ActionAid UK
S. Uma co-owner of Sea Dot
S. Uma co-owner of Sea Dot, run by tsunami affected women of Chennai, India. Twenty four tsunami-affected women from Kasimedu (Chennai Coastal Area) set up the sea-food processing unit called Sea Dot with the help of ActionAid and other organisations and are now co-owners of a successful enterprise with global market.
Women were the most vulnerable survivors of the 2004 tsunami; they continue to live in conditions of total misery and exploitation, caused by the politics of discrimination of many of the Indian Ocean countries.
This prompted us to put more focus on women in our rehabilitation projects, and thus emerged Sea Dot, a sea-food processing unit under the supervision of 24 Tsunami-affected but determined women from Kasimedu (Chennai Coastal Area) in November 2006.
They are now the owners of the unit and undertake regular market analysis of the product - analysing the production cost and comparing it to the market situation and have turned it into a successful enterprise.
The fish processing unit is located in Chennai about two kilometres from the Chennai Port to a place called Royapuram. The women manage everything by themselves today, starting from purchasing the fish from the market to maintaining the accounts.
All the women involved are from the fishing community prior to being part of this unit most of them were fish vendors, but after the Tsunami they could not continue with their business because most of them had lost their belongings and their rotation money with which to buy the fish, the fisheries college of Tamil Nadu State trained around 100 women affected by Tsunami on alternative livelihood related to sea products, out of which 24 most marginalised women were involved in setting up the unit.
The women took up independent charge of the unit in January 2008. Now the women are divided into four different committees i.e., purchasing, management, accounts and maintenance committee. Each committee has well defined tasks, apart from their regular work of production.
There are representatives from all the four committees in the core group, which convene monthly meetings and take decisions on all important matters.
As of now they are able to manufacture and sell the products only at a small scale. However there is great demand for the product in the market and the only hurdle they face is the competitors who invest big money in advertising and marketing strategies. But the entreprenuers of Sea Dot have trained their sights high and are trying to expand their market to cities nearby.
PHOTO Srikanth Kolari/ActionAid
S. Uma co-owner of Sea Dot
S. Uma co-owner of Sea Dot, run by tsunami affected women of Chennai, India. Twenty four tsunami-affected women from Kasimedu (Chennai Coastal Area) set up the sea-food processing unit called Sea Dot with the help of ActionAid and other organisations and are now co-owners of a successful enterprise with global market.
Women were the most vulnerable survivors of the 2004 tsunami; they continue to live in conditions of total misery and exploitation, caused by the politics of discrimination of many of the Indian Ocean countries.
This prompted us to put more focus on women in our rehabilitation projects, and thus emerged Sea Dot, a sea-food processing unit under the supervision of 24 Tsunami-affected but determined women from Kasimedu (Chennai Coastal Area) in November 2006.
They are now the owners of the unit and undertake regular market analysis of the product - analysing the production cost and comparing it to the market situation and have turned it into a successful enterprise.
The fish processing unit is located in Chennai about two kilometres from the Chennai Port to a place called Royapuram. The women manage everything by themselves today, starting from purchasing the fish from the market to maintaining the accounts.
All the women involved are from the fishing community prior to being part of this unit most of them were fish vendors, but after the Tsunami they could not continue with their business because most of them had lost their belongings and their rotation money with which to buy the fish, the fisheries college of Tamil Nadu State trained around 100 women affected by Tsunami on alternative livelihood related to sea products, out of which 24 most marginalised women were involved in setting up the unit.
The women took up independent charge of the unit in January 2008. Now the women are divided into four different committees i.e., purchasing, management, accounts and maintenance committee. Each committee has well defined tasks, apart from their regular work of production.
There are representatives from all the four committees in the core group, which convene monthly meetings and take decisions on all important matters.
As of now they are able to manufacture and sell the products only at a small scale. However there is great demand for the product in the market and the only hurdle they face is the competitors who invest big money in advertising and marketing strategies. But the entreprenuers of Sea Dot have trained their sights high and are trying to expand their market to cities nearby.
PHOTO Srikanth Kolari/ActionAid