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Dateline ACT

India 09/05

June 14, 2005

ACT members make acceptance of all religions an external and internal practice
By Peter Høvring, DanChurchAid/ACT International
The example of Indonesia

In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, ACT members responding to the tsunami have incorporated people’s religious needs and practices into the ways they are addressing the overall needs of survivors.

In Banda Aceh, YAKKUM Emergency Unit is facilitating Koran readings and supplying one of its partners with Korans. Yayasan Tanggul Benkana (YTB) has provided Muslim prayer accessories, including prayer mats and cloths, along with other essential food and non-food items to internally displaced people in various locations.

And in a creative way of making known the Code of Conduct among its constituency, YTB had the code’s main principles set to music for use in congregations responding to the tsunami. YTB wanted to underscore the importance of “aid with no strings attached.”

Anichankuppan, India, June 14, 2005--For churches and agencies that are members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief is a guide for their actions in assisting people caught in disasters. While the Code of Conduct is an important document that shapes the policies of its signatories, which include ACT and its founders, The Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches, how is it put into practice?

Real-life examples can be found in the countries where ACT members are responding to the aftermath of December’s tsunami. In many parts of India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, countries where followers of the world’s major religions often live side-by-side, ACT members motivated by the teachings and values of Christianity have been offering humanitarian assistance to people irrespective of their faith background – Christians, Muslims, Hindus and non-religious people alike.

Providing humanitarian assistance without religious discrimination – or any other type of distinction based on race, creed or nationality – is a key principle of the Code of Conduct that guides the work of ACT members in addressing the needs of disaster survivors. But this practice of acceptance of all religions is also sometimes modeled in the employees of ACT members.

Prakasham, Thulasi and Tulu Rehman are three young people working for Lutheran World Service India (LWSI). They live in Anichankuppan, one of the many villages along India’s east coast that was ravaged by the tsunami. Only a few houses on the beach are still intact, and these three live in one of them. Prakasham is a Christian, Thulasi is a Hindu, and Tulu Rehman is a Muslim.

Residents of Anichankuppan are fisherfolk and Hindus. In the temple situated on a small hill near the sea, a tablet shows that people have lived here for several hundred years. The tsunami did not touch the temple, so people took shelter here during and immediately after the disaster.

LWSI, which carries out relief and long-term development in parts of eastern, southern and western India, is working in this Hindu area. And the two young women and one young man who constitute LWSI’s local staff here represent the major religions in the area. In other parts of the country this mixture is potentially explosive, but Anichankuppan is peaceful.

“This is India – even if we are different, we live peacefully side by side,” says Tulu Rehman. For a moment it seems that she has forgotten the problems in Kashmir and other troubled places. When reminded that these high-profile conflicts that involve religion are also taking place in India, she responds: “But that is politics. Here in Anichankuppan we are doing humanitarian work, and in this connection politics and religion do not mean anything.” The other two agree.

The three staff members live and eat together in the small brick house on the beach. Their work for LWSI is to organize the reconstruction of the village. The residents have allowed the LWSI staff to use the house for free as long as they work in the village. According to LWSI’s plans under ACT Appeal ASRE-51 – Asia Earthquake and Tsunamis, LWSI will be here for least for two years.

There is plenty to do. Of the 364 families in the village, 318 were directly affected by the disaster, and 55 houses were totally destroyed while the rest were seriously damaged. LWSI is the only non-governmental organization that remained following the immediate relief operation.

Several months ago, the relief phase ended and the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase began. LWSI purchased 26 fishing boats with nets and engines to provide fishing cooperatives with the means to return to their livelihood. Children have received new school equipment, and families have received kitchen utensils, soap and clothes.

For these three young people who are implementing one of the “commandments” of the Code of Conduct of humanitarian assistance, being accepting of the religion of the people they work with daily is not only part of their work, but is part of their life at home as well.