Corvallis resident finds aid reaching fishing villages, orphans and widows

By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter

It’s been a little more than a year since a tsunami struck the coast of India, destroying many of the fishing villages and tourist spots along the ocean, and leaving a wake of death and devastation.

Judi Kloper, a Corvallis resident who has been working in India for years through an Oregon adoption agency, helped raise more than $80,000 for relief efforts following the tsunami. A good amount of that money came from area residents, or friends and family members of people living in Corvallis.

She and other members of Journeys of the Heart traveled around India after the tsunami, visiting places largely ignored by government aid, and used the money raised to purchase boats, fishing nets, food and clean water, vaccinations and medicine, and money for infrastructure repair, from bridges to wells.

Kloper has just returned to Corvallis from another visit to India, where she was able to check in on some of the families she first met last year. She recalls that at the time of her previous trip, villagers were living off roots and tree bark. Water was contaminated, bodies were still being gathered up, and most of the boats and nets of the fishermen had been destroyed.

This time, the news is brighter.

“The change has been amazing,” Kloper said. The fishing economy of the village of Kovalam has returned, although for a few months after the tsunami, no one was brave enough to get back into the sea.

“It would take one person to say they felt the earth shake and everyone would freak out,” Kloper said.

Now, with help from donations through Journeys of the Heart and other international organizations, including, finally, some assistance from the Indian government, almost every one in the villages owns a new boat, and has plenty of nets for fishing. The boats even have motors, something virtually unheard of before the tsunami.

Homes are slowly being rebuilt, and the tent city that Kloper witnessed on her first visit has been replaced by rows of grass huts, a small improvement, at least. On the beach, young men play cricket, while along the water’s edge men repair their fishing nets before setting out to sea.

Life is not completely back to normal, however. Buildings are still destroyed, fallen walls still sit where they fell, and poverty is still rampant, especially among the widows of the village, who have no husbands or older sons to bring in money through fishing.

But other aid organizations and agencies are finding ways to reach out to widows in areas struck both by the tsunami and by the monsoons and flooding that have plagued the interior of India for the past year.

One adoption agency is building a number of foster homes on their campus to house widows and orphaned babies, giving the babies a better chance to bond young, and giving the widows a place to live and a job.

The Oregon-based Hands to Hearts group, led by former Corvallis resident Laura Peterson, is also embarking on a mission to empower Indian women and create a healthier environment for orphaned children. The organization will train women to work directly with orphaned babies, using infant massage and soothing touch to create important physical and emotional bonds with the children.

This is especially important because babies who do not receive this kind of touch often have serious emotional trouble as adults, Kloper said, because they suffer from attachment issues, and those children who are adopted later have adjustment problems in their new homes.

Kloper, who has several adopted children, was able to bring her son Dana Owens, who was born in India, back to the country for the first time since he was an infant. Dana, who has cerebral palsy, was able to visit orphanages and meet children with the same condition. In India, those children are confined to a life in bed. Dana is a college student in Corvallis and an advocate for disability access.

Another of Kloper’s sons, Jake, has been attending high school for a year in India, and spends time volunteering in orphanages there. Kloper said foreign volunteers are always needed in the area. Financial assistance is also always needed and welcome.

For more information on aid organizations and projects in India, contact Kloper at 745-3830 or JudiKO@aol.com.