A Community Based Scheme to Meet Disaster

M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has been working in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry since 1992 focusing on biodiversity and ICT for development.

During the tsunami MSSRF started working in different coastal villages of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry by establishing Village Knowledge Centres that provides information/knowledge to the villagers on various issues such as fish movement, height of waves, weather forecast etc.

Village Knowledge Centres
What: Village Knowledge Centres facilitate information/knowledge and technology empowerment by providing access to a variety of information. This facilitation enables the community to develop in different areas like education, employment, government schemes and in developing and enhancing computers skills etc. They are equipped with computers, printers, telephones, high frequency radio devices, net connection and other communications devices.

Why: The aim of this mission is to provide
Timely information to people to warn them about coming natural disasters
· Database access of agricultural products, market rates, health care facilities, government programs, schemes etc.
· Community-level computer training

Who: Most of the Village Knowledge Centers are run by Self Help Groups. Group members learnt how to operate computers, disseminate local information to hub centres, transfer the voice from the hub to Public Address System, and manage their own initiatives such as SHG meeting, maintaining accounts, providing training to teachers and students on how to access info.

Where: They are based in small coastal villages in cluster networks. Along the coast of Tamil Nadu, the goal is to have Village Knowledge Centres in every 3-4 villages.

How: In the village of Swamiyarpettai, the Village Knowledge Centre acts as a model hub for nearby villages. Providing local information is the key of the programme. Volunteers collect local news and information of interest and deliver it to the hub at Chidambaram. The hub then compiles and disseminates it back in a paper format.

Highlight: Dissemination of Fishing-Related Information
The information for fishing related activities such as sea behaviors, fish market info and fish movements are very useful for fishermen communities.

Weather forecasts are of great use to the fishing community. Information of wave heights that provides a 12 hr prediction in the Bay of Bengal help fishermen make appropriate decisions before venturing into the sea for fishing. Veerampattinam centre receives information on potential fishing zones, such as depth and water temperature, from the Indian National Centre for Ocean and Information Services. (INCOIS).

Namma Ooru Saithi (Our Village Newsletter)
They also developed a Community Newsletter Bi-montthly called “Namma Ooru Seithi” (Our Village Newsletter). This newsletter is in local language and provides local information that is useful for the villagers such as traditional information on health, agricultural product market info, employment opportunities for youth, government schemes and programmes, exam results etc.

This newsletter is being distributed by Self-Help Groups in their own villages. The youth clubs are taking the responsibility to distribute among the nearby villages. The response was very encouraging and they are planning to charge for the newspaper to become sustainable. They are also planning to provide local advertisements, birthday greetings for minimal rate.

Mitigating Disaster in the Face of Tsunami: Veerampattinam Village

In Verampattinam the centre was setup in 1999 and, as such, it had a major role to play when the tsunami struck in 2004.

When the sign of some abnormal changes in sea behavior was noticed by fishermen, they ran to the village knowledge centre to announce in immediately. Since they could not find out the person who carries the key of the center, they broke the lock and entered on their own. Without any delay, they announced to the villagers through Public Address System that every one should vacate and run for a safer place to escape from the disasters.

The people reacted very fast and saved their kith and kin immediately. That only five people died in the tsunami in this village shows that timely intervention reduced vulnerability.

Conclusion
MSSRF is planning to expand the Village Knowledge Centres in various coastal villages to create awareness on disaster preparedness among community members. They are currently working to link the Village Knowledge Centres with the state Early Warning System using advanced technology. This innovative attempt at community level disaster preparedness empowers communities by increasing access to technology for locally appropriate uses.

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