New technology brings fresh water to tsunami disaster zone in Southeast Asia
CALGARY, AB—Within hours of the horrific tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia on Boxing Day, Samaritan's Purse (SP) staff from Cambodia and Vietnam were on the ground in Sri Lanka spearheading a feverish effort to bring some measure of assistance and hope to traumatized survivors.
SP Cambodia director Darren Tosh was in Sri Lanka the Monday following the disaster attempting to determine the most urgent needs. "He's been busy in that area the Tamil terrorists have made infamous in recent years," says Kevin Stagg, manager of donor relations at SP's Canadian headquarters in Calgary. "One of the biggest concerns he's identified to date is finding people conversant enough in the language to enhance the relief efforts."
Sean Campbell, executive director for SP Canada, and a team from Calgary arrived in southeast Asia a couple of days after Boxing Day.
Stagg says SP has been able to send water-purification technology recently developed by Proctor & Gamble (P&G) into the devastated region, allowing water to again be used for drinking and cooking.
"Something like two million of these filter-systems were available from P&G at the time we needed them," says Stagg. "We grabbed whatever stockpiles they had and shipped them to Sri Lanka and Indonesia—the two primary areas we're targeting—as fast as we could."
Basic necessities
One of SP's priorities is to bring help to those areas where larger relief agencies such as the Red Cross are not active, and to meet needs as basic as providing fishing lines.
"Many of the native people who live close to the coasts in these countries make their living by fishing," says Stephanie Burns, SP Canada director of communications. "We want to do what we can to enable them to return to their livelihood as soon as possible."
Another major need identified by SP personnel is the need for sheet plastic and tarpaulins.
"Due to the hurricanes that ravaged the Caribbean in late summer, much of the world's plastic products have gone there, leaving a shortage of plastic for shelter and other purposes here," says Stagg. "On a more positive note, however, SP has been able to secure the use of a helicopter which enables us to access the more remote locations in Indonesia where it is still uncertain as to who survived the catastrophe."
SP personnel are negotiating to have their organization added to the list of relief agencies whose financial donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Canadian government.
"Most of my New Year's weekend was spent trying to track down the people in Ottawa who can do something about this angle of the situation and get us the proper forms so we can let our constituency know that their donations to SP will be matched by the government," says Stagg. "So far we've received more than $500,000 from Canadians to assist with the disaster relief.
"It is a bit frustrating to have to jump through all these hoops in order to get as much capital as possible going to a situation where the need is absolutely overwhelming."
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
