Back to Tsunami Recovery Index • Email this
story 
Church World Service
Emergency Response Program
Update:
Tsunami Recovery
Two-Month Report
March 2, 2005
SITUATION: As of February 28, 2005, government agencies and the United Nations report 167,962 persons dead, 128,329 persons missing, and at least 1,100,000 persons displaced as a result of the December 26, 2004, earthquake and tsunami that originated off the west coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. Countries affected are Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, Malaysia, Somalia, Seychelles, Myanmar, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Kenya.
This update provides a summary of the Church World Service response in Southern Asia and Somalia two months after the devastating tsunami.
INDONESIA (122,232 dead; 113, 937 missing; 403,428 displaced):
+++ CWS Relief Supplies Distribution: CWS Indonesia staff has distributed bulk emergency relief packages to 13,500 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar. Items include mineral water, instant noodles, Kids Against Hunger packages (fortified dried-food and rice), powdered milk, and high-energy biscuits. Non-food items as part of the bulk distribution to more than 13,000 IDPs includes CWS "Gift of the Heart" Health kits, Baby Kits, School Kits, and Blankets, mattresses, tents and mosquito nets, relief kits (personal hygiene items) donated by Mennonite Central Committee, and 85 medicine boxes (basic medicines for 85,000 persons for about three months) donated by Interchurch Medical Assistance. Distribution of relief materials is on-going.
+++ CWS Medical Team & Mobile Clinic: The CWS Medical Team in Aceh operates a Mobile Clinic in conjunction with the CWS Psychosocial Mental Health (PMH), team targeting IDPs living with host families. The mobile unit travels to remote areas through rough terrain to reach patients. Patients and their families receive thorough evaluation, treatment, and needed medication. To date, the mobile clinic has reached some 2,500 households in 20 villages. The CWS Medical Team includes one doctor, two nurses, and local Acehnese volunteers who assist with intake and translation as needed.
+++ CWS Psychosocial Mental Health Team (PMH): The PMH Team continues to provide individual and group counseling, and community-based intervention programs for hundreds of tsunami survivors in Aceh daily. Plans are underway to establish a permanent IDP support-center, and a children's center. The team is also coordinating specialized training sessions for local, qualified volunteers to staff the centers.
+++ Water Supply and Sanitation: In collaboration with Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), CWS is conducting a Water and Sanitation Project in Meulaboh. The project has three main activities: water production and distribution; construction of pit latrines; and drilling of boreholes. Two purification units are already in full operation. Each unit produces 1,765 cubic feet of clean water per hour providing clean water for as many as 40,000 thousand persons each day. In addition, over 40 pit latrines have been constructed. CWS also provided water purification equipment on Nias Island off the west coast of Sumatra.
SRI LANKA (30,974 dead; 4,698 missing; 500,000 displaced):
+++ CWS is working in Sri Lanka through National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), Sarvodya, Stromme Foundation, Foundation for Co-Existence, Civil Society Network for Relief and Rehabilitation, and Interfaith Fellowship for Peace and Development.
+++ CWS support to activities in Sri Lanka includes: Coordination, monitoring and distribution of $2 million in material assistance to some 144,500 persons to date, including 3,000 shelter kits (tents, mats, plastic sheets, tarpaulins and bedding), 75 IMA medicine boxes (basic medicines for 75,000 persons for three months), "Gift of the Heart" Kits (9,000 Health Kits, 20,000 School Kits, 1,000 Clean-up Buckets), and 2,000 water jugs. The majority of beneficiaries are internally displaced persons living in more than 19 camps throughout Sri Lanka.
+++ CWS has provided training and technical assistance to 30 field staff of NCCSL and its partners carrying out emergency field operations.
+++ CWS member denominations have also provided designated financial resources for NCCSL through Action by Churches Together (ACT). The NCCSL will continue its emergency relief assistance and will coordinate long-term rehabilitation projects in collaboration with its local partners that focus on restoring the livelihoods of fishing families in four coastal regions.
INDIA (10,776 dead; 11,194 missing-including Andaman and Nicobar Islands; 112,558 displaced):
+++ CWS has sent financial resources to partner Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) for their continuing relief and rehabilitation efforts. CASA is assisting 50,000 families in 166 villages of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Pondi. In addition to emergency relief items, CASA will engage in long-term rehabilitation projects with focus on restoring livelihoods of fishing families. CASA is also providing food-for-work programs aimed at increasing local ownership and sustainability.
+++ Menno Wiebe, CWS Tsunami Response Consultant, is currently participating in an ACT donor visit to India and reports that the implementing partners in India have noted that, "the church cannot just professionalize its activities and become a service provider; people are suffering in body and spirit and the church must find ways to serve the spirit humbly and honestly." Weibe also noted the gratitude expressed to the group as they visited several IDP camps run by CASA where many feel like the government has abandoned them. "Other organizations came and went, but CASA has remained," villagers said, at a camp in Chinna Kalapat near Pondicherry. "Through people like you, we see God," said one male youth.
THAILAND (5,395 dead; 3,062 missing):
+++ CWS has provided 100 Interchurch Medical Assistance medicine boxes to help meet the needs of tsunami survivors in Thailand. Each medicine box provides basic medicines for 1,000 persons for about three months. The medicines are being used in a number of clinics that are providing emergency and long-term treatment for tsunami survivors.
SOMALIA (150-200 dead; 5,000 displaced):
+++ CWS is forwarding financial assistance from member denominations to implementing partner, NCA, for activities outlined in the ACT revised Asia Tsunami appeal issued 2/18/05 (www.act-intl.org). Activities include water and sanitation projects; distribution of boats, nets, fishing gear and other assistance to help rebuild livelihoods of fishing families.
Contributions to support CWS Tsunami Recovery
efforts may be sent to
your denomination or directly to:
Church World Service
Tsunami Recovery (Acct. #6970)
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made by credit card by calling: (800)
297-1516, ext. 222, or online at www.churchworldservice.org.