THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The day the Ockhi cyclone disaster turned a month old, the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram published the draft of a Rs 100-crore rehabilitation package. The package envisaging ‘Ockhi townships’ for people who were left homeless, and education and health schemes for the dependents of the dead fishermen will be implemented over the next five years.
The church has urged the faithful to chip in contributions for the implementation of the package. The package consists of educational schemes for the children of the dead fishermen, generation of employment opportunities for the dependants, health schemes, marriage assistance and housing schemes.
“This package cannot be implemented by the archdiocese alone. The assistance of parishes, good samaritans, other dioceses and Christian orders and organisations is necessary,” Archbishop M Soosa Pakiam said.
According to the church, of the 298 dead and still missing people — 149 are from Thiruvananthapuram and 149 from Thuthoor forane in Kanyakumari district which is under this archdiocese.
The state government had received the cyclone warning on November 29. Search and rescue operations began on December 1.