Join the Conversation
Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more
In Tamil Nadu, southeast India, the tsunami tragedy of 2004 is still weighing heavily on widows, orphans and smallscale fisherfolk, according to this report from the Italian mission news agency, AsiaNews.it.
Fr P. A. Santhanam, a Jesuit priest and lawyer, was among the first responders to the coastal district of Kanyakumari district in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu. He didn't bring aid though; he brought a team of legal aid lawyers, because he knew that the survivors would need legal representation just as keenly as they needed food and shelter.
Five years on, the aid groups have pretty much packed up and left. Santhanam's legal team, though is still on the job, helping fisherfolk fight for housing and fishing rights and against political forces that would either forget them or take advantage of their tragedy.
