The heaviest rainfall in over a century, climate change and poor civil infrastructure planning have caused massive flooding in Chennai and across Tamil Nadu in early December 2015, driving thousands from their homes. As flood waters recede the ‘need of the hour’ is to ensure availability of basic amenities and check the spread of disease – especially for the poor.

This is a proposal to develop and fund rehabilitation kits for those worst affected by the floods. Importantly our aim is to create a highly targeted response to address the ‘need of the hour’ and to provide transparency to donors – ensuring that the aid reaches their intended recipients in full, without hindrances or delays.

Current Situation

Some 100,000 people are out of their homes and living in 136 government-run relief camps in Chennai. Several parts of the city remain cut off due to poor connectivity. As rain waters subside garbage and sludge have collected on the streets and sewage has entered homes, damaging properties.

Rehabilitation Kits

We propose to develop two kits in consideration of the structured, phased effort required to get flood affected victims back on to their feet:

• Phase 1 – Relief (costing INR 1000^): This kit is aimed at providing for immediate functional necessities whilst families find themselves in temporary shelters. The key theme here is health and hygiene management to ensure that families are protected from diseases such as diarrhoea. Furthermore the kit enables self-reliance – enabling families to cook and thereby ease pressure on relief workers who are likely to be stretched in their efforts. Phase 1 is expected to last two months.Phase I kitcontent is given below:

*Efficient kerosene stove

*Utensils starter kit

*Sodium Hypochlorite based solution for disinfecting flood water, garbage to reduce incidence of disease

*Activated EM solution (general purpose disinfectant)

• Phase 2 – Rehabilitation(costing INR 3500^):This kit will enable families to ease back to their normal lives and routines, freeing themselves of the effects of the flood, with better prospects for health, hygiene and cost saving than before. This includes access to clean drinking water, clean cooking, and hygiene management within their homes. Phase 2 is expected to kick in within the next one or two months.Phase II kitcontent is given below:

*Water filter

*Biomass clean cookstove + latent heat cooker which serves to preserve food (hot and cold)

*Disinfectant

*Activated EM

• Phase 3 – Re-powerment (costing INR 1900+actual cost of composter ^): This phase will focus on setting up a livelihood generation model around biomass cookstoves. We have a charcoal making cook-stove called the TLUD gasifier cook-stove as well as a unique “Earn while you cook” model around it. Phase 3 will set up one model in each of the target community to serve as a case study about what can be done with the TLUD Charcoal, thus serving as a case study for an income generation activity that will encourage economic activity rebuilding. We have planned to give 50 TLUD cook-stoves and a charcoal briquetting model in each of the target community .We also want to put up composters at appropriate places in these communities to serve as responsible garbage disposal solutions in the long term. The composter will also adopt the usage of the TLUD charcoal and AEM in the composting process, thus presenting a comprehensive solution to street hygiene that is also a logical extension of how they are managing hygiene at home. We feel this will lend further credibility to the adoption of these hygiene tools.

*TLUD Charcoal making stove

*Composter

^Prices are at cost i.e. no profit is made by any parties as a result

The content of each kit have a specific functional purpose and suited to the needs of the recipient families at the time:

Kerosene stove

• Kerosene is one of the few fuels that will be effective in the aftermath of the flood. Biomass fuels such as wood, dung and coal will not burn efficiently due to dampness. Furthermore the poor do not have access to LPG cylinders.

• The Tamil Nadu government has allotted 3 litres of kerosene per household free of cost

• The stove offered is a flagship product of the Servals company and was developed by the Late Mr. M. Thyagarajan – lab assistant to the Late Dr. Abdul Kalam.

