wfn.org | [ENS] Tsunami relief central to churches' mission one year on

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Tsunami relief central to churches' mission one year on

ERD works with partners for change and growth

By Matthew Davies

ENS 122305-1

[ENS] Committed to rebuilding communities and responding to individuals'
and families' basic needs, Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) has
partnered with churches throughout Asia this past year to help millions of
people whose lives have been affected by the December 26, 2004, tsunami.

Triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the tsunami pounded coasts along
India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand and, although the official death
toll is still unclear, the giant wave claimed more than 220,000 lives,
conservative estimates suggest.

During the past year, ERD, under the new presidency of Robert Radtke, has
worked with partners to assist impacted communities through emergency aid,
housing projects, trauma counseling, microfinance and provisions for the
renovation and repair of school buildings. Fishing rehabilitation has
also been a major priority for restoring local economies and workers'
livelihoods.

"Like all of our programs, this has been a way to introduce ERD to those
churches and countries," Abagail Nelson, vice president of ERD, said.
"It would be a shame for these relationships to just end. To be in
partnership is to help design the program and to stay in regular contact."

Exchanging experiences

An ERD tsunami partnership consultation, held November 28 - December 2
in Bangkok, Thailand, welcomed more than 35 delegates from the Churches
of North and South India, the Diocese of Colombo in Sri Lanka, Indonesia
and Thailand. The conference was also attended by a representative from
Yayasan Tanggul Benkana di Indonesia (YTBI), a member of the global
alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT).

ERD partners presented updated perspectives one year after the tsunami and
shared case studies and practical experiences with one another "because
their circumstances, visions and approaches really are very different,"
said Nelson, who attended the conference.

"It's like turning a huge ship," she said. "You may have dealt with
rough seas before, but you've never dealt with this rough sea and you
have different people all working different types of cogs."

Kirsten Laursen, ERD's senior program director for Asia and new
initiatives, began planning the conference in April 2005.

"The meeting was an opportunity for theological reflection on what
the tsunami had meant for the church in terms of reaching the poor,
stewardship, issues of social justice," she said, "and also to take a
look at innovations and activities and what has been accomplished this
year, what still lies ahead and some of the challenges."

Housing concerns

One of the biggest challenges is the issue of housing "because of the
buffer zones and some of the government restrictions on how close to
the water structures are allowed to be built," Laursen said. "People
who make a living on the ocean find some of the restrictions untenable
and identifying and allocating land has become a huge issue."

In South India, however, 200 new homes and 450 temporary shelters have
been rebuilt this year and, in 2006, an additional 400 will be rebuilt
with ERD's assistance.

In the Nicobar Islands of North India, one of the more severely impacted
communities, the Church of North India (CNI) has successfully advocated
for more cost effective and culturally acceptable temporary shelters. With
almost 2,000 beneficiaries, ERD has helped rebuild 257 houses with local
materials and 132 semi-permanent shelters have been provided.

CNI helped to secure passports for three of the Nicobar representatives,
who had to travel for four days to attend the ERD conference.

Sensitive approach

Among its many accomplishments, the Diocese of Colombo, an ERD
partner in Sri Lanka, has completed housing repair and construction
projects, established boat and canoe yards, provided livelihood support
grants to various vocations, distributed bicycles for men, woman and
children, helped finance education for children and families unable
to fund their own studies, facilitated short-term and long-term trauma
counseling workshops and donated equipment to medical institutions.

The diocese has also been involved in many advocacy programs.

"Our mission was to act at a targeted local level with our clergy and
in collaboration with local interfaith movements, non-governmental
organizations and human rights groups," said diocesan relief
volunteer Nagulan Nesiah, who explained that clergy and laity have
long been involved in social justice programs aimed at alleviating
the economic and emotional status of a population that has long-suffered
hardships due to human-made disasters such as war, colonialism and gross
disparities in the distribution of wealth.

"It was this previous experience and encounters in political and social
concerns which gave us some direction toward our policy and prepared
us somewhat for a sensitive and ecumenical approach in relief work," he
said. "The value placed on humanity helped supersede other concerns
and ERD has been supportive of this approach and partnered with us on
all of our programs."

One such rehabilitation plan, a school twinning program, facilitates an
Anglican school in the diocese to be 'twinned' with a State school in
a tsunami-affected area.

"The response from our Anglican students, staff and principals has
been encouraging and the program has evolved into an ideal opportunity
for students to help one another while being an incredible educational
experience for all," Nesiah said.

The program has been implemented successfully by all eight diocesan
schools..

The diocese's main priorities currently are housing construction,
children's development, human rights advocacy and long-term trauma
counseling support.

