UPDATE: 6th January, 2005

DAVID ADAMS

Australia has announced it will contribute $1 billion to help Indonesia recover from the Boxing Day tsunamis that have destroyed much of the province of Aceh.

Making the announcement, Prime Minister John Howard said Australia would contribute $500 million in grant assistance and $500 million in interest free loans for up to 40 years.

“This is an historic step in Australia-Indonesia relations,” he said. “It is the single largest aid contribution ever made by Australia, focused on the long-term and founded on partnership.

"In addressing the urgent humanitarian needs of those afflicted by the tragedy, it will also serve to bring our countries and peoples closer together. It is a strategic commitment to raise the living standards of the people of Indonesia.”

Aid agencies and church groups have welcomed the move but have also asked the government to place a moratorium on debts owed by affected countries. The Australian Government has ruled out such a move.

Aid groups have also warned that children caught up in the tsunami disaster will be at greater risk of disease, sexual and physical abuse if child protection measures are not part of the initial humanitarian response.

“The pictures of dazed and grieving children wandering around amid the devastation underlines the extraordinary vulnerability they face amid this disaster,” said Heather MacLeod, World Vision’s International child protection director.

“Their vulnerability means they are among the most at risk of the diseases that now threaten to kill thousands more.”

“And history has shown us that the humanitarian response to a disaster can often increase the vulnerability of children.”

Sri Lanka’s National Child Protection Authority has already issued a warning after reports that children were missing from hospitals and emergency shelters.

Fears have also surfaced in other affected countries that some children may by kidnapped to be sold as domestic aids or for sexual exploitation.

MacLeod said that child protection experts must be among those responding to the disaster and that measures such as the creation of ‘child friendly spaces’ and a means of identifying separated children.

More than 150,000 have died after a massive earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent a series of tsunamis smashing into Indian Ocean coastal regions.

5th January, 2005

DAVID ADAMS

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has announced that Sunday, 16th January will be a national day of mourning for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.

The death toll from the disaster is more than 150,000 with Australia’s official death toll at 12 (although relatives have said they have identified the bodies of four other Australians).

Mr Howard said that while many Australians would mark the day by attending church services, others would choose to reflect on the tragedy in other ways.

Meanwhile, the amount donated in Australia to help victims of the tsunamis has passed $100 million.

This included more than $51.5 million donated to the Australian Red Cross, more than $22 million donated to World Vision, more than $14.5 million to CARE Australia and more than $10 million to Oxfam/Community Aid Abroad.

Globally, the United Nations said yesterday that between $US2 and $US3 billion had been pledged from scores of countries around the world.

The United Nations emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, said yesterday that relief workers were “making extraordinary progress in reaching the majority of the people affected in the majority of the areas”.

3rd January, 2005

DAVID ADAMS

As the death toll from last week’s tsunami disaster nears 150,000, the United Nations announced that disaster relief pledges from around the world now totals more than $US2 billion.

At a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York on Sunday, UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland said the total amount pledged for emergency relief and recovery had exceeded $US2 billion including between $US1.5 to $US1.6 billion in grants from scores of countries across the globe.

Contributions ranging from a $US50,000 pledge from East Timor to a massive $US500 million pledge from Japan. The Australian Government has pledged $60 million while donations to non-government organisations in Australia have topped $50 million.

“The world is really coming together here in a way we probably have never seen before,” Egeland said.

While it will be some time before a precise figure of the dead and missing is available, Egeland said he believed the figure would top 150,000. As of today, Indonesia has put the nation’s dead at just over 94,000, in Sri Lanka almost 30,000 are dead and in India almost 15,000 (although this includes more than 5,000 people listed as missing) are dead. Twelve Australians have died.

Egeland said the biggest challenge remaining was the delivery of assistance to around five million people affected by the disaster, including 1.8 million people who would require food assistance.

The UN have said that water and sanitation remain among the greatest needs and that there had been sharp increases in diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases among people affected in the disaster.

• The Australian Government has advised Australians not to travel to affected areas.

31st December, 2004

DAVID ADAMS

Humanitarian organisations have been amazed at the response of Australians to the Asian tsunami catastrophe with more than $36 million so far donated to non-Government aid agencies since reports of the disaster first began coming in earlier this week.

With the death toll from the Boxing Day earthquake and subsequent tsunamis now reported to have passed 125,000 (there are an estimated 80,000 dead in the Indonesian province of Aceh alone), the race to get supplies and assistance to millions of people in desperate need of help continues.

The Australian Government has now promised $60 million to the relief efforts while the amount donated to non-Government agencies has already reached at least $36 million and is growing rapidly.

