Amrita
Tsunami Relief &Rehabilitation Project

(Brief report on the activities undertaken by Mata Amritanandamayi Math to rehabilitate the 2004 South Asian tsunami victims. Click here to see the complete activities)

The Indian Ocean Tsunami, which struck on 26 December 2004, was a disaster like no other in recent history. 230,000 people were killed, two-million people were displaced, 370,000 homes damaged or destroyed, 8,000 kilometres of coastline devastated and 3,000 kilometres of roads ruined—not to mention incalculable emotional damage. The tsunami destroyed people and property in 12 countries, directly impacting a greater geographical area than perhaps any natural disaster in history. Furthermore, it took the lives of some 9,000 tourists, extending the tsunami’s impact far beyond its physical range.

Located on the southern end of India’s west coast, the Amritapuri Ashram was directly affected by the disaster. All 17.5 kilometres Alappad Panchayat—the peninsula the ashram is located upon—were completely flooded. Hundreds of houses and fishing boats were damaged or destroyed and 142 villagers lost their lives.

Amma was giving darshan in the ashram’s main temple when the tsunami waves rolled in, covering the ashram in water as deep as four feet. Unconcerned about her own safety, Amma immediately came down into the floodwaters to oversee the evacuation of not only the ashram but the entire peninsula. She arranged boats to take people across the backwaters to the mainland, set up accommodation for thousands at the Ashram’s Amrita University, provided food for the evacuees and did not leave the peninsula until every single person was safely on the other side of the river. Amma also had teams of doctors make rounds of evacuation camps in a dozen fully equipped ambulances both in Kerala and in Tamil Nadu, where the tsunami’s affects were much more severe. There, Amma had monastic disciples and devotees provide similar services as were being conducted in Kerala—food, medicine, shelter. The day of the tsunami would mark the beginning of the most massive disaster-relief project in the history of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM). For the next two years, MAM would dedicate its heart and soul to uplifting those affected by the tsunami both in India and in Sri Lanka. The total cost of the work would reach more than Rs. 200 crore [approximately $46 million U.S.].

Amma seemed to think of nothing other than the disaster victims during this period. It was as if she did not want to even sleep or eat until their lives had returned to normal. Aside from constantly overseeing the relief work, Amma travelled to the affected areas in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala and Sri Lanka, personally wiping the tears of hundreds of thousands of people—as well her own.

Under Amma’s guidance, MAM offered support in virtually every area of the tsunami victims’ lives, providing food, temporary shelter, medicine and clothing in the initial stages and then going on to provide a slew of long-term support, including the construction of 6,200 houses, education programs for tsunami-affected youth, new fishing boats, engines and nets, providing psychological counselling, offering swimming lessons to help children overcome their new-found fear of water, planting thousands of trees to serve as “wave cutters” in case of a future tsunami, building an evacuation bridge, helping villagers start home-business cooperatives, taking care of the marriage expenses of tsunami-affect couples and much more. Amma even sponsored re-canalization surgeries to reverse contraceptive tubal-ligation procedures for several poor women who’d lost all their children in the disaster so that they could conceive and once again know the joy of motherhood. In the end, four of the women gave birth—two to twins.

The disaster-relief work of MAM was praised throughout the world for its breadth and depth. After witnessing MAM’s tsunami-relief work first-hand, former UN Under-Secretary General Olara Otunnu extolled MAM’s low overhead costs and ability to provide quality and timely delivery of services to those in need. He said, “I think that international NGOs and UN agencies have something to learn from the work of Amma.”

Witnessing the success of the relief-and-rehabilitation work, many people—from government officials to leaders of others NGOs to students—have come to Amma and asked her to teach them about disaster management. A number of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers commented that although they had conceived of disaster-relief plans like Amma’s, until this they had never seen one successfully executed before. Oommen Chandy, the chief minister of Kerala at the time of the tsunami, said, “The relief work done by Amma and the math is an example for others to emulate.”

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the relief work was that it was almost completely undertaken by volunteers. Through her example of sacrificing her every comfort for the benefit of the tsunami-affected, Amma inspired thousands to give their time and resources to the disaster victims. When journalists asked Amma what was the secret behind the success of MAM’s tsunami-relief program, she gave a one-word answer: compassion—compassion experienced in the heart and expressed through the hands.