Though it is impossible to conquer nature, yet human beings have withstood the challenges thrown by nature from time to time. Natural disasters leave behind large-scale destruction and thousands of bereaved persons. But slowly people pick up the bits of pieces and life moves on. Every time, a disaster strikes, human solidarity is tested. The December 26 tsunami tragedy is perhaps the worst natural disaster to have occurred in living memory. Once again it has thrown human species under the test or trial of survival. The tragedy has invoked instant response from all: government bodies, non-government organisations, celebrities, corporates and international organisation. Everyone has responded admirably and effort of everyone is encouraging.

What is special about this tsunami is the geographical extent of the devastation and the number of countries affected. The damage stretches across thousands of miles and involves millions of people. That produces a huge logistical challenge for international organisations and aid agencies: how to get relief supplies and, later, reconstruction assistance to so many places at more or less the same time. Though the road to recovery is full of obstacles, let us take a pause and take a deeper look into what these international organisations are doing for tsunami victims and what is in their agenda.

There are numerous websites that have listed organizations involved in relief operations. Some of these are: http://www.globalknowledge.org/gkps_portal/newsmaster.cfm?& menuid =2&action=view&retrieveid=163 This site provides list of 22 organisations working for the victims of tsunami. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/tsunami.aidsites/ This site provides list of 79 organisations providing relief and assistance in the tsunami affected region. http://www.charitywatch.org/hottopics/tsunami_asia.html This is a site by American Institute of Philanthrophy. It has listed 24 organisations that are providing relief to the tsunami victims. http://www.karthick.com/relief.html It gives the list of 70 relief organisations and their overhead costs. http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/international/earthquake/tsunami 122604.aspx?source=YAHOO&cmpgn=HMPCRS This site provides a list of 92 organisations that are working for Tsunami victims. It also includes organizations that are working for the animals affected by Tsunami. http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/ngolist.html This site provides list of 58 USAID agencies working for the Tsunami victims. http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/international_aid_ work/index.shtml This site provides list of 51 organisations working for the tsunami victims. http://www.cccny.net/tsunami%20organizations.shtml This site provides list of 34 organisations that are providing help to the victims of tsunami http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html This site provides a list of 21 international organizations working in the tsunami affected region.

Relief work in progress

As it is impossible to highlight the work of each and every organisation, we have highlighted few which are reputed and have the experience of delivering in the past and have a long-term vision.

CARE
www.careindia.org
CARE is helping in relief work in all the affected countries. CARE India has dispatched a 15-person rapid assessment team to the city of Chennai on India’s southeast coast. It is distributing water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, clothing and plastic sheeting to people in the hard-hit coastal areas. (www.careindia.org) In Indonesia it is distributing around 100,000 safe water system bottles, each of which can provide safe drinking water for a family for at least one month (one to two caps of chlorine solution disinfects 20 litres). The goal is to provide this monthly for a six-month period. CARE Sri Lanka is distributing aid to six main areas of Jaffna, Mullaitivu (north), Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Ampara (east) and Hambantota (south). Another major need identified is transport, and CARE is also assisting with the transport of relief goods. In Thailand, its teams are working in the hardest hit southern provinces of Pang Nga, Krabi, Ranong, Phuket and Trang. CARE teams are supplying medicines and first aid kits, oral rehydration packets, water, blankets, clothing and other emergency items.

International Relief Teams (IRT)
www.irteams.org
International Relief Teams is international relief organisation dedicated to organising volunteer teams to provide medical and non-medical assistance to the victims of disaster and profound poverty worldwide.

Private players There is an overwhelming response to the tsunami tragedy from corporates. Companies across the world are contributing for the victims. Pfizer Inc has donated $10 million in cash and $25 million in drugs to relief agencies, Coca-Cola Company has donated $10 million in cash. Besides these global giants, other companies also have contribute in a massive way. Indian corporate sector also has shared the responsibility and is sparing no effort to accelerate the pace of recovery. Never before have companies contributed on such a large scale. The donations from India Inc are still flowing for the victims of Tsunami. Sify has collected Rupees 10 million. We have focused on ICT related corporations. Bharti Tele-Ventures It announced measures to aid the relief and rehabilitation programme for the victims of Tsunami disaster in different parts of the country which include setting up of Airtel mobile and VSAT network in Andaman and Nicobar Island by 31 March, 2005 besides setting up of several communication centres near hospitals, police stations, temporary shelters and other public places along the coastal belt of Tamilnadu. It has set up communication centres and provided over 100 handsets for volunteers. Infosys Technologies India’s second largest software maker has announced a contribution of Rs 50 million to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) TCS has started collecting clothes, medicine, and essential items. The company is also trying to identify volunteer groups with which TCS can associate itself. DHL The business entities of DHL including Express, Danzas Air & Ocean and Solutions combined have raised and contributed more than EUR 350,000 in relief activities, including flight charters, monetary donations, and contributions in -kind to the tsunami disaster. One of the most significant relief activities that DHL has embarked on is the flight charters that it has committed in response to requests by governments in affected countries, and international aid agencies to help in the uplift of relief supplies. Other relief activities that DHL has undertaken so far include: Mobilisation of its Global Disaster Resource Network team to affected countries, on-site assistance in transportation, distribution and logistics support in affected areas, the purchase and distribution of relief supplies such as food, tents, blankets and stoves, etc.

