Tuticorin Site Visits

Tuticorin- a small town surrounded by fishing villages. These communities, before the Tsunami, lived in thatch huts, which were destroyed every year with the Monsoon. Although rain is common in Tuticorin throughout the year, these huts did not provide any protection from it. This area was not damaged as severely as Nagappatinam (a town further north), and I have not heard about any lives lost, but the Tsunami was still able to bring funding to help them set up permanent housing. The permanent housing has established deeper roots in the community, allowing the formation of Self Help Groups. The people said that one the greatest impact the NGOs have had on their lives was learning how to sign their names. The signature gives them an identity and that allows them to deal directly with banks for loan. This one scribble had been their key deterrence from getting financial assistance from institutional sources.












Thatch houses that fishermen lived in before permanent shelters built

Housewives in the new Tsunami housing area





























Outside the community center, women gathered for SHG meeting










Children playing a game call Pompondom (sp?), an age-old Tamil game that resembles the Dredle.














A fishing net which SHG loans have helped to repair after Tsunami











Baby Neem Tree. The tree, known for its medicinal properties in India, are grown by every Tsunami house














A deep sea diving fishermen gives us a demonstration



HFO- In addition to visiting the Tsuanmi Area, I also had a chance to visit more mature Self Help Groups, formed by Human Formation Organisation (HFO) in 1999. With the aid of translation by the head of HFO, I was able to get detailed accounts and stories from so many women. One common link underlying all of these stories was that the SHG exposure and networking has transformed a hopeless acceptance of hardship to a proactive will for change. Women who were housewives before are running for political office, rallying workers to join unions, and forming watch committees against domestic violence. Whatever they cannot achieve as an individual due to social and economic limitations, they can now do as a group.














Widow, with five children, has been continuously denied pension because she cannot afford the bribe they demand. HFO is helping her with legal action against the bureau.














A new SHG business set up by 12 women to make sanitary napkins

Proud owner of a successful SHG group business, with contracts from the railway to wash bedsheets












Self Help Group meeting. The lady on the far right, since her SHG began, has taken up an informal position as the elderly counsel for families in her area.















A small shop developed by a woman through microfinance loans