January 2005 Edition
FOCUS Tsunami
The Oxfam International Youth Parliament, like all of the world's people, is shocked and saddened to learn of the devastating impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami
Fortunately, all members of the OIYP family in affected countries are safe, although sadly some have lost friends and relatives.
Our deepest condolences go to all who are affected by this tragedy. We extend our heartfelt solidarity and support to all people affected, especially young people and children. We are committed to providing concrete support to the rebuilding efforts over the long-term, especially by strengthening the capacity of young people in affected areas, who in many circumstances, will be required to lead the way forward.
We have already provided financial support to our action partners in Sri Lanka who are coordinating youth-led relief efforts - and would encourage others to contribute.
Oxfam Australia is concentrating its response to the disaster in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. Visit www.oxfam.org.auto find out more about the response and to make a contribution. As well as responding to the immediate need for emergency assistance, primary health care and mitagating the spread of disease Oxfam Australia and OIYP are committed to supporting the reconstruction and rebuilding over the long term. We encourage people to continue supporting those affected now and in to the future.
Due to the Tsunami we decided to postpone the newsletter on Human Rights and instead concentrate on news from Action Partners and ways of being involved with Tsunami relief. We have still included some other news and stories to keep everyone updated on the positive work of Action Partners in other parts of the world. This newsletter is based primarily on the voices of those in the network in this time after the Tsunami.
Nicole Breeze
For the OIYP Team, Sydney
Contact us at iypvoice@caa.org.auor iypaction@caa.org.au.
ACTION PARTNER NEWS
Hear from Action Partners in Sri Lanka, Indonesia about their experiences and from Action Partners in the Philippines and Morocco about their work.
Ruveen - Sri Lanka – Text messages in the days after the Tsunami
Thanks so much for the concern. I couldn't reply immediately as I was working all night at a relief center. I'm ok and so are my family. A few houses of ours were damaged but no one was hurt. Just wanted to ask if there is anything IYP could do to help out? Just let me know as I could help channel it to the people who need it as I am working with the relief effort in Sri Lanka. We need food. Milk powder for babies. Medicines, antibiotics, bandages etc. Money always helps. We already have set up a fund.
Jennie Aries - Indonesia
I just want to inform you that all the action partners from Indonesia are safe...5 of my friend from my organization went to Aceh yesterday..my parents don't allow me to go..we receive alot of donation. Arifadi (education1) and I now are keeping in touch with our friends who went to Aceh and providing them with what they need to help the people in Aceh and for surviving
News from other Action Partners
Patrick Joseph Ty - IYP Delegate Philippines
Upon arrival from the Oxfam International Youth Parliament (OIYP), Patrick Joseph Ty a delegate from Cebu City started to work! His first project that he worked on was on the implementation of a community library project for elementary and high school students with young professionals as librarians and tutors. The library has video rooms, computer rooms and sports area and lends books. The project was aimed to uplift the quality of education among primary and secondary students. After a month, it is now managed by the Kabubwason (Future), a youth organization aimed to promote education, youth participation and positive activities.
After that project he gave back his time to his personal advocacy – the protection, promotion and advancement of gay rights. His organization, Various Integrated Aggrupation of Gay Rights Advocate (VIAGRA), did research to come up with the general profile of the gay community in Cebu City. It identifies the forms of discrimination and violence the community have experienced within the family and the society as a whole. Major research was on the participation of the gay community on their culture of faith (including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and ancient eastern forms of religion ). The research will give support to the claims that gays and lesbians were accepted before and were not considered an immorality. One common output is the presence of transgender persons officiating ritual both to royalties and the ordinary citizens on the ancient eastern religion. Ancient Indonesian religion call them “warok” which is still in practice on the villages of Sulewesi and Java, in the Philippines they are called the “babaylans”.
Patrick Joseph Ty is from the island of Samar but has been educated in Cebu City. He is now 23 yrs old and presently the Executive Director of Various Integrated Aggrupation of Gay Righst Advocate. For further information you may send him an email to mr_ty@myself.com or at patricktyviagra@yahoo.com
Hind Ottmani - Morocco
I had the opportunity to participate this month to a 10 days workshop in the palm grove of Marrakech (southern morocco), organised by the UNESCO chair "landscape and environment" of the university of Montréal. The aim of this workshop was to analyse the problems related to this palm grove, and to present new landscape design projects and tourism concepts, in order to solve these problems, and to serve as examples of sustainable development projects for local stakeholders. Only oasis occupying the northern part of the chain of the High-Atlas of Morocco, the Palm plantation of Marrakech faces since more than one decade an increasing land pressure. Thus, the quality of its landscapes attracts a number growing foreign tourists, residents and investors whose arrival precisely causes to create a real threat, that it is by the increase in the value of the grounds or by the difficulty in ensuring the harmonious insertion of the new establishments or the maintenance of traditional agricultural activities and natural ecosystems
The projects proposed were the result of a pluridisciplinary work, between students landscape architects, students architects and tourism professionals. This workshop ended with a ceremony of awards, and I had the honor to win the UNESCO award for the 2nd best project. If anyone is interested in knowing more about this event or the chair that organised it, please do not hesitate to contact me at hindottmani@arquired.net.
