Along Foreshore Beach, Sarasvathi sells jasmine flowers for women to place in their hair. The tsunami took 24 lives and destroyed many homes and businesses in this area.   

 Fr. Joseph blesses the sea, considered by many in his parish of fishermen to be their mother, providing their sustenance. He had funds to rebuild their fleet of fishing canoes, and to rebuild many homes when the force of the tsunami destroyed their foundations, making them unsafe.

Fr. Jesumarian, S.J. meets with a group of villagers affected by the tsunami. He is a lawyer who has led a crusade to combat discrimination against India's Dalits, formerly called "untouchables," the lowest Hindu Caste.

Fr. Eugine, a Jesuit Priest in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, tells a story to a group of children who lost their parents in the tsunami.

Children were asked to draw their memories of the Tsunami event as part of an arts therapy program. The drawing sessions were organized by Fr. Stephen of the Jesuit Tsunami Service based in Tamil Nadu.

An example of the drawings from the traumatic events the children witnessed.

Jesuits in Tamil Nadu, India, established an engine repair course for local youth — rebuilding their salt-damaged fishing boat motors. At top, two proud boys — Manohar (left) and Sahadevan — carry one of the boat engines

The Jesuits assisted these Dalit men in obtaining their new bicycles used to haul fish and other goods. All government application forms for assistance were in English, which most villagers could not read. The Jesuits translated them into the local languages. 

After the Tsunami, children returned to school with their backpacks filled with books and school supplies furnished by the Jesuit Tsunami Service in India and Sri Lanka.

 After the Tsunami, older men who lost their wives were seeking younger women to marry them. In an effort to protect women from forced marriages, JRS began teaching them how to sew so they could support themselves.

The Rev. A. Sahaya Philomin Raj, S.J., an advocate or lawyer, passes out Tamil translations of the government’s guidelines for obtaining tsunami aid in the Dalit village of Yerum Salai Graman, in southeast India. The government had published the guidelines in English, which the Jesuits then translated.