Tsunami relief: understanding the fisherfolk

Let fisher people decide

Eight days after the black Sunday, the situation is still bleak for the fisher people. Everywhere the good hearts all over the country and even from outside, immediate help is flowing in – in the form of cooked food, clothes, groceries, utensils, sheltering materials and medical help. Some NGO were even providing psychological support for the traumatized people.

In some places, the government authorities have advised the NGO to leave the materials in their hands for distribution. What is thus brought is reported to be lying in the centers. It is also reported that the distribution is caused disturbances: both by the other villagers by way laying or by the community itself, when the supply is not sufficient to distribute to all in the village.

We have a precarious situation.

Many outsiders, both those who are been frequenting the area as volunteers or those who follow the media – printed and electronic – been passing a comment. “ These villagers are refusing food and clothing: they are too proud to accept doles” is what they say. Some even think that they are ungrateful.

This makes us to be very concerned. This attitude could tarnish the effort that the many good hearts putting forth. As a team with understanding of the coastal communities, we need to explain.

The fisher people, unlike the farmers, are those who live by daily earning. They do not seed and cultivate – their job is to harvest. They dare the sea and in fact, they dare more when they are told not to venture – because it is then that they would make a better catch in the troubled sea. The assets they have made so far, are made over a few decades of hard and daring work.

Tsunami has taken all these in a few minutes, just like lightning.

They are shocked:

 
of having lost everything in a minute
of having lost those who were always there on the shore, worrying about them when they were out in sea
of having reduced to be houseless

·                    of having made to stay away from the sea on which they never hesitated to sail unless it is so rough.

They are not hopeless. They know what should happen.

But every thing else is happening.

They do not need mercy. They do not need doles in the forms of goods.

They only need assistance to build back their livelihood. They want their boats / kattamarans and nets.

They want the government to make sure that the ban to fish to be removed.

They want the advice “do not eat fish” to be removed.

No other sign of mercy is needed.

Let us understand them.

Let us not scorn at their lack of gratitude.

Let us give them their gears.

They will build back their world in no time.

 PS: WE ARE WRITING THIS ONLY ON BEHALF OF FAMILES WHO OWNED KATTUMARAM OR COUNTRY BOATS.

 In solidarity,

Gilbert Rodrigo

And all the GUIDE team.

(Courtesy:  dwin@yahoogroups.com mailing list)