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India: Kashmir meets Cuddalore

On 3 April 2006, ten young educated unemployed youth from the districts of Baramulla, Uri, and Kupwara in snow-bound quake affected Kashmir, arrived in sweltering Chennai. They were welcomed at the airport by 10 youth from ADEPT's Youth Response Teams from 3 villages in Cuddalore district. The Kashmiri youth underwent one week of intensive training in psycho-social intervention and community based disaster preparedness at the ADEPT's Communityon Reserach Education and Training Center at Muttukadu near Chennai.
Touring ADEPT's Social Transformation program in Cuddalore, they met with the Tsunami affected villagers who had collected one rupee per family to purchase blankets for Quake survivors in Kashmir (see ADEPT news release dated 15 October 2006 "Tsunami survivors reach out to Quake Survivors"). Thanking the Tsunami survivors, Asif Jahan Gattu from Doda tehsil said "Our hearts melted like the snow in the thaw at the large heartedness of the people in Cuddalore District. We, coming from the head of India, are happy to meet our brothers and sisters at the foot of the nation. It is truly God's will that we have been able to come here and meet you and express the heartfelt thanks of the survivors of the earthquake. Our faith in humanity has been restored by your gesture "

They then toured ADEPT's Community Support Centers in Cuddalore District. Malik Faheen was moved to tears while paying homage at the ADEPT Tsunami memorial. "Why does humanity have to go through such suffering?," he said. "We are truly greatful to have been given this opportunity to see how community counselors have alleviated the suffering of the Tsunami survivors. I am now confident that we can now do the same in Kashmir."

The Kashmiri's were very interested to see the large groups of young women making candles and prawn pickles. They were full of questions on how the girls were trained, and how they planned to put their training into practice. Discussing the possibilities for Kashmir, Firdous Ahmed Khurwani said, "We would love to do something similar for our people. Seventeen years of conflict has badly damaged the income generation capacity of our brethren. Now the quake has destroyed their confidence. We are confident that, given the chance, we will be able to implement similar programs in our villages to enhance income."

The children of the Government Primary School, Sothikuppam were excited to meet the visitors from the other end of India. They listened in awe to the description of the Himalayan terrain and the destruction wrought by the earthquake. "How did you feel after the earthquake?" asked 8 year old Tamaraiselvi. "Just like you felt after the Tsunami," replied Quaiser Ahmed Dar, "We were terribly afraid. After the earthquake we have been experiencing tremors almost every day. We never know when the next destruction is going to happen. We live with fear everyday, especially as the earthquake and the tremors have loosened the soil and there are landslides and rockfalls regularly, endangering everyone."

Asked what had prompted him come for training to Chennai, Syed Zahoor said, "The damage caused by the earthquake is difficult to describe in words. Many are still in distress and unable to overcome the trauma. This combined by the support that has been provided to the people in the remotest villages by ADEPT's medical team prompted me to volunteer for the training".

During the valedictory function of the training the Kashmiri youth pledged to train at least 50 villagers each in the skills that they had learned.