In November 2004, FDIN's director, Jeffrey Hyman, and myself, Simon Jones (FDIN webmaster) along with Romy Shovelton from Wikima consulting, went to the Tamil Nadu region of Southern India to see the work of the charity Salt of the Earth and SCAD.

As part of our CSR program The FDIN had donated a proportion of the funds from our salt seminar (Jan 2004) to Salt of the Earth. Howeverin the weeks after the visit the devastating South Asia tsunami hit the region and the face of the planned appeal by FDIN changed to one of emergancy response.

The FDIN along with many other organisations worked to quickly raise money, in our case for the local Indian charity SCAD through Salt of the Earth, to offer on the ground support and aid for those effected by the tsunami. The rapid response by all those who raised finances enabled SCAD to feed, clothe and supply medical care for thousands of displaced and bereaved villagers in initial weeks following the tidal wave, and continued support has meant that the job of rehabilitating the families, repairing their homes and replacing their boats and fishing nets went very well.

At the time when we visited Tamil Nadu, the Food and Drink Innovation Networked pledged finacial support to the village of Sevalur. We've been encouraged to see this support help transform the village. You can read the Octover 2006 report on the village of Sevalur here.

Learn more about how you can help the work of SCAD through Salt of the Earth.