On November 29th 2017 , coastal areas of Trivandrum were hit severely by the catastrophic disaster –namely Okchi cyclone. Unlike any other disaster, okchi was special in its effect. In this disaster, one could not find external damages much , but it had wounded severely the minds, hearts of people internally, which only time can heal its hurtful memories.Above all the families of coastal areas have lost their breadwinners, their sons ,husbands and brothers. TSSS was one of the first social action group which was able to reach out to the Okchi disaster affected people before any other even the Governmental interventions could begin. TSSS as an active support arm of the social ministry of the Trivandrum Arch diocese used all its resources and personnel to alleviate the sufferings of the disaster affected victims. TSSS(Trivandrum Social Service Society),reached out to the people at this calamity period, with immediate assistance to sustain life and property with its time bound measure to sustain the lives of the people .Infinite ways TSSS along with its dedicated and committed staff worked tirelessly to organise various reach out programmes. To sustain the people in their life it is indispensable to make them self reliant and it was decided to accompany these shattered people for definite time.
Data collection
The entire TSSS staff and animators worked hard to get the primary data of the Okchi victims particularly in the month of January,data about the dead and missing list of the victims at this catastrophe were collected. The data collection format included significant informations. Principally the name of the victim, the age ,address, phone numbers, the entire details of the dependents of the victims’ family and predominantly what makes this family special to consider into the project. It also included whether the family left behind by the victims have children below 13 years, and had land and other basic amenities. This data collection gave the information as to how many people had lost their life and were missing.
Income Generation Programmes
To be of assistance to the Okchi beneficiaries and to accomplish self reliance, for this intention TSSS secretary Rev Fr. Lenin Raj.T, Okchy Diocese project Coordinator Sr.Jinsa Joseph along with Mrs. Dasy the animator visited the respective areas of Thoothoor Forane and met the beneficiaries ,encouraged them to achieve self reliance and to earn a lively hood for self sustenance. The beneficiaries were made to understand various possibilities of beginning an Income Generation programmes. Different parish regions too were visited to meet the beneficiaries and to help them to start an IGP programme. The beneficiaries were informed about the Monthly assistance of Rs.1000 for 290 families for six years which would be continued to give as a small help to begin the IGP programmes. They were encouraged to start an IGP ,where 75% would be provided by the diocese and the other 25% would be from the beneficiaries.
Status of the Okchy dead and missing
• A total of 146 from Kerala(Trivandrum)were counted as dead/ missing during the Okchy Cyclone. TSSS works hard through its dedicated staff for the rebuilding of the lives of the affected people in Anjengo, Puthukurichy, Valiyathura , Pulluvila , Kovalam and Thoothoor Forane. • A total of 144 from Tamil Nadu were counted as the dead /missing during the Okchy Cyclone .They were from Chinnathurai-39 ,Vallavilai-33,Marthandan Thurai-6,Thoothoor-11,Neerodi-32,Poothurai-14,EraviputhenThurai-6, Erayumman Thurai-2. After this period ,TSSS had received help from Loyola MSW students ,while opting to do their concurrent field work, they were guided to assemble baseline data of the victims particularly from the Trivandrum region.