"All of our programs are designed to be long-term," Nesiah said. "Beyond
meeting basic shelter needs, we have encouraged sustainable livelihood
schemes, committed to sponsor children through a university/vocational
school level and are currently finding ways to establish practical
trauma counseling services for the entire country."

Nesiah said that the community has been touched by the overwhelming
response from friends both in and out of the country. He especially
remembers a phone call at 3 a.m. on the third night following the tsunami
from ERD offering much-needed tents and funds.

"What a supportive wake-up call that was," he said. "The community
response has been superb. The concern and confidence we receive from
our friends around the world are an inspiration for our relief and
rehabilitation efforts."

Churches' growth

Reflecting on the immediate challenges in the weeks following the tsunami,
Laursen explained that ERD's partners were thrown into a situation that,
in terms of economic, social and human impact, was huge and none had
operated on that scale before.

"During the past year, we've seen the churches we're supporting grow
into a role where they have a voice in helping to speak to some of the
human rights issues and quality of life issues," she said. "We've seen a
number of organizations pack up and leave this year. It's a testimony of
the church that they are not going anywhere; their programs have stayed."

To date, ERD has received more than $12 million in donations for
tsunami relief and development. Some of those funds have been invested
in training professional counselors -- what Laursen calls an essential
piece of ERD's response.

"Trauma counseling can take several years of healing and it really needs
to be community based," Laursen said, indicating a rise in alcoholism,
depression and gender violence since the tsunami. "The church is one
of the best institutions to manage and provide these kinds of social
interventions."

In each case, ERD and its partners are connecting with the governments
to ensure that such initiatives are accredited.

Reaching the marginalized

Ensuring adequate health care has been another priority in which ERD and
its partners have invested. In South India, a mobile health program, which
the government has replicated, has been developed as an essential service
to people living in displaced communities. More than 50,000 people have
benefited from health centers or mobile clinics in the region sponsored
by ERD.

During the partnership conference, each group identified the most
vulnerable in their various contexts, such as the Dalits -- the
untouchables -- in India who, in most communities, are submarginalized.

"We discussed how the church is trying to reach them and talked about
ways in which community structures actually impede them from reaching
the most marginalized," Nelson said, citing an example of working with
food distribution lines and Muslim widows who are not allowed to leave
their homes.

"No disaster is the same but what we bring to a situation is a code of
conduct or best practices and a sense of technological advice on how to
reach the most marginalized and a way of asking questions that enables
our partners to think slightly differently about the situation and to
use these disasters as an opportunity to build a new world," she said.

Interfaith concerns

Many Asian governments are suspicious of Christian relief agencies,
Nelson explained, because historically they have been used as the first
step in a conversion process and an evangelizing tool.

To counter such suspicion, in its process of rebuilding in Sri Lanka,
the local committees include Muslim, Buddhist and Christian clerics who
work together in the camps, Nelson explained.

"In Indonesia, our partners are working in areas that are predominantly
Muslim. Their process has been to incorporate Muslims into their staff
and to partake in some of the village celebrations during Ramadan or
other Muslim festivals," she said.

One delegate from Indonesia explained that all the relief packages sent
from U.S. churches, for example, needed to be carefully examined because
they would often include crosses or messages about Jesus.

"You could really see a warm-hearted Wisconsin church innocently wanting
to say ?Jesus loves you' and yet in Indonesia -- in a Muslim community
-- this could be seen as an attempt to take them away from their faith,"
Nelson said. "There is a lot of discussion around interfaith relations
and there are some solutions of bridge-building. Although it is not easy,
there are real signs of hope."

In South India, ERD is also supporting homes that combine people who've
lost children with people who've lost parents and, in Sri Lanka, is
helping to support education endowments for children who've lost parents.

"It's not just about putting back what was lost but to break down the
barriers that helped to cause the losses to begin with," Nelson said.
"We see divisions, conflict, poverty, and in our relief work we look to
overcome these issues."

In his Christmas message to the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams said that he has received "moving letters
describing the sacrificial work of Anglicans in the Province of South-East
Asia ...  clearly witnessing to the willingness to respond first and
ask theoretical questions afterwards."

"Faith is restored and strengthened not by talking but by witness in
action," Williams said. "And one of the moving things that this year has
brought for me is the awareness of how generously so many have responded
to the desperate needs of the tsunami victims."

To support families devastated by the earthquake and tsunamis in South
Asia, donate to the South Asia Relief Fund at www.er-d.org or call
1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and
Development, South Asia Relief Fund, PO Box 12043, Newark, NJ 07101.

-- Matthew Davies is international correspondent / multimedia manager
for Episcopal News Service.

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