Visit to Samala Deevi, Tsunami Victims

We started our journey from Eluru at 8.30am on January 26th, 2006. It took nearly two and half hours to reach Samala Deevi which is where one of the parishes of the Dioceses of Eluru is located. When we arrived, we met with Fr. Savio Stalin, the parish priest.

After a while we met with Fr. Prasad and Mr. Prakash, the engineer, who are working to complete the new houses for the tsunami victims. We had tea together, and then walked around the shrine, which is right on the beach, close to the sea. There were many fishermen on the beach working together to bring in a very large fishing net.


At 12.30 pm we went to the Ranga Puram Colony, where we are helping the people to build their new houses. The village is about 2 klms away from Samala Deevi. Here the people welcomed us with flowers and garlands. They were very thankful for our help

About the people:

The people in the Ranga Puram Colony belong to the fishermen community, and they are mostly Hindus. There are only 100 Christians in the parish. Ranga Puram Colony is a sub-station of Samala Deevi, where the main occupation is fishing. They do cultivate some paddy and some others do make salt from the sea water.

During the time of tsunami, the livelihood of the people was destroyed, and ten people were killed. There are different organizations that have been helping the people with food, cooking vessels, clothing, boats, and fishing nets. They are WORLD VISION and APSSS (Andhra Pradesh Social Service Society.) We, the SCJ community in Eluru are collaborating with APSSS in building houses in the fishing village.

We are helping five families build their houses. While we visited, we saw the work that they began on the houses and met with the families. Everyone was very happy to see us, and they felt gratitude towards for our help.

In the future we plan to continue to help the people of Ranga Puram Colony, by setting up a program to help children continue their education.

Br. Bhaskar, scj