Tsunami in the year 2004 was a major setback for many coastal states and Union Territories. Andaman and Nicobar Island was severely affected by this disaster. VHAI started its emergency relief operation from 1 January 2005 in the remote Little Andaman with an addressal of the immediate need of the affected communities. The team identified 2000 most vulnerable families and distributed the essential commodities comprising of plastic sheets, bed sheets, blankets, buckets, mugs, sarees, set of aluminum and steel utensils, dry rations, soaps, candles, match boxes, mosquito nets and hurricane lanterns. After the rescue and relief operation, intermediate shelters were built and the community was shifted to them. Soon after this initial support livelihood activities were initiated in the Little Andaman.
VHAI adopted a pragmatic approach of in improving the lots of the disaster affected communities of the Little Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The journey of VHAI – Aparajita has been over the years towards bringing normalcy back into the lives of people in the Tsunami affected Little Andaman and Nicobar islands and the Nancowrie group of islands. The project is striving hard to help the affected and vulnerable communities in identifying development priorities, building roads to recovery and assisting them in turning the disaster into development.
During this reporting period VHAI concentrated its activities in Little Andamans, South Andamans and Nancowrie Group of Islands. Some of the long term interventions of the organisation towards making the project sustainable have been:
• Establishment of the Resource Centre for Health & Development: A Centre for Health & Development (CHD) named “Saheed Bhavan” has been established at Mini Bay, Port Blair. This centre will strengthen the existing health & development efforts in the Islands through the collaborative efforts of the Government and civil bodies.
It will also ensure a regular updation of disaster preparedness training in the disaster prone areas. This unit will be functioning as a centre of excellence for the dissemination of critical information in the fields of health, disaster mitigation and long term development.
• Construction of Rescue Centers: The construction of the Emergency Rescue Centre at South Andaman, Chouldhari is complete. The building has been designed keeping in context the local situation. It is an earthquake resistant building.
• Vocational Training Programme: An Advance Diploma Course in Computer Software Management and a Diploma Course in Computer Software Management have been started in the month of May, 2008 and completed in October 2008.
A total of 12 students in the Advance Course and 19 students in the Basic Course have completed successfully.
Most of the successful pass outs have got jobs in the government and private offices. Some of them are pursuing an advance course at Port Blair.
• A tailoring training program was started during the month of May 2008 at Kamorta and completed in October 2008. All the 23 women trainees have successfully finished the training. After the training a Self Help Group was formed by name Hinengo Yong Nyio in Munak village in Kamorta. Sewing Machines, interlock machines and other accessories have been provided to this group. They are already in touch with the Block Development Officer, community development block of Nancowrie for further government assistance and successful management of their group
• Capacity Building Training of Volunteers: A two day-long capacity building training program of volunteers was organized at Hut Bay gram panchayat.
More than 50 volunteers from five different organizations namely West Bengal Voluntary Health Association, Action aid, Prayas, Butterflies and VHAI attended the training programme. In this programme the progress of the development programmes by the aforementioned organizations was discussed and the volunteers were updated about development issues.
• Disaster Risk Reduction: The DRR programmess were conducted for the school students at Government Senior Secondary School of Katchal and Kamorta islands. These programmes comprised of activities like drawing competitions, wall writings on various disaster issues and discussion on indigenous coping methods with the available local resources were conducted. They also included presentation on disaster management cycle in India, assessment needs and roles of Community as well as local governments with practical exercise of different kinds of map analysis viz: social resource, hazard etc.
• Updating of Contingency Plan: The tsunami exposed the inadequate preparedness to face a natural disaster of such magnitude. The loss of lives and property could have been reduced substantially if the authorities and people were prepared to face such a disaster. In this background VHAI, in collaboration with the Andaman and Nicobar Administration and community facilitated the preparation of the first disaster mitigation contingency plan in the year 2006. In the current year, it is worthy to mention that the community has come forward under the behest of gram panchayats to update the data. After proper verifications and cross checking, the data has been incorporated in the updated contingency plan.
• Information Dissemination through Radio Programme: With the aim to empower the local people by informing them on matters relevant to their survival and reduction of disaster – related risks. VHAI has prepared audios and audio visual CDs in local dialogues with popular songs to create mass awareness on disaster preparedness. Audio visual messages have been broadcasted through All India Radio during the prime hours.
