In an effort to thank the fishermen who saved 65,000 lives in difficult rescue operations during the floods last year, miniature paper boats of the same number are being readied for an art installation.
The campaign was kickstarted on Saturday at the National Institute of Oceanography where over a 100 people gathered to make thousands of paper boats with thank you notes on them. On August 15, the date the flood hit last year, the boats will be assembled inside a damaged rescue boat as a permanent art installation, ‘Ship of Gratitude’, at the institute.
The installation is part of a larger project that aims to create a platform for the welfare of the fishing community, said Lakshmi Menon, who was also behind the Chekutty dolls made of damaged handloom cloth at Chendamangalam, where weaving units were wrecked by the flood.
“When we did the Chekutty campaign, we realised we could turn the attention of many corporates to Chendamangalam and we could restore the looms in a few months. This is a similar effort to focus attention on the fishing community, whose problems are neglected, to offer the assurance that we are there to help,” she said.
Through this campaign, Ms. Menon hopes to connect the 2,30,000 fishing families in Kerala to those who may want to help them. “To start with, people can take a life insurance policy for ₹24. We then have contacts of fishermen that we can put them in touch with. Once the contact is established, they can help the fishing family in their own capacity – whether it is with a doctor’s appointment or with filling out applications,” she said.