Nomad RSI - Therapeutic diversity and the environment

The coastal inhabitants of the Bay of Bengal, Tamil Nadu, were among those most severely affected by the series of tsunami waves that followed the undersea earthquake of December 26^th 2004. Faced with the extreme distress of thousands of families, Nomad RSI launched a project to assist in their recovery.

The tsunami disaster engendered an enormous humanitarian response, implemented in Tamil Nadu by the Government of India, international and local NGOs and private donors. Sadly, this outpouring of aid was poorly coordinated, often reaching some areas and groups in quantity whilst others, often already disadvantaged, saw nothing. Despite its stated aims, the patchy nature of Tamil Nadu’s “tsunami relief” programme frequently served to accentuate social differences, both within communities and between those communities affected (and assisted) and their homologues in neighbouring villages. Many of those overlooked by the relief programmes were already living in harsh conditions, made harsher still once the uneven flows of tsunami relief became apparent. New forms of social tension began to arise.

Nomad RSI’s programme focused on the reconstruction of the most severely affected areas, but aimed to ensure that, as far as possible, the entire community benefited equally. The stress was upon improving the health, both biological and social, of those affected by the tsunami and its aftermath.

Activities

The largest project was conducted in partnership with the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, Bangalore. Through the revitalisation of folk health systems, the aim was to enable easy and effective access to healing for common diseases amongst the most disadvantaged groups in Tamil society.

The project, which ran in 10 villages and lasted for 18 months, included:

 Creation and support of healers’ associations in two districts severely hit by the tsunami
 Training for healers on treatment of simple diseases using medicinal plants, provided by healers specialised in particular pathologies.
 Documentation of healing traditions and practices (materia medica, diseases treated etc)
 Establishment of medicinal plant gardens in each of the 10 villages, cooperatively run by healer associations.

The exceptional nature of the tsunami led Nomad RSI to also initiate a number of micro-scale, emergency-focused activities. A reconstruction project, led by an organisation called A l’abri de la mousson, included the reconstruction of eight hut-houses in a badly affected coastal village. As part of a water-focused project implemented by the Indian NGO Feed Trust, Nomad RSI donated a water filter to a primary school, capable of providing 1000 litres of clean water per day to village children whose normal supplies had become salinated. Funds were provided to repair the roof of a night-school managed by the local NGO Shantikulam, and occasional assistance was given to a number of villages to help them to purchase fishing boats and other vital equipment.

We thank all our members, friends, donors and partners for making these projects possible, particularly Bar le Sextius in Aix-en-Provence, Hair Pur in Toulouse and a Japanese collective made of artists from Hayama and Yokohama.

Documents

 Info India February 2005 (fr)
 Info India Mai 2005 (fr)

Other past projects

 Cambodia - Preah Vihear
 Senegal
 Nepal
 India - Karnataka
 Andorra