The Christmas Bowl program of Christian World Service/the National Council of Churches in Australia (CWS/NCCA), and partners in Sri Lanka and India, have agreed they will be working together for the healing of people and the reconstruction of infrastructure for the next decade.
Volunteers from the Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation (OfERR), based in India and Sri Lanka, have fanned out to meet with organisations and individuals in order to assist people affected by the tsunami. The initial priority areas in the proposed action plan include identification and management of hazards on return to home areas, ensuring drinking water quality and food safety, sanitation and hygiene, managing dead animals and debris, ongoing provision of supplies, prevention and management of diseases like chicken pox, measles, typhoid, malaria, respiratory infections, addressing special needs of children, disabled and older people, and safety of workers.
The Chair of OfERR, Mr S C Chandrahasan, has emailed CWS: “We thank our partners for their messages of concern and support received in the wake of this massive tragedy.”
Within hours of the tsunami disaster the National Council of Churches in Sri Lanka (NCCSL) began purchasing emergency supplies and local congregations of the Anglican, Methodist and Church of South India took charge of distribution to affected families.
Assisted by an initial grant of $ 50 000 from Action by Churches Together International (ACT), trucks with emergency supplies of food, clothing, water, water tanks, medicines and cooking pots, went to all communities on the eastern and southern coasts.
The NCCSL has also begun to organise training in post-trauma counselling. The Reverend Sumithra Fernando, Executive Secretary of the Women’s Commission said: “We weren’t ready for this big a calamity, but we’re getting organised and things are falling into place, thanks to the help of our partners.”
A core committee of church leaders is helping to plan the response and is working with government agencies to better coordinate efforts. Thousands of land mines have been washed loose. With over 1 000 kilometres of coastline laid waste, employment in the tourist and fishing sectors will take years to recover.
The new General Secretary of the NCCSL, the Reverend Jayasiri Peiris, said: “We’ve got to do more than rebuild buildings. We’ve got to rebuild a people who have been left traumatised by this disaster. That’s a process that’s going to take years and years.”
In India the churches have responded similarly. The Director of the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), Sushant Agrawal, writes: “Bringing relief by distributing material aid is only one way of addressing the needs of people. They also need trauma counselling - and we are trying to assist them in this way as well. We want to give people hope and strength for the future. We and our partners will do everything to relieve their lives.”
Given the enormity of people’s losses of those they loved, he continued, “Whatever we give them, no matter how much, it can never be enough.”
Further Information/Photographs:
- Colleen Hodge, Education and Communications Programs, phone 02 9299 2215/0419 6852 48, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Charlie Ocampo, International Programs, phone 0407 1527 36, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
