Tsunami

No one has ever seen an international disaster of this magnitude. The quake in the Indian Ocean and the tsunami that came with it wiped out more than 150,000 lives in many countries. People from different nationalities and all parts of the world suffered losses. Many have dead relatives or experience sever physchological trauma. There is also the gigantic task of rebuilding and recovering. Burying the dead and cleaning up the cities from the rubble is only the beginning of the numerous effort of an unknown scale.

However, it is amazing how easy people get distracted from what is important. In Aceh, where the casualities are highest, relief efforts are met by unecessary comments, scorn and criticism from people who mostly did it from the comfort of their own homes. There is talk of lack of coordination, of political suspicion, of security concerns in the province which housed the Free Aceh Movement separatists. The Americans presence on the ground was seen, by some people, to be a disguise for intelligence work to find out about human rights abuses. It is a claim which is ridiculous, irrelevant and totally out of place.

What is important at the moment is helping those who survived the ordeal; helping those who are working on the ground by all means possible. Most of us are incapable to physically be there, but many can be done from the comfort of our homes. Help and support can come in all kinds of form. Money donation matters. Food matters. Shelter matters. Services matters. But never under estimate the power of care, love, and prayers. There is a limit to how much material things we can donate, but prayers are never ending and by keeping them in our memory, we help in maintaining the long efforts of healing.

You can have a look on various events and ways to help on Tsunami Help.