly affected 1000 vulnerable families in their own settings with livelihood opportunities.
- To establish Community Based Organisations like Self Help Groups and Federations and create enough linkages with Government and other institutions for their continued life sustenance.
- To establish infrastructure, health and other humane support to families to overcome the personal difficulties.
- To establish a more transparent co-ordination system in reaching the goal.
|
6. Estimated Cost
The estimated cost per family will be Rs. 30,000/- to Rs. 35,000/- plus 15% of our co-ordination cost (800 – 1000 US dollars per family). To goal is to rehabilitate at least 1000 families.
BUDGET
S.No. |
Item |
Amount in Rs. |
Amount in US$ |
1. |
House reconstruction and establishment of livelihood opportunities @ Rs. 35,000/- per family for 1000 families |
3,50,00,000/- |
813953 |
2. |
Second Phase Relief Work – Health, Education and Infrastructure Development @ Rs. 3,500/- for 1000 families |
35,00,000/-
|
81395 |
3. |
Project Co-ordination, Overheads cost, etc. @ 15% of the above |
57,75,000/- |
134303 |
|
Total |
4,42,75,000/- |
1029651 |
|
- The entire operation is expected to be completed within 12 – 15 months.
- Depending upon the availability of grant / donation, the number of target families will be increased / decreased.
All the newly created assets will be in the name of the women !
| Donations can be made in the DPG’s FCRA approved account no. as mentioned below: |
| Account Name |
: Development Promotion Group |
| Account No |
: 1 1 1 1 3 |
| Name & Address of the Bank |
: Indian Overseas Bank
Nungambakkam, Chennai 600034 |
| Bank Sort Code |
: I O B A I N B 0 0 1 |
|
8. Co-ordination
The entire project will be implemented by DPG with the assistance of the target group and other local civil society organizations by
- placing 2 – 3 – 4 field staff in each project location
- establishing a Committee of 9 - 12 with local, target group representatives, DPG staff and Government officials to meet on monthly basis and / or whenever required
- establishing linkages with Resource Centres / Consultants and other groups
- availing the services of national / internal volunteers to provide support service.
|
The entire operation will be co-ordinated by DPG CEO. DPG will also establish field office in the selected local area. DPG Registered Office will provide the other support services like the documentation, secretarial and accounts support. The office will take care of reporting to donors, administrative aspects and accounts maintenance.
9. Accountability
All the contributions made (whether small grant or big) will be accounted for and the names of individuals / organizations will be acknowledged in our forthcoming 2004 - 05 Annual Report. A detailed Plan of Action will also be developed and the same will also be shared with donors. The donors will be given monthly report / statement. Quarterly Reports together with statement of accounts will also be submitted.
10. Conclusion
We now await your reaction to this proposal. As soon as we hear more positive note from you, we shall further proceed on this matter.
Thanking you and with regards,
(R. Bhakther Solomon)
BRIEF BACKGROUND OF DEVELOPMENT PROMOTION GROUP
The Development Promotion Group (DPG) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, involved in humanitarian and development action. From very humble beginnings in 1986, DPG currently operates across 3 Southern Indian States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Our projects and programs has an estimated (immediate and extended combined) reach of 102,770 families spread over 338 villages/slums scattered across 16 districts, enabled through an annual expenditure budget of over Rs 25 million and a permanent, core staff head count of 79.
Projects and programs implemented by us are basically of two types. The first are those directly managed by us. The second are those wherein DPG is not directly operational; we nevertheless are engaged, on a long-term basis of rendering capacity building support to other NGOs and CBOs. The latter not only includes the majority of our development efforts but also invitations by various central and state governments to manage or officiate in an advisory capacity, various state sponsored development initiatives. In all these cases, our primary target focus remain on the most neglected and vulnerable sections of the rural and urban populations, with a particular positive bias towards women and children.
Our programs are much varied – ranging from those following a more holistic Area Development Approach to more uni-sectoral interventions like shelter, drinking water, sanitation, micro-enterprises, micro-credit, watershed management (including tank irrigation), elementary education, community health (including anti-AIDS/HIV programs) etc. Whatever the programmatic variations there maybe, in recent years, a common thread that underpin DPG’s development strategy center on community empowerment by creation of various tiers of Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Currently, DPG had catalyzed the formation of 1706 SHGs, 59 Cluster/Village level Federations an 8 Apex Bodies. It is through these varied community structures that projects or programs are initiated, implemented and monitored. We are currently concentrating on completely transferring control and management of grant-in-aid to CBOs and have in fact, already begun to experience modest success in a few cases.
DPG in the past and present has been supported by a wide array of donors – NGOs like ActionAid India; Christian Aid, UK; EED, Germany; ICCO, Netherlands; Implicaders, Spain; Presbyterian Committee on Self-Development of People, USA etc; a variety of local, state and central governmental agencies, including those implementing projects of the World Bank, Dfid, IDA, IFAD etc besides a few corporate trusts on a much smaller scale. Some portion of funds is also raised by DPG through income generation activities like consultancy, retail marketing of artisan products, sale of publications, private donations etc. DPG enjoys Category III Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. For more details refer our Annual Report or visit our website: www.dpgsulo.com |
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