Issue date: 6/7/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Christopher Smith Chandra Anil spoke Monday at an AID-TAMU Chapter meeting.

Relief work following the tsunami that hit Southern Asia in December of 2004 has dealt with many issues not covered by the media, said relief worker Chandra Anil.

Anil, a graduate of Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani University in India, spoke Monday at the Memorial Student Center. She said some young volunteers working on the course of India's development inspired her when she was still an engineer in electronic design, and after working for five years in the information technology industry, Anil said she decided to change her career. She eventually became a full-time social work volunteer in 2000 after giving up her job.

"You know, somebody has to do the work, so I did," Anil said. "And my family was supportive to my idea."

Anil said that right after the tsunami struck, the media sent out a lot of misinformation. Volunteers in the Chennai chapter of her organization, the Association for India's Development (AID), traveled to damaged villages in areas of Nagapattinam and Cuddalore along India's coastline to find out what was needed and to clear debris and dead bodies. Anil said in Nagapattinam alone, about 250 villages were flushed flat.

"In our shelters, a lot of women and girls were having trouble of not being able to sleep and (went) into depression because of losses of touch with their family members," Anil said.

Anil said that as relief work went into the intermediate stage, volunteers built 70 health camps, 245 temporary shelters and 80 counseling centers in the damaged areas. Anil said volunteers performed Kalajathas, an Indian street play, to calm people and take away their fear of the sea.

"We also helped repair boats end engines as they needed to go back to sea for fishing," Anil said. "We handed out 20,000 booklets explaining about tsunami. The final stage of our relief work to the people in the damaged areas is education, especially education on science."?Annida Bhattacharya, president of A&M's AID Chapter and a doctoral student

"The AID worldwide raised $2 million dollars for tsunami relief work," Bhattacharya said. "We gave both financial aids and human resources to the damaged areas."

Dipa Brahmbhatt, a doctoral student in veterinary epidemiology, said Anil's lecture was fascinating.

"We are glad that she came here," he said. "We didn't know what actually happened there. She went into the details."

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