ACT News Update

South/South East Asia/Thailand 0104

Churches in Thailand join tsunami response

Geneva, January 27, 2005—In the days following the Indian Ocean tsunami, while the media focused largely on the destruction in the tourist areas of Phuket and Phi Phi in Thailand, whole communities were destroyed in Phang Nga and Krabi Provinces. Particularly hard-hit were the Chao Lay people who lived in Muslim fishing village communities and whose dwellings, built on stilts over the sea on islands and in coastal areas, were destroyed by the tsunami, along with their fishing boats and other means of making a living.

Among the churches and agencies in the affected countries that responded to the tsunami devastation was the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT), a member of the World Council of Churches. One of its first actions was to give US$5,000 to the 9th and 17th districts of the CCT for relief efforts in Phang Nga and Krabi Provinces, especially for the Chao Lay people. This area was chosen because most of the Chao Lay people’s homes were completely destroyed and, in communities of 4,000 to 5,000 residents, up to 1,500 people lost their lives in the tsunami. Also, CCT has a small church in one of the nearby villages in the area. Approximately 50 fishing families were to benefit directly from CCT funds.

CCT also set up two operations centers in the south near the affected areas. Within 48 hours of the tsunami, it was providing emergency food, water, and cooking supplies to two communities in Phang Nga and Krabi Provinces. Two teams are in the area - a medical team and a team of trained pastors and elders that is providing trauma counseling to affected families.

A CCT assessment team is currently in the south part of the country to determine further needs. It will identify communities and individuals who have needs but who seem to have been overlooked by other relief agencies. Among many areas of need, the team will consider families in distress, neglected, orphaned or mistreated children and educational needs.

While it awaits the findings of the assessment team, CCT is considering the continuation of a project that began in the first week of January, which Woranut Pantupong, CCT’s ecumenical relations officer, reported in a January 17 letter. CCT is working with a daycare center in a village in the Kuk Kak district of Phang Nga province in southern Thailand. Almost 100 families live in the village, more than half of whom belong to the Morgan minority group. CCT has provided these families with cooking equipment and other essential items and plans to provide alternative vocational training and possibly meet the schooling needs of the children until the members of the community can be independent again.

CCT is also supporting the efforts of the Thai Protestant Committee (TPC), of which it is a member. TPC has brought together most of the Protestant churches in Thailand to identify needs and share resources.

CCT’s plan for longer-term assistance will be included in a revision of the Action by Churches Together (ACT) International appeal for tsunami-affected countries in Asia. That revision will be released in early February. The current appeal is for US$41.8 million and covers major humanitarian assistance programs by ACT members in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

In his letter last week, Pantupong thanked CCT’s supporters for their “concern and Christian sympathy for those people in the South of Thailand who have suffered so much through the effects of the tsunami disaster.” He went on to say that “those who have suffered the most also need resources - material, financial, psychological and spiritual - to rebuild or re-direct their lives.”