Next we visit several Village Coordination Forums (VCFs).  The idea for VCFs comes from an old fishing tradition, and they work like guilds.  Fishermen put a portion of every catch into a revolving fund – which members can put toward anything from buying a boat to funding their children’s education.  CSI has established 21 VCFs in Kanyakumari, with over 500 participants.

One VCF we visit, made up of 25 women, is in a seaside village where 193 people died.  The fund is rotated among the women, allowing them to start small businesses.  One woman is starting a milk vending business; others will start small shops or fruit-and-vegetable stands.  Christian Mary, 40, was a tailor before the tsunami.  She will use the funds to replace a sewing machine destroyed by the waves.

The next group we visit is the coastal Sambava community, who make rope out of coconut fibers.  The teams work in a shady grove of coconut trees, amid waist-high piles of coconut fiber, walking back and forth and pulling the rope as it begins to form.  The 20 people in this VCF are working toward purchasing a fiber-separator machine which would improve their efficiency.  In the mean time, CSI is providing them with training in marketing and accounting.

Another seaside village is starting a VCF to produce and sell dried, salted fish, a food popular in India and elsewhere in Asia.  The group would use their revolving fund to purchase equipment which would allow them to produce market-quality fish.  CSI has offered to provide professional packaging, and to train participants in marketing the fish.

Finally, we visit an ERD-supported boat-building workshop perched on a cliff overlooking the sea.  The shop opened in 1992, and has more than doubled its staff as a result of the tsunami.  The boats they build last 10-15 years and each one benefits four to five families.  The workshop produces 30 boats per month.

With this our day ends, and we watch the sun set over the water at the tourist site of the Kumari Amman Temple.  When we return to the CSI guest house where we are staying, we watch a video of the second tsunami wave, filmed from exactly where we were standing.  The next day we go back to the same site to watch the sun rise.  The wreckage of two boats on shore makes an unsettling foreground as fishermen go out to sea, beginning their day’s work with the sun’s first rays.

From the highest peaks of the Himalayas all the way down to the churning sea, India showcases humanity’s struggle for survival.  This country, bursting at its seams, embodies the fragility of human existence and the daily, unending cycle of birth, death, and renewal.

Thanks in part to the work of ERD and CSI, Indians in Kanyakumari Diocese are recovering from the tsunami’s devastation.