![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wtb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/tsunamipix-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nGay’s next slides showed a\nboys’ school. The dormitory was neatly organized with mosquito netting over\nevery bunk. Photos of the boys with their teachers showed healthy, smiling\nfaces and clean, simple clothing. The girls’ school had been taken over by\nTamil Tigers, a military group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were several slides\nof a displaced persons camp in the middle of the capital city, on former\nparkland. One hundred seventy families are housed in tents; latrines and clean\nwater are available. However, the tents with no trees nearby are too hot in the\ndaytime, and boredom is a problem. The men have no work to go to, and most have\nlost the tools of their livelihood. The women are more community oriented, and\noccupied with daily food and cleanliness. Cooking is done in barrel fires, and\nchildren’s safety near these is a cause of concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay had a number of photos\nof camp residents, including a young girl who spoke some English and attached\nherself to Gay as her personal guide. A child with a broken leg was obliged to\nsit idly as there are no wheelchairs. The two doctors in Gay’s group set up a\nhaphazard clinic in cluttered and unsanitary spaces, and supplies were\ndistributed from a pharmacy that Gay said looked like a 1915 museum piece with\nyears of dust and decay. Volunteers ran children’s play groups where children\nenjoyed coloring and were very generous with one another. Children eagerly\ncompleted their artwork for a single piece of hard candy. One of the Reverends\nwent off to play basketball with the children, but after a short time returned\nto get a volleyball which was far more interesting to the children. Teenagers\nenjoyed the diversion of a beanbag toss game. All of the people were gracious\nand grateful for all help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay’s group delivered a\nCare package consisting of two panties, one bra, one bar of soap, and one box\nof milk powder, which the residents of the camp had waited two months to\nreceive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay had a number of slides\nof the coastal devastation. Many pictures show piles of rubble. She said that\nthe Sri Lankans are very grateful to the U.S. Marines for clearing the roads on\nthe only route to the south of the country. In some areas there are tents,\ndonated by countries all over the world and labeled with the country of origin,\namid the destruction. A slide showed a sunken and irretrievable fishing vessel;\nthe majority of fishing boats were lost. In some photos, people are stacking\nbuilding materials that can be recycled – mostly building blocks. A big problem\nis lack of heavy equipment, even wheelbarrows, so all reconstruction is being\ndone by hand. A photo of men carrying new lumber for building was accompanied\nby the comment that the group had only one dull saw to cut the wood. Another\nman was carrying a small quantity of cement by hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government is trying to\nget people out of tents and to more permanent, although still very basic\nhousing. The government had given each family a bag of lentils, but at the time\npeople didn’t even have pots. Now photos show a kitchen consisting of one\nteapot, one gas burner, and one pot. Bedrooms may consist of two pillows or a\nsleeping mat on the floor, and mosquito netting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
People are now prohibited\nfrom rebuilding within 100 meters of the shore, so in addition to losing their\nhomes, some people are not allowed to rebuild on their land. Habitat for\nHumanity and Church World Services are both active in helping with rebuilding\nprograms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay’s group had brought\npackets of fishing supplies – poles, lines, hooks, hats, etc. – which the men\nwho had lost everything were thrilled to receive (very little fishing equipment\nis manufactured in Sri Lanka). Men who used to fish from boats now fish from\nland with nets that take three hours to haul in. Another photo shows a train\nthat had been hit by the tsunami killing 1500 passengers, some cars thrown\nmiles from the track. The people had dragged the train cars back to the tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay was frequently stopped\nby people who just wanted to tell their stories of loss, and perhaps have their\nphoto taken with the destroyed home and then the makeshift current home. One\nwoman had lost 16 family members. Another had lost five children. Surviving\nvillage elders play an important part in recreating a sense of community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay visited another medical\ncenter where volunteers from all over the world had come to help. At one time\nmedications had arrived from Germany, but no one could read the directions for\ntheir use. A private businessman from Holland had sent a truck of supplies, but\nit took two weeks of bribes to get the material released to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were photos of a\ncoastal swampy area and workers setting out to clean up. Over 1000 bodies had\nbeen retrieved from this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay had traveled with about\n250 Beanie Babies, some she purchased and some donated by a dealer. She\ndistributed these cuddly items to children who had lost everything, and the\npictures of their beaming faces as they clutched the toys to their chests are\ncharming. Also included were photos of children in sparkling white school\nuniforms, studying in tent classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A local Buddhist monastery\nran a pre-school. Photos of the monks and children show how the people are\nworking together and welcome all strangers into their midst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Catholic priest was\nalerted during Mass of the impending wave and sent his flock inland; then he\nhelped rescue residents of a senior citizen center. Afterwards, volunteers\nhelped retrieve benches that had been washed inland and whitewashed the\nremaining walls of the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gay wanted us to know that\nthough the needs in Sri Lanka are great, the people are resilient and\ndetermined to resume normal living. They are gracious in accepting help, but\nthe love and support and compassion that they give one another will be their\ngreatest resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Church World Service<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n May Arnett, a program assistant in the local Church World Service office, explained the work of Church World Service in the areas hit by the tsunami. She reiterated Gay’s message of the hope and resilience of the native people in SE Asia. She told of a drama presented by children: “The Big Wave” portrayed the destruction caused by the tsunami, but ended on a hopeful note “but we are here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Church World Service is an\necumenical organization founded in 1946 by 17 Protestant denominations to\nrespond to devastation in Europe caused by World War II. The original name was\nthe Christian Rural Overseas Program, which remains in the name CROP walk. The\noriginal purpose was to send train loads of grain to devastated areas in\nEurope. CWS now represents 36 Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations.