Mata Amritanandamayi - Tsunami Relief Effort

Kaumudi Online - Offline Page: "Amritanandamayi mutt carries out relief work in tsunami-hit areas
KOLLAM: Apart from announcing a long-term Rs 100-crore relief package, world-renowned spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi and her disciples have mounted perhaps the biggest immediate relief service by a single organisation for the tsunami-hit coastal areas in south India.
True to their motto of extending a helping hand to the neglected, the Aitanandamayi mutt, based at the tsunami-hit Alappad panchayat in the district, have been carrying out a massive relief operation.
''In this Panchayat alone, food has been served to nearly five lakh people so far, besides cloth and medical aid since December 26,'' said Brahmachari Dhyanait at the coordinating cell at the headquarters.
The 'hugging saint' known as 'Amma', herself took the lead soon after the tragedy by visiting the relief camps and coordinating the measures with thousands of inmates, who were preparing, carrying and serving food to the affected.
Similar service was extended through its branches, at places like Nagapattinam, Chennai, Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, Pondicherry, Andaman and Vypeen.
In Nagapattinam, volunteers provide food to 10,000 people every day from the centralised kitchen there while medical teams attended to the affected in the camps. A temporary shelter was made to accomodate 1,000 people there.
Mutt officials said the Tamil Nadu Government had already given permission to adopt two villages in the district. About 1,000 permanent houses would be built there besides another 1,000 in other places in Tamil Nadu, as part of the long-term package by the Amritanandamayi Mutt.
At Amma's own village of Alappad, where 131 people perished, the mutt had already erected six temporary shelters to accommodate 120 families and offered its five-acre-land for constructing more shelters by the government.

The mutt had also distributed Rs 1,000 each in cash to all the affected families.

Amma had announced a Rs 100-core-package to build homes for the displaced and to take care of orphaned children in the tsunami-hit places of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

She had also expressed willingness to adopt the affected villages here and construct buildings for all those displaced in Kerala as per the directions and stipulations of the government.