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Tsunami Earthquake Disaster: Latest From India
HelpAge International
India
January 7, 2005
100-year-old Aisha Bee from Chennai, South India, survived being washed away by the tsunami.
Angammal, aged 60, lives in coastal Chennai, southern India. When the tsunami struck, her 100-year-old partially blind mother, Aisha Bee, was swept away from her home. Astonishingly, she returned safely once the water receded.
The story of Angammal's mother is exceptional. Of those dead or missing in India, close to 30% are estimated to be older people, many of whom are especially vulnerable because of poor mobility.
HelpAge India estimates that over half a million older people in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu have been affected by the catastrophe. Many of them are virtually destitute. Others have lost relatives, homes and belongings, and their means of livelihood.
Reaching older people
In a series of relief distributions across the affected areas, HelpAge India has been distributing food, cooking oil, blankets, lanterns and stoves, clothing and bedding, and other provisions to older people and their families.
HelpAge India aims to reach 6,000 families of older people with immediate relief by mid-January. They are also assessing the rehabilitation needs of older people.
Older people's vulnerability
Older people are often forgotten in relief operations, as the story of 75-year-old Perumal of Devanampattinam, close to Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, illustrates. When relief material was being distributed in his area, Perumal quietly stood alone in the remains of his thatched hut, refusing to join the hungry crowds jostling for aid.
When asked why he did not join in, Perumal shook his head and said, "It is no use. I have been pushed out on earlier occasions and have fallen on the ground. I know I will get nothing this time around too.
"Some cars came by and just threw the packets. The fastest gets the food, the strong one wins. The elderly and the injured don't get anything. We feel like dogs."
Despite what is being termed as one of the biggest relief operations in history, in Cuddalore alone 1,500 older persons had still received little or no aid when HelpAge India began its aid distribution on 6 January.
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