They venture out to the high seas, Face all odds as nature unleash its fury and yet cater to the platters of hundreds of hungry city dwellers. In spite of this the fishing community continues to remain marginalized and impoverished even in this age. The month long internship programme at the Fishermen Community Development Programme proved to be very thought provoking and an excellent learning experience as far as a fresher like me was concerned. Located in Thope, a sleepy fishing hamlet in the district of Kollam in Kerala, the Fishermen Community Development Programme is a venture of the Salesian fathers with the intention of uplifting the fishing community. The Society was registered in 1984 as the Fishermen Community Development Programme (FCDP), extending its services to the community all along the coastal belt. FCDP helps all men, women and children of the community in improving their socio-economical as well as the cultural background. The three key tasks assigned to me was the organizing of a Vacation Summer Camp, evening coaching classes and the annual pre monsoon health awareness campaign.
An array of tasks ranging from teaching the children in the camp to the door to door health campaign was no match to a rather captivating experience which happened in the later half of my internship. It is the story about a 14 year old girl Teena who was relieved off her hardships and brought back to the world of books and games by the efforts of my organization. It was the most poignant part of my internship programme. At an age in which she was supposed to learn and play, Teena was striving to earn a living by selling peanuts at the scorching heat in the Kollam beach. Her father was a fisherman who passed away when a lightening struck his catamaran (a traditional crude canoe used for deep sea fishing) while fishing. She and her mother sells roasted peanuts for the tourists who flock the beach. As a result of her fathers sudden demise she had to stop her studies at the age of 12. Our team adopted Teena and now takes care of her family and her education. She has enrolled in the high school to continue her studies. This may be a mere case study when viewed from the academic point of view but it was an incident that revealed the other side of life. This exposed the truth that life is not that smooth for everyone. But life has to go on and I walked out of my organization at the end of my term with the satisfaction of restoring normalcy in the life of Teena-a walk from darkness to light.
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