wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: Tsunami: relief and reconstruction

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World Council of Churches - Feature
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

For immediate release: 3 February 2005

IMMEDIATE RELIEF, SUSTAINABLE RECONSTRUCTION:
Ecumenical leaders reflect on the tsunami catastrophe

by Henrike Müller (*)

Nearly two months ago, a tremendous earthquake off the coast of Sumatra
caused powerful tsunamis to hit coastal stretches of South East Asia and
East Africa. The trail of devastation left over 200,000 people dead and
more than half a million injured, and emergency relief was provided almost
immediately by governments and organizations around the world. Looking
back at the weeks just after the tsunami, we can attempt a first assessment of the churches' reactions and the solidarity shown by people and
countries not themselves affected. We can also attempt to make recommendations for sustainable reconstruction work from the churches' point of
view.

When Lutheran pastor Augustine Jeyakumar from India saw the breaking news
on TV during his Christmas holidays in Cuddalore, he immediately decided
to go towards the coast to see what was happening. "People were rushing
towards us, carrying all their belongings and shouting 'The sea is coming,
the sea is coming!'," he recounts, sharing his first impressions of the
tsunami day.

"Every day we received new information," he continues. "People were found
ten feet under the sand, others were discovered fifteen kilometres away
from where they were lost. Families didn't know if their relatives were
still alive. Everyone was struggling for basic everyday needs. Medical
care, food supply, logistics - nothing was sufficient."

The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) immediately
contacted the Geneva-based organization Action by Churches Together (ACT),
a global alliance of churches and related agencies that provided a first
emergency relief grant of about 50,000 US dollars. "It was financial but
also practical support that was mostly needed in the beginning," says
Jeyakumar, who directs the UELCI Division of Social Action. "Faith-based
and secular non-governmental organizations as well as committed individuals helped by giving money, distributing clothes, doing burials."

For Jeyakumar, being involved in relief work is a priority task for the
churches. "If something like the tsunami happens, it is evident that the
church takes care of people, does counselling or gives psychological
support." From the very beginning of Christianity, he explains, the church
has taken care of people in need, of the deprived and the poor, as a vital
task according to the gospel.

Governments and individuals, faith-based and secular organizations all
over the world supplied a tremendous amount of money for relief and
reconstruction work. Is a catastrophe like the tsunami necessary to make
world-wide solidarity visible?

"It is very easy to sympathize with something you see on a television
screen," explains Ranjan Solomon, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT). "It is so obvious that people are
suffering. But this is only one catastrophe in the world. Others, like
Darfur, Afghanistan, Iraq, are even worse. But those areas where people
are victimized for political reasons get far less attention in terms of
practical aid. The humanitarian catastrophe following the tsunami is much
easier to relate to since one doesn't have to make political choices."

But it is not only the very visible catastrophes that make people all over
the world struggle. "There are lots of small tsunamis happening in
everyday life," emphasizes Jeyakumar. As an example, he mentions the
oppression of the Dalit people in India, and racial or gender discrimination. These "small tsunamis", less visible than natural disasters, deserve
just as much solidarity. "Many things are already being done to overcome
the small tsunamis, like advocacy work and development programmes that try
to support those who suffer from injustice. But it is a long road, and it
takes time to reconstruct society so that everyone can live in dignity,"
he says.

On the subject of reconstruction, Solomon has a clear vision of what
should be done in the tsunami area. During the fifth World Social Forum
(26-31 January, Porto Alegre, Brazil), ECOT co-organized a seminar and
panel discussion on the theme "Natural and human-made disasters threaten
stability of small island developing states". Representatives from the
affected areas shared their experiences and recommendations for reconstruction work from an ecological point of view.

"Most humanitarian organizations as well as the churches gave a lot of
support. But they did not consider the mid- and long-term effects enough,"
says Solomon. "It would have been even more helpful if the relief efforts
had been put in the hands of the affected people right from the start to
make sure that the reconstruction efforts stay with them, even when
humanitarian and other organizations have left the area."

According to him, reconstruction work needs a clear plan that considers
the ecological conditions in the specific area. "It is not just a question
of rebuilding houses and tourist locations. Whatever is built can easily
be wiped out again. We rather need to think of a sustainable ecology
which, for example, would include replanting mangrove trees that originally served as a protective greenbelt along Asian coasts."

Solomon also shares the experiences of some indigenous communities which
managed to escape the tsunami territory in time because they could read
the songs of the birds, the sound of the wind and the sea. "Technical
science can't solve every problem. It is the people's science we need to
rediscover and a sustainable ecology we need to implement. With a more
sustainable ecology, the tsunami effects could have been less." [876
words]

(*) Henrike Müller is a curate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Hanover currently working in the office for Media Relations of the World
Council of Churches in Geneva.

More information about WCC participation in the 5th World Social Forum in
Porto Alegre, Brazil, including high-resolution pictures is available on
our website at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/wsf-2005-e.html

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[Sidebar]

Solidarity, tourism and tsunamis

"What does solidarity in tourism mean at this point in time?" asked
members of a Global Tourism Interventions Forum (GTIF) attending the fifth
World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

In a call for action in solidarity with the victims of the Indian Ocean
tsunami, the group - including representatives of the Ecumenical Coalition
on Tourism (ECOT) - stressed the need to "urgently put in place mid- and
long-term reconstruction plans based on people's aspirations to rebuild
livelihoods and, at the same time, to be able to live in safety and
security. This should include restoration of mangrove forests and other
coastal ecosystems, which in the past protected coastal regions from
storms and waves."

The group warned against "the hasty reconstruction of tourism infrastructure in the areas dependent on tourism," and stressed the need "to observe,
in every project, strict and clear criteria of environmentally friendly,
socially responsible and participatory tourism, with a view to an overall
sustainable development that benefits the whole population".

It also called for "comprehensive debt cancellation as a precondition for
sustainable development". [177 words]

See full text of the call for action:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/tsunami-call.html

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Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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* * * * * *

Henrike Mueller

World Council of Churches
Public Information Team
Media Relations

hem@wcc-coe.org
+41 22 791 61 24
P.O. Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2

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