SITE SELECTION: Soudhanikuppam, is a village comprising 116 families of fisherman belonging to the Pattinavar fishing caste, has been selected as an appropriate site to build a community center. The village did not sustain loss of life due to the tsunami, however, there was extensive damage to housing and property, and a significant loss of livelihood. A total of 39 houses were destroyed, 5 launches, 22 fiberglass boats and 40 catamarans lost and fishing nets damaged. Many NGO’s, including League for Education and Development (LEAD), assisted the villagers in replacing their boats and nets. New housing has also been promised to them by NGO’s but as no public land is available there has been no progress on this front.

PROJECT OUTCOME: Using the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) method, Architecture for Humanity and LEAD assisted the community in identifying their needs, evaluating the grants available through Architecture for Humanity, and in creating a program for design. The community also identified a need for a large indoor community hall which would be used during the day time as a Balwadi, i.e. a day care center for children ages 2 through 5, a kitchen associated with the Balwadi, a women’s Self Help Group (SHG) office, toilets, shower facilities and waste receptacles. The community has an existing Balwadi, i.e. a day care center for children ages 2 through 5; however, the present space is very small, and because of its current roof design, it gets very hot. The community has requested rainwater harvesting for laundry and plant watering purposes. Upon evaluating the site further, Architecture for Humanity saw an opportunity to expand this project into an urban planning project. The area around the present site acts as a village square, as it has a large open space, and has temples, a TV room, net repair space, an outdoor stage, a tuition center, and women’s toilets off of it. Also, post-tsunami, the government has created sea walls along the beach, and hence the previously important community gathering space on the beach is now not being utilized for the same purpose. Also, Architecture for Humanity, if budget permits, would like to propose toilets for men, as presently the existing communal toilets are only used by women, due to their need for privacy. (Health and sanitation education will be provided by LEAD for promoting use of the men’s toilets.) LEAD, in addition to building the project, will continue its relationship with the community by monitoring and creating more women’s groups and micro lending programs. The women will be placed in charge of the community center. At present there are 6 women’s Self-Help-Group’s established among the women of this village.

PROGRESS: Architecture for Humanity worked with the community to develop a concept master plan for the village square. However, the state of Tamil Nadu, as part of their capital improvements is building some new roads in this village, and the community may not have the ability to control the overall site plan and location of roads. However the master plan provided them with ideas ands opportunities that they can consider in the future. Architecture for Humanity has also developed a design for the community center based upon the criteria presented by the community. LEAD will engineer and build it.