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When Mother Nature turns killer and ravages hearths and homes of millions, what does an NGO such as the Calcutta Foundation do? Give comfort, provide relief and help reconstruct, where possible, and rehabilitate the survivors. The first requirement of such activity is
funds.
Mrs. Shamlu Dudeja, along with a group of like-minded friends and agencies, committed to the highest standards of integrity, formed a new initiative, called TOGETHER WE WILL. A group of 6 visited the devastated areas in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. The tales of relief work being done are as great as the tales of woe. Many voluntary organizations, from different faiths, have been doing rescue and relief work almost from the day the killer wave hit the shores of South East Asia. And, that is heartening. But, a mind-boggling amount of reconstruction and rehabilitation work remains to be done.
The main objective of TWW is to help in reconstruction and rehabilitation of a group of islanders in association with the Government of Andaman and Nicobar Islands
The committee members had met the administration of A & N Islands during their visit in January 2005. Their application to assist in the reconstruction of a part of these islands was being considered along the following lines:
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a) Supply of 1,000
cycles
b) Supply of temporary shelters, such as
tents.
c) Supply of fishing nets and motorized
boats
d) Assistance in construction of homes for inhabitants of the Hut Bay
Island.
e) Setting up of about 25
tele-medicine centres, with state of the art monitoring, angiogram and other non-invasive equipment for medical check ups of the islanders who, otherwise, have no access to any medical facility.
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The seed money, Rs.10,00,000 which was put forward by Calcutta Foundation, at Steve Waugh’s request, has been multiplied several times, through private donations in Kolkata, through TOGETHER, WE WILL. Steve Waugh came to Kolkata and raised more funds for low cost shelters for Tsunami victims on the Hut bay Island. A fundraiser at the Oberoi Grand, on 10 February, 2005, organised by Calcutta Foundation collected over Rs.30
Lakhs.
The total collection of TWW went well beyond Rs.75 Lakhs, all of which is being used for reconstruction activities on the Hut Bay island.
Later on 14 March, 2005, when the Pakistan cricket team was in town, CF had another fund r raiser at the Taj Bengal and some more money was again raised with the participation of the P Pakistani team.
In July 2005, 500 low cost shelters constructed as per the requirements of the Government of India India under the supervision of the TWW volunteers, were handed over to the residents of the Hut Bay Island.
Work with TWW is still carrying on. The Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Prof. Ram Kapse, has indicated that TWW should participate in tele-medicine facilities throughout the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. This project is being looked into with the help of Rotary
Mahanagar.
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