Image courtesy: Waves of destruction
IRT has made a commitment to send a substantial shipment of medicines – enough to sustain 20,000 people for 3 months – to the beleaguered region. As regional assessments are made, IRT will continue to assist in whatever ways are requested, including the possibility of sending medical teams. IRT has already sent one-relief air shipments to India. In Indonesia it has arranged for three air shipments of emergency medicines and relief supplies and also deployed two nurses to the Aceh province of Indonesia to direct the distribution of medicines and relief shipments to local and international agencies providing medical services to survivors in this devastated region.

UNICEF
www.unicef.org UNICEF is delivering relief assistance to all the countries affected and is supporting governments throughout the region to assess and begin addressing the special needs of children. It is coordinating with NGOs and government authorities to develop systems to identify children and reunite them with parents or other relatives. In addition to delivering relief supplies like water purification materials and clothing, blankets and medicines, UNICEF has begun major sanitation and clean-up drives in camps for displaced people in India and initiated a program to ensure that people in the camps know how to use supplies such as chlorine tablets for water and oral re-hydration salts. Begun working with government and religious organisations to establish 30 child/community activity centers in camps for displaced people in Indonesia’s worst-hit areas of Aceh and North Sumatra provinces. Dispatched ten teams of specially-trained paediatricians and nurses in Thailand to provide psychological care and support to help children overcome by trauma. This compliments a network of trained child rights volunteers UNICEF has on the ground in two districts who are already identifying children in need of special assistance.

USAID
www.usaid.gov/in/ USAID/OFDA has committed a total assistance of $68,882,984. To date, the USG has provided more than $34.6 million to


Image courtesy: Association for India’s Development (AID)
upport emergency relief activities and the provision of food, water, and relief supplies for affected populations in Indonesia. In addition, it has provided $288,533 to Save the Children/U.S. for health, sanitation, shelter, and protection activities in Aceh and Northern Sumatra provinces. The USG has provided nearly $46 million in emergency food assistance, shelter, water and sanitation, livelihoods recovery, and psychosocial support in Sri Lanka. Through funds already allocated to USAID/Sri Lanka, USAID/OFDA has provided CARE with an additional $1.3 million for emergency relief supplies and water system rehabilitation, increasing its contribution to CARE from nearly $575,000 to more than $1.9 million. USAID has provided more than $3.1 million in emergency relief assistance to India. It immediately provided $100,000 through the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok to the Thai Red Cross for the procurement and distribution of emergency relief items following the December 26 tsunami.

Promises and Pledges EU: $30m already being spent on the ground, $132m in short-term aid, $455m for long-term reconstruction Australia: $810m, distributed over five years, half the sum in loans Germany: $674m in aid over the next three to five years Japan: $500m - half in bilateral aid, half through multilateral institutions US: $350m in debt relief, no timescale given UK: $96m in aid of which $13m spent so far, hundreds of millions more promised UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has given a call to raise $1bn in cash for urgent use from donors. The $1bn programme proposed by Mr Annan would include $215m towards food, $222m toward shelter and $122m towards healthcare. Pledges exceed $3bn, but promises have not always been fulfilled in the past. Source: BBC news online

World Health Organisation (WHO)
www.who.int
Since the tsunami struck, WHO has mobilised teams of experts to work with countries to assess the most urgent health needs and to ensure that they are met as rapidly as possible. WHO’s assistance is focused in five key areas:

• Disease surveillance and response: tracking patterns of life-threatening diseases and establishing an early warning system
• Coordinated action with the health system and other health actors locally, nationally and internationally
• Providing public health guidance on responding to disease outbreaks, water quality, sanitation, chronic disease management and mental health
• Ensuring access to essential health care together with all partners and the local health system

Disaster control authority to be set up by India The central government of India received broad support from different parties for setting up National Disaster Management Authority. A bill is expected to be brought in the budget session of Parliament, beginning next month to give effect to the proposed authority. The all-party meeting was by the key players of the respective parties. The major points, which emerged from the meeting, were: all future house building be at a distance from sea shore; Special care should be taken of women and children orphaned by disaster; adequate arrangement should be made for trauma treatment and relief; Rehabilitation of fisherman should be a priority and ecological balanced should be maintained in the worst-hit Andoman and Nicobar Islands. Teams on disaster management set up in the Andamans Disaster management team has been constituted in the Tsunami-hits Andman and Nicobar Islands, where relief efforts are concentrated on eight Islands. The teams have representatives of the Departments of Revenue, Agriculture, Public Works, Police, Fishery, and Animal Husbandry, and Civil Supplies. The Islands with a small population- Bomboka, Chowra, Little Nicobar, PiloMillow, Tilanchang, and Trinket in Nicobar- have been completely evacuated. The Health Minister is monitoring the situation round the clock for any outbreak of epidemics. Medical Teams, paramedics, and medicines have been dispatched and 10-trauma specialist have joined them. All the affected islands have been provided satellite phones, and a point-to-point communication, including police wireless system, has been established.

