Report on the Relief Work Done by the Theosophical Order of Service
for the Tsunami Victims of South India

Discovering recycled paper products	Dr Maithreya tasting purified water	The TOS Team & partner organisations	Women with purified water
A Tailoring Class	Bhattacharya cutting ribbon at the recycling plant	A reverse osmosis plant

 

Following the tsunami on December 26, 2004, the Theosophical Order of Service (TOS) has, with the generous support of the Theosophical Society (TS) and TOS members and friends round the world, been involved in extensive relief and rehabilitation efforts along the coast of Tamilnadu.  After the initial phase of emergency relief, the Chennai TOS has concentrated its efforts in two major areas: providing potable water and facilitating alternative employment for fisher-folk.

 

Four reverse osmosis plants with a capacity to purify water at a rate of between 1000 & 1500 litres per hour have been set up in Chandrapadi, Nambiyar Nagar, Kutiandiyur & Nagoor.  One more is planned for North Madras.  In addition, the TOS has facilitated the donation of a sixth reverse osmosis plant from Canadian Water Works with a capacity of about 1500 litres per hour, which is installed at Akkaraipettai in Nagapattinam.  For greater effectiveness, the TOS has partnered with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), companies and individuals.  The pumps for the first five plants were donated by the Danish company, Grundfos, through its Indian subsidiary.  A seventh reverse osmosis plant, with a capacity of 600 litres per hour, was given in September 2005 by the German manufacturer K‘a’rcher, through Manmachine India Ptv Ltd.  All these plants are managed by the Thirumalai Charity Trust with a subsidy from the Theosophical Order of Service.

 

As part of the alternative employment programme, 91 sewing machines have been donated for centres currently training women in tailoring.  Thirumalai Charity Trust has partnered in this project with a donation of 41 machines.  Most of the local groups running these centres are supported by the ‘Unorganised Workers’ Federation’ which is dedicated, amongst other things, to helping women toward economic independence.  Women the world over will be interested to learn that ‘women’s empowerment’ is a theme much in evidence in these districts with project signs explicitly mentioning it.  One unit is run by a separate group, near Chennai.  In order to provide additional support, a further 33 high-speed industrial sewing machines are being donated for commercial use by the trained women.

 

The TOS has also donated two machines for recycling waste and producing paper products to a self-help group, the Annie Besant Ammaiyar Coastal Women’s Federation in Cuddalore.  The equipment for a second unit has also been handed over to the Annai Theresa Coastal Women’s Federation in Pazhaverkadu.  In addition, tools have been provided to masons, electricians & plumbers, and 30 idly making machines to women in Injambakkam and Pudu-Edaiyur, both villages on the outskirts of Chennai.  (For those unfamiliar with South Indian food, idlies are a kind of steamed rice-cake.)

 

Visit to Tsunami-Hit Districts in February 2006

 

In early February 2006, around 15 members of the TOS, TS and the partner company Grundfos visited some of the rehabilitation projects.  The International Secretary of the TOS, Mrs Diana Dunningham Chapotin, flew in specially from France and Mr B L Bhattacharya, National Director of the TOS in India, also made the journey from Calcutta.  Before heading down the coast, Mrs Dunningham Chapotin inaugurated a reverse osmosis plant donated by the TOS to the Ramakrishna Mission Boys’ Home in Mylapore, Chennai.  The home has begun housing tsunami orphans and hopes to take in more.

 

The group visited two of the eleven training centres for which sewing machines have been donated.  It went to an environmentally friendly recycling unit and inspected the paper products.  It also visited two water purification plants and met the heads and staff of the Thirumalai Charity Trust whose professionalism and dedication are heart-warming.

 

Ceremonies were held all along the way to inaugurate the projects and wish the villagers well.  The biggest function was held at Nagore Pattinanchery where the Additional Collector of Nagapattinam, Mr Ranvir Prasad, inaugurated the fourth reverse osmosis plant acquired by the TOS for providing drinking water in the tsunami-hit districts.  The President of the TOS in Chennai, Mr C V K Maithreya, spoke of the work of the TOS and of the TOS-Thirumalai Charity Trust partnership.  Mrs Diana Dunningham Chapotin dedicated the plant to the villagers.  Mr B. L .Bhattacharya addressed the gathering, distributed prizes to children and participated in the lighting of a lamp.  Other speakers included members of the Thirumalai Charity Trust.  The village representatives responded with speeches of thanks.  There was a play organised by the youth of the village on the theme ‘drinking water in our daily life’.  The agenda also included an oath-taking by the villagers in which they committed themselves to maintain the reverse osmosis plant carefully and share the water peacefully.  On all occasions the important work of Dr. Annie Besant, the Founder of the TOS, was mentioned by the speakers.

 

The press reported the activities of the Theosophical Order of Service by giving a detailed account of some of its current projects:  Here is a link to an article in the Hindu: The Hindu

 

The TS and TOS collaborate in a New Project

 

In addition to following through on the aforementioned rehabilitation projects over the long term, the TOS in Chennai has offered to help the TS to construct a small four-bed polyclinic on the grounds of its HQ estate in Adyar, Chennai.  At the Social Welfare Centre, free medical advice and medicines have been provided for a few years to the poor by the TOS’s team of volunteer doctors, three of whom were in the party visiting the projects in the tsunami-hit districts.  The idea of the clinic, very young at present, is to have the space to keep patients overnight.

 

DEDICATION, PROFESSIONALISM & TEAMWORK

 

The extensive work of the TOS in Chennai is a reflection of the dedication of a united team and of the dynamism of its current president, Mr C. V. K. Maithreya.  As a management consultant with many contacts in the business community in India and overseas, Mr Maithreya has in a short period reinforced the reputation of the TOS as a reliable NGO partner.  It would have been difficult for the TOS in Chennai to undertake such extensive tsunami relief and rehabilitation work without his leadership and without the help and cooperation of his wife, Dr Sunita Maithreya and the others on the committee, including Ms. Keshwar Dastur, Mr. S .Harihararaghavan, Dr. R Revathy, Mr. V Gopal, Mrs Radha Muthiah, Dr M Srinivasan, Dr Geetha Jaikumar, Mr K A Rajagopalan and Dr Nagaraj.  In addition to the work of this team, the young staff of Mr Maithreya’s consulting firm work daily on TOS projects at the same time as they manage their professional tasks.  Mr P Ramana Reddy, the Regional Secretary, has been a source of inspiration to all.  Some of these key TOS workers at Adyar hope to represent the TOS in India at the international TOS Conference in Wheaton, Illinois in late July 2007.  Mr B L Bhattacharya, the National Director of the TOS in India, may also be able to attend.