Relief Efforts Underway

One of India's most famous actors, Suresh Oberoi, has traveled to southern India with his family and spiritual teacher to join the relief effort in the wake of the devastating tsunami of Dec. 26. Pema Ngodup caught up with him the town of Katlu, Tamil Nadu state, where thousands of families in the area have been left with nothing. In this blog entry, Oberoi talks to Pema about what drove him to lend a hand.
Pema Ngodup
2005.01.07
"I am using what Dalai Lama teaches. Love and compassion. We also follow what he preaches," Oberoi told me. He said that when his son, who is also an actor, saw the desperate situation of the people hit by the tsunami, he came with his family and his spiritual teacher to the Katlu area to help the villagers.
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Relief supplies being distributed to tsunamii victims in Tamil Nadu. Photo: RFA/Pema Ngodup

They supplied food, clothes, and boats and nets to the fishermen and their families. He said that he would help these people with provisions in order to save them from feeling like beggars.

Oberoi said, "We made these houses, and we have made six or seven community kitchens where three thousand people eat breakfast, lunch and dinner." He also said they were working with various governmental and non-governmental organizations to do whatever they could to help the tsunami victims.

"I think the government is helping, maximum, whatever they can do. The collectors are helping, the governors are helping, ministers are helping," Oberoi said. "Lots of them are coming. Let us see who can give the most help. No problem. School students have come. College students have come."

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