• Helping to coordinate medical supplies to ensure that supply chains work well and that people get the medicines they need when and where they need them.

Some other country specific organisations working in relief operations are:MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in India
http://www.mssrf.org/notice_board/announcements/tidal_tragedy.htm MS Swaminathan Research Foundation plans to organise medical camps, provide dresses, school notebooks, computer education and English coaching to the children in its short-term relief measures. It may adopt those children who lost their parents and provide the education and employment. Under long-term relief measures, MSSRF may tie up with existing community radio network like IGNOU [Gyan Vani] and Sri Manakula Vinayagar and provide the Early Warning Information to the fishing community. It may also tie up with local CABLE TV network and will also set up siren in the coastal villages to strengthen the public address system. Through wireless technologies [WiFi, 802.11 g/b, WLL etc.] it will provide Internet to the coastal information centers.

Doctors without Borders in Indonesia
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org A Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) surgical team has started working in Sigli General District Hospital. Sigli, the capital of Pidie district on the eastern coast of Aceh, is an area that has been severely damaged by the tsunami. The 35-bed hospital has remained open with the help of Indonesian staff (many of the employees of the hospital were killed).

MSF has started a mobile clinic in Kembang Tanjung for the displaced population. Further east from Sigli, in the General District Hospital of Bireuen, MSF has donated medicines and has set up a medical supply link with the MSF team in Sigli.

International Rescue Committee (IRC)
www.theirc.org/ Founded in 1933, the International Rescue Committee is a world leader in relief, rehabilitation, protection, post-conflict development, resettlement services and advocacy for those uprooted or affected by violent conflict and oppression.

The IRC is mounting a massive disaster relief effort. More than 40 tons of emergency medical supplies, shelter material and water storage tanks are being procured and airlifted to Indonesia to meet the needs of tens of thousands of refugees in devastated Aceh Province. The IRC is one of the few international aid organisations that were working in Aceh prior to the disaster, having provided assistance there since 2000.

The IRC is deploying mobile emergency response teams consisting of medical, water, sanitation, child trauma and logistics experts who will help address the immediate survival needs of the affected communities. In the emergency phase, the IRC will focus on increasing access to potable water and sanitation facilities, delivering urgent primary health care, distributing emergency supplies and providing psychosocial aid for survivors.

To help prevent a lethal outbreak of infectious diseases in disaster-affected communities, the IRC is quickly bringing in essential medicines and clinical supplies for 250,000 people for a three-month period. The IRC will also distribute insecticide-treated plastic sheeting for shelter, blankets, water containers, and other items urgently required by the hundreds of thousands of survivors who have been made homeless by the disaster.

Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Srilanka (ADRA)
http://www.adra.org/index.html The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is engaged in distribution of 30,000 pounds of medical and water purification supplies that were airlifted to Sri Lanka. The supplies, provided by AmeriCares, are being distributed by ADRA to inpatient hospitals and clinics in affected regions that have depleted their supplies aiding survivors. ADRA is also distributing World Health Organisation emergency kits that will provide a one-month supply of medicine for 90,000 people in Colombo. Other aid provided by ADRA in Sri Lanka includes 200,000 one-liter bottles of drinking water and 50,000 water purification tablets, infant formula for 1,000 affected children under one year of age, and a team of medical specialists. <

How to contribute to Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) in India? 12 banks have been authorised to receive donations for PMNRF. They are State Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Dena Bank, Syndicate Bank, Corporation Bank, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, Allahabad Bank and Citi Bank. Donations could be made by cheque or draft in the name of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund and sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi-110001. The nationalised banks will not charge any commission on preparation of draft in favour of PMNRF. Contributions could also be sent through money orders with no commission chargeable. The contributions to PMNRF have been notified for 100% deduction from taxable income under section 80 (G) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, subject to prescribed limits. Form for contributing by Cheques / Demand Draft/Credit Card: http://gayathiri1. tripod.com/id35.html Information for payments through Bank Transfers directly to Central Bank of India : http://gayathiri1.tripod.com/id34.html NRIs and foreign nationals Besides the other modes of payments, the contribution towards the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund can be deposited with the Indian Missions abroad (http://meaindia.nic.in; http://goidirectry.nic.in/missions.htm) clearly indicating your communication address. Formal receipt will be issued through the respective Mission. To donate online to this fund go to http://www. sify.com/pmf.php For further details on PMNRF is available by logging on to http://pmindia.nic.in/relieffund.htm