Salvation Army & Church World Service Reflect: Tsunami Six Months On

Six months on from last December’s fatal tsunami, which killed over 200,000, efforts to rebuild broken lives continues.

The international response from churches and religious organisations has been swift and extensive with numerous Christian charities and organisations playing a crucial role in the aid and clean-up operation.

The relief effort by Action by Churches Together (ACT), a global alliance of churches and their associated agencies, was assembled within hours of the disaster. Not only did they provide food, but also emergency shelter materials, medicines, and non-food items like blankets, clothing and cooking utensils, but most vitally water.

Destruction on this unprecedented scale challenged church groups, well experienced in giving aid and emergency relief, to achieve far beyond their experience.

Sushant Agrawal, director of Churches Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), one of the three ACT members in India, commented: "In the past, the maximum number of people we were able to assist in an emergency was 38,000 families. But during the crisis phase of the tsunami, we covered 50,000 families – 300,000 people. We covered them within four weeks’ time, which was unprecedented. This shows we had potential and capacity that was underutilised in the past."

A shortage of financial assistance was not the concern of the church organisations, the Salvation Army alone having received US$42,279,097 in public donations.

More important than financial assistance to Agrawal in the immediate aftermath of the disaster was unity and support from other the churches and religious organisations. He said, "We were not looking for financial assistance, but we were looking for support from the ecumenical family – that we were not alone in working there. That was a big morale boost to us. The phone calls – all the support we got – that boosted our morale and confidence. That is what it means to be part of one family, that we show we care and care."

Certainly the aid effort was helped greatly by the indigenous staff of many church organisations, already working in the region before the disaster struck.

CWS Associate Director for International Emergency Response Programs Donna Derr said, "Language and understanding culture and customs are not a challenge for our indigenous staff so our teams in Aceh have been able to provide direct help efficiently and sensitively for affected residents."

Six months on, however, and the work of these organisations is still crucial in providing the people with the essentials to live. ACT has been heavily involved in key areas of assistance such as the reconstruction of permanent housing and assisting people back into work.

The Salvation Army is also providing essential reconstruction of clinics, and fishing boats, as well as the provision of medical care.

These are not the only things needed to live, however, and the shift in focus to the long-term future reflects this.

"We have moved into the mid-term rehabilitation phase. Now the challenge for us is to get into more intensive and comprehensive work toward rebuilding the life of the people. And that is a big challenge. It will have to be done in a strategic, managed way in a long-term framework. We have to ensure people have life with hope. ACT and CASA and the other ACT members will have to engage themselves to ensure that in three to five years we will still be able to offer new hope to people," said Agrawal.

Whilst the CWS has provided temporary income for workers on their cash-for-work programs which involve the installation of water and sanitation facilities, the Salvation army have also attempted to solve this need for sustainable income by using similar ‘micro-credit activities’.

These projects, currently running in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are based on their income generation schemes set up in India which use existing self-help groups to provide an income for women who have been left particularly vulnerable, many of them being widows.

The Salvation Army is also providing essential counselling to traumatised survivors who are still coming to terms with losing everything. The counselling of children is especially vital to the long-term stability of the affected regions, Derr calling the health and psychosocial needs of children a "major focus", reported Church World Service.

The support and assistance will continue for a long time into the future. The crisis period is over, and reconstruction is well under way. The best thing anyone can give now is love, as Agrawal comments:
"This was a disaster that the world had never seen, so it triggered the world to be a family together, to ask, ‘Can we reach out, can we do something for the victims?’ I would like to assure them that, to the best of our ability, we will share the love of God with the people."