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 .... memories of its people, 

places and culture 

that Gujarat is 

abundantly blessed with.  
 

Gujarat Service Project 2001
May 20 to June 1, 2001


CONTENTS

Arriving there

Everyone at Work

Assessing the 
Present Situation

Always 
Communication

A Useful Experience

 

 

PROJECT REPORT

This summer, Kamet Study Centre organized a camp for college students, in the earthquake-ravaged district of Kutch in Gujarat. The purpose was to assist the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the relief and rehabilitation work being conducted in the villages.

Kamet Study Centre has been organising similar camps each year. In the past two years, we had gone to the hills of Sat-tal, to teach the students and to paint the water tanks in the villages. 

This year, as soon as we learned about the devastation in Gujarat, we planned to conduct a social service camp there. This camp has been the fruit of more than two months of hard work and labour in mobilizing support both physically and financially. We are deeply thankful to all our supporters.

Arriving there

On 20th May, 2001 a team of eleven young men set forth on a trip to Gujarat with their luggages for 10 days under the banner ‘Kamet Service Project 2001’. 

After reaching Ahmedabad we were supposed to travel another 425 kms to reach Bhuj and then 12 more kms to Kutch Vikas Trust (KVT), where our lodging had been arranged.

KVT, is an institution that undertakes eye-camps, hostel for physically disabled students, an old age home, which became the base camp for several NGOs, which have been working for the rehabilitation of Gujarat after the earthquake. 

On reaching KVT, late in the evening after 24 hours of travel, we were being lodged in tents. We were to begin work from the next day and the night’s sleep was vital to shed off all our tiredness we carried from a long day’s trip.  

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Arriving in Ahmedabad

 

 

 

Removing debris...
 
 
 

During the survey

Everyone at Work

The next morning, armed with water bottles and caps, our team was ready for instructions to carry out the day’s work. The Caritas’ Chief Coordinator Mr. Arockiam and his assistant, Mr. Ronnie D’Souza briefed us on what had been their relief and reconstruction work since January 26, the day the earthquake happened, until our arrival at the site.

We were divided into groups of three. While one group preferred to stay in the campus and assist in the clearing of rubble and construction of new houses, the remaining two groups went to the villages of Bhrindiyara along with the Caritas’ staff.  

Assessing the Present Situation

After the earthquake, people in these villages have lost their houses and many have sought refuge in other places. The construction of permanent shelters cannot be carried out now, as monsoons are expected to arrive by mid-June. 

For this, Caritas plans to distribute 3,000 semi-permanent shelters, free of cost to the villagers, only to ward off the monsoon season. They have an arch-shape structure made of iron frame, on top of which is laid straw-mats. Above it is a covering of tarpaulin sheet to protect against the rains.  

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A lot to do...

 
   

Even afterwards these shelters can be used as cattle-shed or for other purposes. Our first job was to conduct survey of villages, requiring from them information about the total number of families in the village, their castes and the names of those who require these shelters. 

Besides, our job was to converse with the villagers and convince them about the need for semi-permanent shelters.    

Always Communication

Since the villages in Kutch have their own dialect, Kutchhi, we often depended on our guide, one among the villagers who took us around and did the majority of talking for us. Wherever people understood Hindi, our knowledge of Hindi came handy. Often in our frequent trips to the villages, we were served lunch, which gave us a good opportunity to appreciate their hospitality.

We conducted such surveys in almost 20 villages of Bhuj district. The size of each of them varies from 20 to 100 families per village. Our team also went to an adjoining district of Bachau, which is one of the worst earthquake-hit areas. Another activity we had during the ten-day visits to the villages was to paint the NGO's logo on the shelters already being provided.

In one of these villages, our job was also to get feedback about any defects in the shelters or any other complaints the villagers may have regarding its usage. This was very useful for the NGO’s appraisal of the help they were providing and as a fruit of our recommendations, they got 3 more different types of temporary shelters for the remaining villages.  

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A Useful Experience

Apart from the work in the villages the job our team did in the campus was equally challenging and harsh. 

We cleared great portions of rubble and carried big boulders for the reconstruction of houses. Certainly we all learned the most from the labourers working at the site, whom by their hard work and dedication, send the little they earn to their houses for survival. 

For all of us, the experience in the removal of debris and construction of houses caused a strong impact, since now we appreciate better the effort and dedication the masons need to put under very hard conditions of manual labour. 

The average temperature in the Kutch desert during those days was 43° Centigrade.    

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Planning the visit 
to the villages

Photos courtesy:
World Bank Archives

 

Time to Rest Too

In the evenings when we return after work, we had some time (and energy!) to play sports, mainly volleyball, football and cricket. We were committed to our play as much as we were to our work. On a Sunday, a holiday, we went to the beach in Mandvi with the purpose of a picnic and swimming after a long week of work.

Every night we had talks and get-togethers in the evenings. It was an excellent occasion to invite people working in KVT and to share with them our impressions and findings. Of the guests we had were Mr. Arochiam, Chief Co-ordinator of Caritas; Mr. Ronnie, regional director, Caritas; Mr. Alistair and Ms. Ann Mary, both of them from CAFOD-UK (who were doing some assessment there); Mr. Sudhanshu, co-ordinator of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Mr. Pius, chief consulting architect working with KVT.

Fr. George Kunnath, founder of KVT and a resident in Kutch since 1975, gave us another talk about the sociological and economic situation in the area. It was an enlightened talk and we all appreciate much more the people from Kutch and their geography.

We did also enjoy!
 

We were told that the green lushy campus, which we see now, was a 200-acre desert land when Fr. George first came to this place. Since then his efforts in opening a hospital, an eye-care centre, a physically disabled home, an old-age home and the central work place for numerous NGOs has been truly remarkable. More remarkable is the fact that a man of this big stature passes unnoticed, not expecting any recognition for his work. Although, we learned that during those days, the Government of Gujarat had awarded KVT with a big prize for the social impact and their contributions to the area.  

 

   

An unexpected threat

The last three days of our camp were marked by the threat of a Cyclone. We had to move our things away from the tents and try to sleep in one of the school’s building at KVT. Although the building suffered badly because of the earthquake, it had enough resistance to cope with the expected heavy rains and winds from a torment. At the end, we did had some showers, but not the cyclone. It could have been another strong experience, of relief work after a cyclone, but certainly not the one we had planned.

On the morning of 31st May, our team bid adieu, after completing a successful Social Work Camp in Gujarat. We know not whether we’ll return to this land but what we’ll carry with us would be the memories of its people, places and culture that Gujarat is abundantly blessed with. 

As reported by Abraham Thomas.

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