STORY OF MONTH
We have selected this letter that we received from Sri Lankan Action partners as ‘story of the month’ because clearly, the devestation caused by the Indian Ocean Tsuanmi has changed peoples lives permanently. Our action partners in Sri Lanka, like so many others, are demonstrating enormous courage, resilience and determination in their response.
The Tsuanmi provides a stark example of how our lives are affected by external forces which make it constanly necessary to re-evaluate the priorities of our work in order to have the greatest impact possible.
The Sri Lankan Youth Parliament Team commits to Relief Work and ongoing development – letter from the Team
Thank you for expressing your solidarity at such a moment of national disaster and sorrow. Also thank you for offering to use the IYP small grant awarded to us for immediate relief work. We have already started working on a needs assessment and have the information needed. Now what remains to be done is to decide on where to target our relief work, as obviously the need is enormous and magnanimous and the funds that we have are limited. We are also hoping to collaborate with other youth movements such as Voice for Peace, of which Guruparan is the coordinator, so that we can pool in all the resources we have.
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This is a state of devastation and believe me when I say some people are only left with hope and nothing but hope. When the sea came ashore that day they left behind all they had earned and all they had dreamed of. These people we believe need us more now than ever before and we have promised to stand by them.
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We now the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament team see more need for the SLYP to happen than before. This is the time that something like SLYP is most needed in this country and SLYP has great potential to directly influence the long term strategic and social developments and rebuilding of the nation. More we see that SLYP has the potential to revive the nation and therefore SLYP will take place for sure and there is still no change of dates as far as this is concern.
However the SLYP team has now been split in to two units one, one unit will handle SLYP and the other unit will handle the immediate efforts of disaster relief. The fact that we had already formed an SLYP team and the fact that it was fully functioning has been of great assistance within the last week. So with these new collaborations and organizational decisions the SLYP team along with us are committed to bring up this nation back to normal within a year.
At the moment we think that we still have our timeline in place, and act accordingly to the situation as it improves. For example most of our potential sponsors are working on relief related work both at the short term and the long term, and we are not sure whether they will be able to support us at the present moment. We will have to consider all these. As we have divided the SLYP team into two where one will go on with the timeline that we agreed to in October and as the other would look into relief work at the short and long term.
One more thing, the IYP network and all the action partners have been of great help so far and we wish to thank them. “Thank you very much everyone for all your concerns and support, we thank you deeply” and we have a request, there is still much required we will mail our assessment reports and our project plans and requirements, please continue to support us, Monetary Assistance and Rational Assistance (dry rations, food, milk powder, medicine, ect) are extremely urgently needed. On the long run we need assistance for rebuilding purposes and metal development and reviving sections of society affected by this in the form of mentoring and so on.
Thanking you and your team for your concern and support,
Regards,
Chinthaka & Guruparan
For the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament Team
JANUARY FEATURE TSUNAMI
The tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, triggered by an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean off Indonesia, sent killer tsunami waves from Sumatra to Somalia that wiped out whole communities. Upwards of 140,000 people have perished and as many as 3 million are displaced orhomeless.
Communications, logistics, and transport remain major problems in all areas due to flooding, remoteness, and volume of telephone traffic. Water borne or assisted diseases such as cholera typhoid, and malaria will become increasingly important factors in the response effort with water/sanitation being still the most pressing need.
Sanjana Hattotuwa, facilitator in the Peacebuilding Action Area at OIYP2004 from Sri Lanka, gives us a personal insight into the devastation of his home community and his work to help coordinate relief. This article is based on emails sent to staff by Sanjana in response to our enquiries about his safety.
Sanjana Hattotuwa – Sri Lanka
For all the phone calls that you gave me and the support - thank you. It means a world of difference to have a supportive network of colleagues and friends to help us through these incredible times.
Newspapers are calling the tragedy our very own Day After Tomorrow. For those who watched the movie, I can assure that the reality is far worse than the special effects.
You all know about the devastation - what you may not is how terrible it is. Footage you've seem perhaps is from the South of the country - no one has yet been able to access the East. Entire sections of the island are missing (!!) - villages are nowhere in sight. In the East alone, the Forward Defence Lines of the Army are gone, and around 8,000 people are confirmed dead, with many thousands more missing and presumed dead. LTTE held areas have suffered heavy casualties as well.
There isn't a single hotel on the coast which hasn't been damaged or washed away several in the South don't exist. A train was spotted in the ocean off Galle, perhaps the one that with all its passengers numbering around 1,000 was washed into the sea.
Eyewitness accounts are mind boggling - a wall of water over 40 feet high, reaching as far as 5km inland in some place - decimating everything in its path. The destruction to lives and property is total and absolute - there is nothing left in certain areas, and the greatest fear now is a plague that effects those who have survived the ordeal. The true extent of the damage is being only revealed now - albeit slowly, as access to areas improves and waters recede. Bodies litter beaches and the images are too horrific to reproduce or mention.
