Mennonite Central Committee

MCC response grows to more than $15 million Cdn./$12 million U.S.

February 4, 2005

MCC’s response to the Asia earthquake has grown to more than $15 million Cdn./$12 million U.S. for relief, trauma counseling, reconstruction and economic development.

The total includes funds for efforts in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, as well as a project to restore fishing villages in Somalia.

Proposed efforts include helping families resume the fishing and agriculture they depend on for their livelihoods.

In Sri Lanka’s Mawella Province, a proposed project will include fabricating fiberglass boats to replace those lost in the waves and manufacturing cement blocks so houses can be reconstructed. Women who used to work drying fish are now seeking other sources of income. This project would provide machines and raw material that women could use to spin coco fiber twine to sell. MCC may also provide one to three deep-sea trawlers for community cooperatives in the same area.

In India, trauma counselors are training local residents or Indian volunteers in addressing the psychological needs of residents in devastated villages.

MCC worker and trauma counselor Carolyn Heggen who was in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in
early February found the area so heavily damaged and altered by the waves that some sites of former homes and cropland are now completely underwater. She said a trauma counseling team MCC helped fund is working until at least 10:30 each night to meet what needs they can. Heggen, who was in Nepal with MCC until 2004, reports there has never been an area where she has felt more needed.

Other proposed projects range from immediate responses such as feeding programs for mothers and infants and replacing boats and nets to longer-term efforts such as helping residents desalinate wells, doing health work and addressing how families can begin to support themselves again.

In the Prakasma and Krishna districts of India, a proposed project includes small grants to restart businesses, possible repairs to boats and funds to assist farmers in rehabilitating salt fields and aquaculture.

In Somalia, MCC is planning to assist the economic recovery of fishing communities with projects including boat repair.