• The kero burner saves up to 30% on kerosene and is widely used across India

Utensils starter kit

• 1x bucket

• 1 x big karandi           

• 1x small karandi            

• 1 x big plate

• 1 x small plate

Sodium HypoChlorite Disinfectant

• Sodium Hypochlorite solution for disinfecting external premises including puddles of water, garbage and waste around the house

• Disinfects water by removing the bacteria that cause water borne diseases such as diarrhoea cholera etc         

• Sodium Hypochlorite is used extensively by the army in many western countries to treat and clean flood water to reduce outbreak of diseases

  
  

  Activated EM

• Microbial solution that is an effective cleaner for indoor surfaces, particularly surfaces that touch food and the human body

• Is a natural product discovered in 1982 by Dr.Higa at the University of Ryukyus, Okinawa Japan

•  E.M. stands for Effective Microorganisms which comprises of a specific group of naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms with an amazing ability to revive, restore, and preserve

Biomass clean cookstove

• Highly efficient and therefore provides cost savings for the poor – an experienced person can save 80% of the firewood consumption of a traditional open fireplace (3-stone-fire).

• The stove needs around 250g of dry firewood to bring 6 litres of water to the boil

Latent heat cooker

• 4 litre capacity – designed per latent heat principles to preserve both hot and cold temperatures

• Functions as a “cooking finisher” by saving heat eliminating needing to burn fuel thereby saving cost          

•  Function as a “mini fridge” without requiring electricity – an effective solution for storage of perishables for the poor reducing incidence of insects, rats etc

Water filter

• Terafil Water Filter – a low cost device to filter impure water into clean drinking water

• Aimed at poorer households it enables filtration of water is rich in sediments, suspended particles, iron

Single canister TLUD Stove

• The winner of the Sankalp 2010 award in the Clean Energy Sector, Servals' TLUD Gasifier Stove; leaves charcoal as residue;

• Basis for the unique “Earn while you cook” economic model based on “charcoal buy-back”

Composter

• Composter is a device which helps in generating an organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming.

• At the simplest level, the process of composting simply requires making a heap of wetted organic matter known as green waste (leaves, food waste) and waiting for the materials to break down into humus after a period of weeks or months.

Dissemination of Kits

• Other than addressing essential needs of the flood victims through rehabilitation kits, the other explicit aim of this proposal is to ensure that reaches its target without hindrances brought about by government or other bureaucracy. This will be done by providing donors with transparency to view where their aid is going. To this end we will work with volunteer circles headed by three young dynamic individuals on the ground who are also good Samaritans at heart.

• The good samaritans who have voluteered to bring the last mile connectivity for this initiative are:

1.Clement SudharsonSudharson is putting in a lot of efforts for the relief operations. His area of reach would be Mudichur, kilkatalai, Sholinganallur, Perumbakkam, Siruseri,and Perungulathur. His FB link is a window to what he is doing currently-https://web.facebook.com/CSsudharson?fref=ts 

2.Prasanna Kesavan Prasanna has till date identified a requirement of 350 stoves in  a Srilankan Refugee families  camp near Puzhal and Gummidipoondi (through the local named Nitharshan) ,20 stoves in Manimanagalam and 100 stoves in Sulapalayam. with the help of his friends- https://web.facebook.com/prasanna.kesavan.7

3.Wesly Thomas

Wesly  is an engineer working as a manager at Mercy Plates and Vessels ,Chennai. He is associated with Love Foundation and has been involved in reaching out to more than 234 people in a day as part of relief efforts. He was also involved in doing rescue and has also distributed food packets and blankets. His area of operation is pulicat (pazhaverkadu)area-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulicat_Lake.On 11-Dec-2014,Wesley had organised a team and an elderly gentleman(https://picasaweb.google.com/100563185669990048036/WeslySGroupEffortsInChennaiFloodRelief) to provide relief supplies to Avrivakkam Village and Aandalmadam Village near pulicat (pazhaverkadu)area.

• Clement, Prasanna and Wesly are all happy to provide regular updates such as photos and communications on their efforts to assist individuals, families and communities that they tend to with the aid provided. They are also willing and capable of undertaking the education and awareness creation that is required to ensure that the hygiene management around the disinfectant, AEM and latent heat cooker become a cultural change for the families going forward.

• The action does not stop with the  three muskeeteers....You may be the fourth musketeer! Many more youngsters,like Selvin  ,Andrew, are  volunteering with great commitment in rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts at ground zero of the flood affected areas in Chennai and neighbouring parts.

• Please do support us in our efforts to rebuild lives in Chennai. Every contribution will make a huge difference by helping to reach out to an additional person with supplies