On Sunday December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 occurred off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, triggering a tsunami that devastated a large number of coastal countries in the Indian Ocean, including India. Over 250,000 people were killed. The tsunami hit the southeast coast of India approximately two hours after the earthquake, destroying everything in its path.

AIDMI was at the sight of the disaster in Tamil Nadu within 24 hours. AIDMI, a community-based action research, action planning and action advocacy organisation, provided immediate emergency relief to the victims in the first weeks after the tsunami. AIDMI has since carried out community-based recovery and long-term risk reduction programmes, incorporating livelihood and shelter support.

The tsunami waves on December 26 2004 wiped away people, shelters and livelihoods. Supported by Human Trust and AIDMI, this family has been able to construct a new home.

The Initiative
AIDMI has established partnerships with three local NGO's; Human Trust, Centre of the Indian Trade Union (CITU) and Pengal Panokku Iyakam (PPI). They run projects in tsunami-affected communities along the coast of Tamil Nadu.

CITU is a trade union representing a group of female chemical workers in Chennai. AIDMI has—with the help of CITU—trained the women in two communities in safe handling methods for chemicals such as the production of washing powder and detergent, sewing and artisan work as well as administrative skills related to their business.

PPI is a self-help group whose objective is to help self-employed women who form a major portion of the informal sector, with which AIDMI worked initially in the wake of the tsunami to provide food relief, and subsequent, livelihood support. PPI has approximately 10000 members in 26 villages, and its field staff monitor the progress of beneficiaries and the effectiveness of their work. AIDMI has conducted trainings CBDRM and microcredit initiatives with the aim of contributing to a safer enivironment for its partners.

In two communities, AIDMI works with Human Trust to provide the affected communities with livelihood and shelter support. AIDMI has assisted in the production of groundnut, and coir rope, which they sell in surrounding centres like Chidambaram. Part of this assistance was provided in the form of machinery for rope making, and a work shed in which to store and dry their product. Technical assistance and capacity building were also provided.

Outcome and activities
With guidance from AIDMI and CITU, the women have established a 'self-help group', in which profit is distributed evenly among the members. Through various livelihood support, 96 members now have a stable income, but it is yet to surmount to pre-tsunami levels.

AIDMI and PPI have provided livelihood relief in the form of 'in-kind' assistance, microcredit loans, Afat Vimo coverage, and CBDRM training to community-members like Tazhunissa and Mathuvel Malathy, who have businesses ranging from edging straw mats to forging clay toys and ceramics.Through PPI, 548 have received livelihood support, 72 got shelter support and 42 benefited from LRF support.

Finally, Human Trust and AIDMI work together in two villages where AIDMI has assisted in the production of groundnut and coir rope. Female beneficiaries have also been organised into a group whose name loosely translates as 'Break for the Future'. In total, 70 members of the organisation are benefiting from this arrangement, and this has resulted in a slight increase in their income. In addition to livelihood and shelter support in which 143 have received support for, beneficiaries of AIDMI and Human Trust are covered by Afat Vimo and have received CBDRM training, which they say they remember, find of use and feel they can use to assist other people.

AIDMI has provided direct support, which is to say without local partner organisations, to 68 families for shelter, microcredit and LRF to 453 and insurance to 784 persons. Within this last year, 886 new policies of Afat Vimo were registered. In addition, two impact studies were conducted in order to reveal the impact of AIDMI's livelihood and shelter support in selected tsunami-affected villages.11

Inclusiveness
Within all the partnerships, the work is concentrated on leftout communities, especially women and Dalits.

In a Dalit village where AIDMI and PPI work together the villagers had received no other other external support. The women's financial situation has improved and boosted their confidence and sense of independence. Individual case studies suggest that in certain cases the wife's income has surpassed the one of the husband. Research done by a study team found that all partners have positive experiences with this work.

In addition, CITU represents female workers, while Human Trust also works with Dalit villages and primarily with women.

Lessons learned
AIDMI's livelihood and shelter support programmes have had a positive impact on the communities in which they work, but still not resistant to external influence such as decline in fish stocks or available land for agriculture. However, supporting women in rebuilding their livelihood has proved very successful, as they feel more empowered now. In AIDMI’s work in tsnuami-affected areas the focus lay on the inclusion of women, Dalits, marginalised, minorities and casual labourers in disaster reduction. Especially the women’s skills, experiences, knowledge and capacity will contribute significantly to local disaster resilience. Technical know-how have been increaed through CBDRM trainings. And exposure visits where tsunami-affected people have gone to earthquake-affected Gujarat for sharing their learnings and experiences. These visits proved very useful for those involved.

AIDMI has found that many tsunami-affected people do not want to consider any alternative livelihood as they feel that what the ocean always has offered them is what they are supposed to do, even though some turned into alternative businesses and increased their income by 50%. This makes AIDMI's ability to assist them in their recovery limited.

Nevertheless, initiatives such as the risk transfer initiative microinsurance and community-based disaster risk management have proved both useful and interesting for the communities.

These are initiatives that will continue to be strengthened. Moreover, AIDMI’s partnerships with the local and block governments in Tamil Nadu have been fruitful and facilitied AIDMI’s work in these areas.

Rapid Inclusive Relief

Inclusion in a Conflict Situation

Inclusive Tsunami Recovery

Risk Reduction

Knowledge Management

Disaster Response

Policy Advocacy