\nThey continue to follow their original goal “doing together what none can\ndo alone.” The national offices are in New York City on Riverside Drive\nand Elkhart, Indiana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n May explained that many\nnon-governmental organizations (NGOs) representing the world’s religions,\nquickly responded to the devastation of the tsunami. The administrators know\none another and know the strengths of each organization and how to work\ntogether cooperatively. The CWS is known for their supply of blankets, food assistance,\nhealth kits, and emergency medical boxes (which are assembled by local churches\nfor Interchurch Medical Assistance at a cost of about $350.00 per box). Each\nmedical box contains supplies for 1000 people for 3 months, and CWS provided\n100 boxes in Indonesia and 75 in Sri Lanka. In addition, 100,000 personal\nhealth kits were provided. Generally CWS does not have much overseas staff, so\nthey work with local agencies at their request, but in Indonesia they have 100\nstaff and many supplies were already stockpiled, so distribution was swift. In\nSri Lanka they were able to provide 500 family-sized tents quickly, and then\nadd more later. Because they have a strong presence in Pakistan, they were able\nto truck supplies across borders quickly. They worked closely with Red Cross,\nRed Crescent, Catholic Relief Service, Lutheran World Relief, Habitat for\nHumanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CWS commits their help for\nthe long haul. In response to a question, May said that she has not heard of\nany delays in deliveries of supplies such as those reported to Gay. This is\nprobably because CWS has an on-going presence in these countries and employs\nlocal staff. They also work closely through Action by Churches Together (ACT)\nwhich works with the World Council of Churches. In Indonesia, CWS was\ndesignated as the lead agency in the tsunami crisis. They continue working on\ninstallation of village water systems and sanitation systems with equipment\ndonated by the Norwegian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May discussed the various\nkits that CWS volunteers assemble and distribute:<\/p>\n\n\n\n -the kid’s kit contains school supplies,\nhealth items, and toys, packaged in a plastic box<\/p>\n\n\n\n -the clean-up kit (or flood bucket) is a\n5-gallon pail with scrub brushes and cleaning supplies, rubber gloves, garbage\nbags; this is distributed in the US in the aftermath of hurricanes, floods,\nfires<\/p>\n\n\n\n -the baby kit is a layette with 2 blankets, 6\ncloth diapers and safety pins, a sweater, 2 shirts, 2 gowns; this is the only\nkit in which the contents are not necessarily new<\/p>\n\n\n\n -the health kit, generally distributed to\ndisplaced persons<\/p>\n\n\n\n -the school kit, generally distributed in\nrefugee camps<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to questions,\nMay discussed the role of CWS in other crisis areas. CWS is in Afghanistan for\nthe long haul, rebuilding homes, funding women’s projects such as quilt making\nand weaving cooperatives, and providing school materials. CWS provided early\nmassive response to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Croatia\nand are still there providing school and health assistance. A new Africa\ninitiative is back on track (temporarily sidelined by the tsunami emergency).\nThey intend to provide funds for peace-building, hunger and poverty programs,\nand HIV\/AIDS assistance. One effort is to de-stigmatize HIV so that individuals\nand families will address rather than hide the illness and be willing to\npublicly work for solutions. In March a pilot project began in Kenya to create\nschool safe zones; funds are being provided for hot meals, perimeter fencing,\nteacher training, and school kits to children. Another aspect is to bring the\nproblems of Africa to the attention of the media, the governments, churches and\nthe general public in hopes of raising funding levels..<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to another\nquestion, May said that CWS has not faced US government interference in its\nwork in Muslim countries. When possible CWS prefers not to accept federal\nmoney. They do regularly receive funds from USAID for the refugee resettlement\nprogram, However, payments were delayed last year due to the new Homeland\nSecurity policies and procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May also mentioned the CWS program in Iraq which is called All Our Children. This is providing medical supplies and equipment to pediatric hospitals, with supplies trucked through Amman, Jordan.May concluded with a request for volunteers to travel to New Windsor, Maryland, in November to help work in the CWS warehouse organizing supplies. She also pointed out the table display and handout materials that she had brought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liz Spence thanked those\nwho worked on putting together the school kits for tsunami survivors. women\ndonated fabric, sewed the school bags, and stuffed them with pencils, erasers,\nscissors, paper, etc. Women who have never been to a WTB meeting participated\nin this project. The school bags were really beautiful, and we had great fun doing\nit and made a total of 67 school kits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A WTB member and a Church World Service representative spoke about their work in helping people affected by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami in Southeasat Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-7834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-programs","tag-advocacy",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7834"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8727,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7834\/revisions\/8727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}