Mamta Gruha Inmates Support Community Rehabilitation, A dog who saved children

Item

Title: Mamta Gruha Inmates Support Community Rehabilitation, A dog who saved children
extracted text: many cases their destroyed houses are yet to be rebuilt, as
an interim measure most of them are housed in 36 Mamta
Gruhas set up in various villages. After some time they will
move to living with the wider community. In some cases
widows will adopt orphans thus starting a new family, or they
can set up a new family with an old couple, or a remarriage
can be arranged. Orphans can he rehabilitated in extended
families and in foster families. Various kinds of livelihood
support is planned The main.idea is to strengthen the
ommunity itself to take care of its most needy members.

----- Mamta Gruha Inmates Support —
Community Rehabilitation
Chatipaari village in Erasma block is one of the
most devastated villages. 565 persons are reported to
have died in this village with pre-cyclone population of
1365. There are a large number of widows and
orphans. As an interim measure they are housed in a
‘Mamta Gruha' (Home of Affection) set up in this village.

When this writer talked to some widows here, they
all supported the idea of community based rehabilitation.
They do not like the idea that they should be sent to
women's homes or the children should be sent to
orphanages in some far away place. It is important that
despite the low capacity of their community to provide
1 support to them, they still prefer to live within the
community instead of going to another place.
Saudamani Mandal says, cyclone has left me all
alone in this world. Now I want to look after the
orphaned children. This will be my world now. Where
s else will I go now.
7

Harsh Mander, national director of Action Aid has
campaigned hard for community-based rehabilitation as he
feels only this can provide the badly needed emotional
support. Bijoy Kumar, regional manager of Action Aid, says
7

— 4 dog who saved children

\

Kaalia looks like any ordinary village dog, but today
hundreds of people look at him with admiration,
sometimes even reverence. The reason - on the fateful
day of the super-cyclone he saved three small children
from almost certain death in Chatipur village. The
children were about to be swept away by powerful
waves of surging water, but Kaalia carried them up one
by one to the safety to an upper place from where the
children were picked up by grateful villagers.

Above all we should not forget the courageous efforts of
the villagers themselves. The remarkable resilience that
has been shown by a large number of villagers, their ability
to keep alive hope in the middle of despair is a story that
needs to be told. The most remarkable aspect clearly is the
ability to end old feuds, factions and discriminations and join
hands together for the united rebuilding of villages. This
needs to be built upon further to ensure that villagers remain
united in entire rebuilding and rehabilitation process that will
clearly take several years. It in heartening to note that some
voluntary organisations are conscious of the responsibility
and they are thoughtfully planning for interaction in ways that
will facilitate this process. Creating certain incentives for
such united action is one possibility, but creating strong
I emotional feelings for ‘rebuilding our village' or protecting the
I most vulnerable groups in the village (for example orphaned
children) can perhaps be even more helpful in sustaining
this emerging unity.

11

Media: RF_DM-2_DR-17_SUDHA.pdf

Position: 2427 (7 views)