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The Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran World Information |
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| 24.01.2005 |
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| FEATURE: Sri Lanka Still in Shock |
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Norwegian Church Aid Calls for Comprehensive Reconstruction
GALLE, Sri Lanka/GENEVA, 24 January 2005 (LWI) – It is more than four weeks since disaster hit Sri Lanka but the country is still in a state of shock. Survivors not only lost everything they had, they also mourn their loved ones who perished in the December 26 massive tidal waves (tsunamis) triggered by an undersea earthquake off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. At community level, people are crossing different social and religious backgrounds to help each other. Within this context, Norway’s ecumenical development aid agency, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), is calling for a comprehensive development program.
Tamara Mendis, wife of Rev. Eardley Mendis, also died as a result of the tsunamis, which caused widespread destruction, killing over 30,000 people along Sri Lanka’s coast. Fifty-five-year-old Tamara and her daughter Eranthie were travelling by train from Colombo to Galle in the south to visit relatives when the tidal waves struck.
Her husband, 59-year-old pastor of a Southeast Asian congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and his son visited the disaster site near Galle where, according to official figures 1,700 people lost their lives. Survivors say the train stopped after the first wave. The water was only up to platform level. Then the second wave struck, carrying several wagons along with it. Mendis described how 24-year-old Eranthie had tried to save her mother, in vain.
“Sri Lanka has been very badly hit,” says Hans Einar Hem, NCA South Asia representative. NCA, a partner organization of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service is providing assistance in the context of the global church network, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, of which the LWF is a founding member.
Hem had arrived in Sri Lanka four days earlier to set up a new NCA regional office. Then everything changed. A day after the tidal waves, he was able to promise back-up funds to local ACT partner, the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL).
He travelled to Galle one day after the waves wreaked havoc. Thousands of bodies recovered from the rubble were lined up, wrapped in plastic bags. “This is a terrible loss of human life,” he says of the estimated 6,000 people who died just in this area.
The poorest sections of the population (up to 90 percent) were among the worst affected by the disaster, according to Rev. Sumithra Fernando, executive secretary, NCCSL Women’s Commission. The fishing communities that lived very close to the sea not only lost their homes but their very means of survival, with boats and nets either destroyed or washed out to sea.
Entire families were wiped out. Twenty-five-year old Suranja Padhum from Galle lost 50 relatives. Only four of more than 60 handicapped children in a home close to the sea are said to have survived.
Fernando wonders how people will cope with this immense loss. She is currently developing projects for survivors’ psychosocial care. Jayasiri Peiris, NCCSL General Secretary emphasizes spiritual and psychological support as a priority contribution of the churches. “This helps people get back on their feet, and not only the infrastructure.”
Hem also cites psychosocial care as crucial, and stresses the need for an integrated development program. Concerning funds for such assistance, he says, “We have never experienced such a degree of solidarity.”
But there is still concern as Sri Lanka’s economy has been seriously affected. There are fewer tourists following the damage to hotels along the coast. It will take years before the sector fully recovers. Two decades of conflict between the Tamil rebels and government forces only compounds the situation.
Prior to the disaster, it was normal to experience tension between the different ethnic and religious groups but this has now changed, according to Hem. “Many congregations were quite divided,” particularly in the east where Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians co-exist alongside Tamil and Singhalese populations.
They are now working together to respond to the needs created by the disaster. The NCCSL general secretary affirms “people have crossed cultural and religious barriers, and are helping each other.” Peiris, an Anglican, and Hem, a Lutheran, advocate support for groups that seek to bring about a new spirit of community.
Besides the reconstruction of houses and infrastructure, congregations need to be rebuilt and strengthened, a process that requires psychosocial care. Hem considers close cooperation with the NCCSL, and NCA’s many years of experience, as the right prerequisites for this task. (746 words)
(Reported for LWI by Stuttgart (Germany)-based journalist, Rainer Lang.)
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