Restoring eco –friendly environment
• Mangrove Restoration: VHAI with the objective to restore environment and encouraging the preservation of local flora and fauna, in collaboration with the Forest and Environment Department of A & N islands is working on the restoration of 20 hectares of mangroves in the Nancowrie group of islands. VHAI The collection of seeds from various ranges of the South Andamans is done in collaboration with the respective forest range office. So far 95,000 seeds have been collected from different places and transported to Kamorta and Katchal phase wise. For the germination of seeds, two nurseries have been developed at Kamorta and Katchal.
The land for nursery has been allotted by the local forest department. After forty-five days of germination, plants are transported through boats to the mangrove sites for transplantation. For a speedy transportation, VHAI has constructed two motorized wooden boats. So far the nursery work has been completed in Pillpillow, Kakana Dering and some part of katchal.
• Eco Club in Schools: VHAI has started five eco clubs in various schools of Nancowrie group of island. These eco clubs play an important role in creating environmental awareness amongst the future generation. The Range Officer of Environment and Forest department, Assistant Education Officer, Principals and teachers have played an important role in attracting the students to these clubs. Over 200 students took part in the programme in each school. These 200 students were divided into four groups under different names and mottos like 1. Afforestation 2.Save Marine Ecology 3. Avoid Plastic Bags 4. Wild Life Conservation.
Creating a Healthy Community
• School Health Promotion: As a part of its school based health promotion activities, VHAI team organized seven school health promotion programmes during the months of November, December 2008 and February 2009 for adolescent girls in Government Senior Secondary School, Champin and Government Model Secondary School, Kamorta.
Over 170 students along with twenty one teachers participated in these programmes. Some of the issues covered during these programmes were health and hygiene (with focus on adolescents), HIV-AIDS, water and sanitation, nutritional diet, tobacco use and its bad effects.
• Community Health Promotion: VHAI has been organizing Community Health Promotion programmes in the various villages of Katchal and Kamorta islands in collaboration with the respective PHC and CHC. Some of the major topics covered in these programmes were (i) prevention and control of malaria (ii) safe drinking water and sanitation (iii) balanced food and diet control (iv) new born care, etc.
On the same lines, health promotion programs in collaboration with CHC Kamorta, in two villages of Nancowrie have been organized. Community participation in these programmes has been through out very encouraging. Information leaflets have been prepared on various health issues like malaria, safe drinking water immunization, diarrhea management, mother and child care, vitamin A deficiency, measles, family planning, etc in the Nicobari dialect and over 2000 sets have been distributed to the local community with the help of ASHAs and Anganwadi workers.
• Campaign on ‘Tobacco Free’ Andaman& Nicobar Islands: Tobacco is one of the greatest health disasters in human history. VHAI has been engaged in tobacco control advocacy efforts in the country at various levels for more than twenty years now. A two day workshop was organized for the members of the Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) of South Andaman on initiating activities for a Tobacco Free Andamans through community participation.
• Workshop on Enforcement of Tobacco Control Act: VHAI in collaboration with the Directorate of Health Services and Andaman & Nicobar Police organized a workshop to discuss various issues involved in the enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The workshop highlighted the various harms associated with the use of tobacco. It was decided to take necessary actions ensuring the enforcement of Tobacco Control Law at A & N Island by the state police and health departments.
• Workshop on Hazards of Plastic in Andaman: A two day workshop was organized for the members of SHGs, PRIs and the representatives of retail outlets on the hazards of plastic especially through dumping of high density polythenes and plastic bottles. The participants also visited the Government Polytechnic Dollyganj to see the recycling of waste paper and how it can be reused to save the environment.
VHAI – Aparajita is working towards bringing normalcy back into the lives of people in the Tsunami affected Little Andaman and Nicobar islands and the Nancowrie group of islands. The project is striving hard to help the affected and vulnerable communities in identifying development priorities, building roads to recovery and assisting them in turning the disaster into development.
VHAI Aparajita initiatives have been documented in a simple and logical way, highlighting the pragmatic approach of the project in improving the lot of the disaster-affected communities in ‘Aparajita: Relief and Rehabilitation initiative of VHAI in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands .’ This is a new addition in the Anubhav series of VHAI, authored by Shisir Ranjan Dash, Coordinator of the Project. This booklet provides information and a greater understanding on the far-reaching impact of VHAI’s relief and rehabilitation initiative in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands soon after the unprecedented tsunami disaster. Efforts have been made in this documentation to emphasize the background, the challenging circumstances and significant achievements of VHAI-Aparajita, working towards the relief followed by the creation of a long term sustainable system to rehabilitate the affected communities.
Copyright 2007 , Voluntary Health Association of India , All Rights Reserved
