EXCO Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 6 Dec 2004, Tsunami Edition 2
From SI Exco News
Contents |
Servas EXCO Newsletter
- President Geoff Maltby,------------------------------ Vice President Bibendra Pradhananga
- General Secretary Honora Clemens,----------------------------------- Treasurer Omer Ozkan
- Peace Secretary Gary Sealey,----------------- Host List Coordinator Claudio Pacchiega
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- Volume I, No. 6
- December 30, 2004
_______________________________________________________________________________ EXCO has decided to send daily newsletters during the Tsunami crisis. Our goal is to keep our total membership informed about the condition of our member countries who have been devastated by the recent disaster.
We need to hear the stories of our people so we can learn how to help them. If you have such information, please send it to me. I will disperse it to our entire organization.
Honora Clemens generalsecretary@servas.org _______________________________________________________________________________
WHAT WE HAVE HEARD
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for your e-mail. I felt very touched by your thought. Very sorry for the late reply since it is very difficult to find internet kiosk in Pontianak, west kalimantan, I was here since 24 dec and will return to Jakarta on 3 Jan.
In the hostlist, there are no servas member who live in Aceh and north sumatra. I knew where servas members from Jakarta and Bandung several members from Central Java will celebrate their X'mas and new year. I guess that none is in Aceh or Nias.
I participated in fundraising for the Aceh victims in my church in Pontianak. We saw from news that lots of billions of donations received from foreign countries and relief organisation. This time Indonesians show their solidarity to help the victims. You will see donations centres almost in every corner of street, not to mention that every media like newspaper, magazine and TV have donation centres and only in few days, billions and tons of dry foods, cloth, blankets were collected.
I guess with all those help we receive we will be able to rebuild the affected area. Let's just hope and pray that all those donations will go to the appropiate victims.
Once again I thank you for your loving thought and may the spirit of peace and sharing be with us all day throughout the years ahead.
I wish you all happy new year.
- Tiurlan Sitompul
- Servas Indonesia
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Some good news
Thanks a lot for being with SERVAS SRI LANKA at this stage of our grief. The death toll even though the media say is around 23,000 at present there are still bodies washing ashore. There are so many who were buried alive. The death toll may be more than 50,000.
No Servas host has been victimized so far. I am still checking with the hosts. There are so many organizations and countries who have come for our assistance. We may have to face severe health consequences in the near future and then comes the reconstruction programmes. There are some who have taken this opportunity make money too. So we have to be careful. If need arises I will let you know. But at the moment we are quite able to meet the requirements.
- Thanks again for sharing our grief.
- Yours in Peace,
- Nandee- NS- SERVAS- SRI LANKA
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HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
- Many governments and organisations - including the US, Canada, Australia,
the EU and the UN - are sending aid.
- The UN has warned that supplies are urgently needed to support the
survivors and to try and prevent disease which, it says, could double the death toll.
- The United Nations World Food Programme - www.wfp.org - is seeking donations to feed victims of the earthquake.
- Medecins Sans Frontieres - www.msf.org - is sending aid workers to the region, focusing on medical care for survivors and displaced people after the rescue operations.
- Islamic Relief - www.islamic-relief.com - has also launched an appeal to provide medical supplies, tents and sanitation facilities for those affected.
- The United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef - www.unicef.org.uk - is working to meet the "urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of people" affected by the tsunami disaster.
- The UN refugee agency, UNHCR - www.unhcr.ch - which has been helping victims of conflicts in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, is airlifting additional supplies to help tsunami survivors in both countries.
- Save the Children - www.savethechildren.org.uk - has already flown a plane out to Sri Lanka carrying plastic sheeting for temporary shelter, tents to run children's services from, and essentials such as clothing and cooking utensils.
- Anti-poverty organisation Care International - www.care.org - has already provided food for thousands of affected people in Sri Lanka.
- Cafod, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development - www.cafod.org.uk - is working with partners across Asia to provide shelter, food aid and medical assistance, and assessing what further relief is needed.
- The Islamic Aid Emergency Relief Fund - www.islamicaid.org.uk - aims to provide immediate relief and long-term support to people in the affected areas.
- Another Islamic charity, Muslim Hands - www.muslimhands.org- is collecting money and sending volunteers to help in Indonesia and Malaysia.
- UK residents can donate via the British Red Cross - www.redcross.org.uk - which has launched an appeal to fund supplies including blankets and cooking utensils.
- Medair - www.medair.org - is providing emergency support to agencies with a long term presence in Sri Lanka and its medical experts are assessing the likelihood of malaria and diarrhoea.
- World Vision - www.worldvision.org.uk - has also launched an appeal and has already delivered relief goods to thousands.
- Christian Aid - www.christianaid.org.uk - has already allocated £250,000 from its emergency fund to help the victims of this disaster but says more money is needed.
- Christian charity Tearfund - www.tearfund.org - and its partners in Sri Lanka and India are helping devastated fishing communities and coastal villages get back on their feet.
- Concern - www.concern.net - is working with local partners to meet the needs of families in the devastated coastal villages of Tamil Nadu, the worst affected state in India.
- The International Rescue Committee - www.theirc.org - is providing emergency supplies and materials to "people most affected by the crisis".
- The Salvation Army - www.salvationarmy.org.uk has local teams working in a number of affected areas and is sending a team from its international headquarters on Wednesday evening.
- Muslim Aid - www.muslimaid.org - has already donated £100,000 towards the purchase of food, clothing and medicine in the region but wants to raise more.
- Asia Quake Relief Appeal UK, a UK-based Sri Lankan organisation, is also *raising money and can be emailed at asia-quakerelief@europe.com
You can donate to all the campaigns via their websites.
- Omer Ozkan
- SI Treasurer
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WHAT CAN WE DO?
- We need to tap into our Asian network to help this, if necessary by writing to some Asian hosts directly. My view is we are still getting too few letters from the residents of the region – mostly media are carrying messages from returning tourists, hotel industry, etc.
- We should be hearing from more local people, preferably Servas hosts, so that we can help rally effective response. Canada, USA and Australia have pledged only about $40 million each to help, but the total need is in the order of tens of billions.
- Apart from Dr. Sharma, it seems our NS are not connected, or are not communicating, or cannot communicate. So far, we still do not seem to know whether we have lost Servas travelers – except for the brief summary message relayed from Brazil by Rob Borenstein.
- Gary Sealey
- SI Peace Secretary
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