About Tamwed

Tamwed grew out of links with South Indian NGOs and the communities they supported established by a Devon-based charity called Westden. Since 1997, mutually beneficial projects, training and exchanges between India and the UK had taken place.

Immediately after the tsunami, a group of staff and trustees from Westden together with local people who have an interest in South India, wished to do something long term to support people in areas they were familiar with and to extend links to bring communities in the two countries closer together.

Jothi Ramalingam, who had been Westden's Indian project co-coordinator and Justine Squire from Tavistock who happened to be in India at the time, visited the tsunami-affected areas and sent back information and photographs.

Jothi's detailed feedback report is included on this page (click here for the full report as a Word Document) but the following provides a brief overview of the situation and includes some of Justine's observations:

"In Kameswaram, the estimated death toll is 50, mostly children playing cricket on the shore that Sunday morning who met their watery grave. Most houses near the shore, particularly those with thatched roofs, have been reduced to bushes and machines are pressed into service to clear the debris and to dig out the dead. Beside houses, hundreds of mechanised boats fitted with motors were tossed around and destroyed, while shops on the shore were razed. Having lost their close kith and kin, houses and their main occupational equipment within minutes, men and women we met were dazed and grief stricken."

We discussed with Jothi and Justine the possibility of linking West Devon with a community that had been affected by the tidal wave but was not receiving support from any of the larger Indian or foreign NGOs. We suggested a long term link that could bring the two communities together while assisting with long term recovery. We felt that immediate relief aid was best left to others.

A meeting was held in Tavistock on 25th January 2005 to discuss how our two communities could work together. Initially we decided to concentrate on a group of villages called Poigainallur in the Nagarpattinam District and a locally-based NGO called Sevalaya. We provided funding for the desalination of ponds and negotiated longer term plans with Sevalaya to assist with the long term recovery of the people and their land. Sevalaya eventually received support from UK, European and Indian donors to continue this work.

In 2006, Tamwed obtained charitable status with two main objects: "The relief of poverty amongst persons in India and such other countries as the trustees think fit by providing financial support, information, advice and volunteer labour" and; "The advancement of education amongst persons in India and other such countries by providing training and employment to enable such persons to develop skills to enable them to improve their standard of living".

We established that fair trade would be one way to provide income and strengthen links between the two communities. Training was undertaken in kalamkari, a traditional form of printing intricate patterns onto fabric using vegetable dyes. Goods such as throws and shopping bags are sent from India and sold in the UK to raise funds for projects.

In 2006, we revised our initial plans and concentrated our support and links with two partner NGOs: CRUSADE (Centre for Rural Systems and Development) based to the north of Chennai and Manushi that works to the South. Both organisations have set up Womens Self Help Groups as a means of increasing income and improving quality of life among some of the poorest and most marginalised people in rural Tamil Nadu. CRUSADE is a comparatively large, long-established organisation while Manushi is smaller and works mainly on health projects.

In 2007, we undertook a substantial UK Lottery-funded assessment of the needs of communities in these two areas and prioritised aspects such as health care, sanitation and income generation. Recent projects supported have included training women in kalamkari and tailoring, training community health workers and installing toilets.

Every year, we have helped to organise visits between the UK and India. Families and individuals from Devon and Cornwall have visited Tamwed's projects in South India and NGO managers from India have taken part in study tours.

During 2008, our focus is on health and sanitation projects with more community health workers being trained and more toilets being installed.

Tamwed's committee and supporters arrange events to raise awareness and raise funds for projects in India. We are very grateful to the RH Southern Trust and to Osborne Samuel for continuing financial support.