The Australian Red Cross has received $20 million alone and donations are still coming in.

“The Australian people are seeing the extent of the disaster unfold and they are responding in an incredibly generous way,” said secretary general Dale Cleaver.

He said Federal and State Governments as well as many businesses and corporations had responded generously to the appeal.

“Our priority now is to meet immediate needs and to asses the medium and longer-term needs of survivors and all those affected.”

The Red Cross’ global efforts include the distribution of medical supplies for 125,000 people in Sri Lanka and housing for 44,000 people. In India, 5,000 people have received ‘family kits’ of essential items while in Indonesia more than 300 volunteers are providing relief for victims including first aid and search and transport.

Four Australian staff have joined more than 80 expatriate staff working in the stricken areas.

World Vision Australia, which has raised more than $9 million since launching their appeal, is providing aid to Indonesia that includes water storage facilities and clothing as well as child centres to help children recover from trauma.

In Sri Lanka - where chief executive Tim Costello flew earlier this week - they are providing food and clothing as well as cooking implements while in India, World Vision has provided 12,000 people with food cooked on site and are currently delivering food to 200,000 people.

CARE Australia, meanwhile, reports that it has received numerous large donations from Australian corporations including Visy Industries, Qantas, Australia Post and Woodside Petroleum.

CARE, which is sending an Australian aid worker to Aceh today, is distributing about 100,000 safe water bottle systems in Indonesia as well as other emergency supplies and will be working to repair damaged infrastructure.

Speaking in New York yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that the world community would need to remain committed for the long-term to helping those effected by the disaster.

“This is an unprecedented, global catastrophe and it requires an unprecedented, global response,” he said.

“Over the past few days, it has registered deeply in the consciousness and conscience of the world, as we seek to grasp the speed, the force and magnitude with which it happened.

“But we must also remain committed for the longer term. We know that the impact will be felt for a long time to come.”

29th December, 2004
DAVID ADAMS

With the death toll from the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster almost 70,000, a massive global relief effort has been launched to deliver urgently needed assistance to the millions of those affected by one of the world’s worst natural disasters.

With the dangers of disease now threatening millions, world governments and humanitarian organisations have launched an enormous relief effort to help alleviate the after-effects of the disaster while Christian leaders around the world have urged people to pray for those who are suffering and to respond generously to calls for assistance.

Speaking earlier this week, UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland described the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis as possibly “the worst natural disaster in recent history”.

Egeland said that millions of people would be subject to the “after-effects” of the waves.

“Drinking water for millions has been polluted. Disease will be the result of that and also acute respiratory disease always come in the wake of disasters.”

The World Health Organisation, meanwhile, has warned that the death toll could double if supplies weren’t urgently delivered to the worst effected areas.

The destruction of Sunday morning followed an earthquake measuring as high as nine on the Richter Scale in the seabed off Indonesia which caused a series of enormous waves to smash into the coastal regions of countries on the Indian Ocean.

The waves devastated the Indonesian province of Aceh where more than 33,000 are believed to have been killed as well as parts of seven other Asian countries including Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Malaysia. There are also casualties in coastal areas of the east African nations of Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

Nine Australians have been confirmed dead. UNICEF have said that as many as a third of all casualties may be children.

In Sri Lanka, where more than 1.5 million people have reportedly been displaced from their homes, rescue efforts are being hampered in some parts by floating landmines.

Miss Sooriyakumary, secretary of the Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation in India and Sri Lanka, described the situation in Sri Lanka during a phone call to the National Council of Churches in Australia from Colombo this week.

“Our situation is pretty bad. We are very concerned for the children who are homeless and orphaned...Many are so shocked and it will be very difficult for them to overcome the awful memories of this week.”

Calling for prayer and assistance to be given to those who have been caught up in the disaster, Miss Sooriyakumary said there would be “many months of cleaning up and providing emergency housing and water”.

In Australia, meanwhile, the Federal Government has joined with the country’s largest humanitarian aid agencies in asking Australians to continue their support for the millions of survivors.

“These are early days and the full extent of needs is not yet known. It is going to require an enormous effort over many months to help people rebuild their lives. We therefore encourage all Australians to continue their generous support,” said the Federal Government and aid agencies including the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), the Australian Red Cross, CARE Australia, Caritas, Oxfam-Community Aid Abroad and World Vision in a joint statement.

The Government also announced it was contributing an additional $25 million to help those affected by the disaster following its initial commitment of $10 million.

Aid agencies have asked for people to donate cash instead of medicines, clothing and other goods.

“The high cost of packing and labelling and freighting goods consumes funds which would be better spent on supporting the efforts of Australian aid workers and their local partners who know exactly what is needed.”