There is aid coming in on a very large scale, and Sri Lankans themselves have mobilised to a very large degree to help those in need. India, Norway, US, EU, Japan, Russia are just some of the countries who have pledged a lot of help / aid.
I am fine - I've been working with around 4 hours of sleep since Sunday setting up joint logistics for some Colombo based NGOs, the UN Joint Logistics Network and some aid agencies via Info Share. Last night, two of us who were working late just sat and broke down - even the protracted war hasn't prepared us for this scale of devastation. Today's newspapers carried more photos of the bloody mess - utterly incredible to see the aftermath of a tsunami. Railway lines and roads to the South of the country don't exist anymore !!
There are points of brevity as well - like when TV stations (who hadn't a clue on whom to speak to in order to make sense of this mess) started to interview weathermen - who obviously didn't have much to say save to warn us to expect more tsunamis !! :-)
On a sadder note, details are coming in on friends and family we've lost - who had gone on honeymoons, holidays etc. With a total body count of approx. 20,000, in a small country such as this, every person is bound to know someone (or a friend of a friend) who has died or has gone missing.
With the aid coming in and the help of the international community we should be able to see this through. Sri Lankans are a resilient bunch, and we've seen enough of carnage and suffering to help us through this latest calamity as well. I am certain that in a few weeks, a few raunchy Sinhala jokes will be spread about how the tsunami interrupted various nefarious activities and secret love triangles...
On a personal note, thanks to all those who called me up or sent me emails. It meant a lot.
This will be my last update from Sri Lanka - I leave for the US tonight, but will continue work here in the virtual coordination of humanitarian aid from wherever I am. I leave with a very heavy heart, but am hopeful that this will, perhaps, create some sort of bridge between frayed ethnic relations that have been on a downward spiral in the last couple of months.
Update
I've been working on logistics coordination of some major local and international relief and aid agencies operating from Colombo till I left for Boston (US) on the 29th, from where I have been working on this angle and also meeting with some donors like the World Bank here to re-align funding for some ICT project to meet the needs of the post-tsunami relief effort in Sri Lanka.
I'm sure you have read and seen enough of the tsunami's to know by now how devastating they have been. An idiotic article in the New York Times today proclaimed that the economic devastation wasn't that bad - small comfort to those who have lost everything in their lives along the coast. Fishing and the small time / boutique hotel industry will take months if not years to recover. No one has even begun to study the efforts of seawater in wells and cultivations along the coast.
It's pure hell.
I've been, along with many of us working on the field and trying to bring a semblance of order to all of this, quite brain dead since Sunday night. It's going to be a while till things settle down. Ironically, the sheer amount of aid we are getting is a problem - from housing to warehouses to hotel rooms to transport, Sri Lanka can't cope with the relief efforts and the money that is pouring in immediately. Our worry is that this will not be sustained and that once global media attention recedes in a few days time, everything will dry up.
The NGO I work with - www.info-share.org - is all of 6 people and we are just caving in under the work. It should be better from this week onwards, when the body counts reaches a final count (around 35,000 to 40,000) and the planning for medium to long-term aid efforts begin.
We are hopeful that this becomes a watershed for the restoration of trust between communities in Sri Lanka who are now bound by a shared tragedy, but it will take a lot of work to sustain the bonds of humanity that have been created into the future as well.
All in all, it's tough going at the moment, but we've enough help from everyone to see us through it all.
Hope you've been keeping well and wish you a happy new year,
Love,
Sanjana
LETTERS TO THE VOICE
Vikram Aditya - India
I live in South India in the city of Hyderabad, the capital city of one of the states affected, Andhra Pradesh located around 250 kilometers from the coast where tsunamis generated by the 8.9 earthquake wreaked havoc and killed more 5000 people in my state. My state has a coastline of 996 kilometers and has 1 major port and 6 medium sized ports, almost all of which have been devastated. I dont there are any more OIYP action partners from the south of India and so I am speaking on behalf of the whole of India affected by the quake. In my state alone there was an estimated damage of 3000 crore rupees. Rescue efforts are proceeding quite fast now because of the involvement of the Indian Armed Forces and Coast Gaurd. The total death toll in India has risen to 14,000. Farmers crops have been devastated in the state. The whole region affected the tsunamis, lying between the flood plains of the Godavari and Krishna rivers is a very fertile region of the country and accounts for the majority of the food grain production of the country. Lakhs of hectares of fields have been rendered useless by the waves.
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I have heard just sometime back that Oxfam India has entered the scene….. and is concentrating relief efforts in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. The Andamans, an overseas island territory of India, are an archipelago of over 500 islands just a little north of the epicentre of the earthquake, second closest after Aceh in Sumatra. The situation is very bad there. It is reported that whole islands have lost communications with Port Blair, the capital and over 5000 have already been declared dead. Rescue and relief is yet to reach most islands and it is feared that the Andamans may present the most devastating picture yet. The Indian Navy's Malacca command has already rushed 30 ships to the stricken islands. Let us hope for the best.
Regards,
Vikram Aditya
