Dear Fr. Provincial,
We are back from our second expedition to the faultline... This time Fr. Elson, Fr. Thomas and I accompanied our Vice-Provincial, Fr. Adolph, who had come along with Fr. Godfrey from Mumbai, for an on the spot study of the relief work going on, so that we could chart our further course of action. Fr. Brian who also joined us, has stayed on and joined the relief team.
The situation continues to be much the same, however, the chaos seems to be less, since the various volunteer groups working there are slowly getting organized. Aid is now reaching the people, but not yet in a sufficiently systematic manner. I guess the problem is so huge, that people really don't know where to begin and what to do!
After going around and making an assessment of the work, we had a meeting with all the Salesian Family volunteers at Bhachau. Two important decisions that we took there were:
1. To shift our entire team to Gandhidaam. You see, too many volunteers are now working in Bhachau, and other places are not getting the required attention and aid. Hence our team will now be based at Gandhidaam, and from there reach out to the villages of that area.
2. To commit ourselves to this relief work for at least a month. Accordingly, Fr. Adolph will request batches of Brothers from Nashik and Poona to come to Gujarat and help out with this work. At the end of the month we shall assess our work, and then decide what will be our next step. By then the phase of relief work will be drawing to an end, and the rehabilitation phase will begin.
I am sure that Fr. Adolph will give you a more detailed report of his trip to the earthquake affected areas, and his experiences there.
Yours in DB,
Savio Silveira sdb
To begin with, our Salesians in Gujarat have done us proud by their courage, spirit of generosity and dedication with which they have responded to this unprecedented disaster. They were among the first to get involved. Buoyed up with Fr. Provincial’s spontaneous and instant support of Rs.10 lakh towards the Relief Fund, these two groups of Salesians, one from Baroda and the other working jointly from Dakor and Chhota Udepur swung into action.
Rallying the support of their parishioners and their benefactors they put together some essential supplies of blankets, rice, dhal, and cooking utensils. They hired some lorries and together with a group of committed volunteers, set out into the quake-hit areas. They were surprised to find that their vehicles, were among the first to enter into some battered areas with essential supplies.
Initially these two groups operated from two different bases – Fr. Roger and his team from Baroda situated themselves at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Gandhidham, while Frs. Elson and Savio got their team together and operated from the C.R.S. base at Bachao.
By the time Fr. Adolph and I arrived at the scene on Feb.3, we found our Salesians and their teams already networking with Church Organizations with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose. They were ready to pool together the very best of all they had to reach out to the aid of those affected in the earthquake tragedy.
Caritas is one of the major Church units that has set up several bases of operation in the affected region. One of its main bases is at Bachao catering to a large area comprising more than 60 villages that have been totally devastated by the earthquake. Our Salesian Group at Bachao, under the leadership of Frs. Alex Fernandes, Gregory D’Cunha, Noel Mathias and Bro. Arul Pinto, began initially to work in coordination with the CRS. Each day they moved into the far flung villages, gave medical aid with the assistance of HelpAge Doctors and the Sisters of Mother Theresa, and made a list of the immediate needs of the village folks. A Report of these activities and the needs of the people affected by the tragedy was made at the Joint Meeting of Volunteers and NGOs held every evening at the base. The organizers put all this together, drew up plans and dispatched teams the next day accordingly. Most of our men were sent the following day into newer areas to assess the damage and render assistance in places where aid had not reached as yet.
In the Gandhidham area where Fr. Roger and his team were operating, things were a little different. This was a base organized by Fr. Kuriakose, a diocesan priest of the Rajkot Diocese. There were fewer volunteers here and the area they catered to was not as large as Bachao. Yet, the earthquake had ruthlessly devastated this place as well. Here again, the volunteers ventured into the surrounding villages of Gandhidham, chiefly treating the sick and the injured. Those severely injured were moved to the hospital at the base. On the day Fr. Adolph and I arrived at Gandhidham, Fr. Roger was in one of the villages. Sr. Chitra, a Mother Theresa sister, and Jude, a volunteer named from the Baroda parish, greeted us. They had just come back from Roger’s village to return with an ambulance to ferry the seriously injured. They informed us that Fr. Roger was in the village where, since morning, he had nursed and bandaged the wounds of more than 50 villagers. The rest of the team was also involved in similar relief services.
On the evening of Feb.3, a tent full of Salesian volunteers gathered together at the base at Bachao for a meeting to assess their work thus far and make plans for the future. At this meeting, the volunteers felt that it would be of greater advantage to operate from one base instead of two. They decided to work together from Gandhidham where 9 villages were being catered to by the Salesians and their volunteers. Working from one base would enable them to prepare a more concrete plan of action for relief work and move in a more systematic and organized way. They also felt that establishing communication systems and making use of the supply of aid from the various Salesian Houses could be better organized. The whole team now has moved to Gandhidham and they have focused their attention on those 9 interior villages where aid has not yet reached. What the villagers request desperately are temporary shelters to protect them from the chilly wintry nights where the temperature drops to 7 degrees Centigrade.
