Orphaned Children left in the Wake of destruction: Levels of Human trafficking and sex exploitation increase.
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/07/news/orphans.html |
Orphans: Indonesia
The tsunami that hit South East Asia provided a devasting situation for many throughout the region. One of the most impacted social problem that is arising are orphaned children who have lost there parents. The United Nations Children Fund believes the tsunami left thousands of orphans in its wake in Aceh province alone. Making matters worse is that the economy is in tatters and nearly every family left in the wake of devastation has been fractured into the slimmest shards by the tsunami, placing added strains on Indonesia's ordinarily strong tradition of social support, even among extended families.
The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, issued a decree earlier this week not only banning the adoption of Acehnese children but also banning them from travel outside the province. The government has even set up posts at the major exit points of Aceh as well as in Jakarta, the national capital, to ensure that children are traveling with legitimate caretakers.
the Department of Social Services began registering children in the camps only on Wednesday. With two separate sets of lists - registered children and parents with missing children - it and Unicef still hope for some reunifications, as do surviving parents who lost children and have begun turning up at the centers where the lists are being compiled.
(Please click link on the left for full story.) |
Temporary Relief Efforts in Indonesia.
ABC News Reports
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=385545 |
JAKARTA, Indonesia Jan 5, 2005 — The United Nations said Wednesday that camps for up to 500,000 tsunami refugees will be built on devastated Sumatra island, while world leaders headed to Indonesia to discuss how to distribute billions of dollars in aid
(Please click link on the left for full story.) |
Mass burials and a conflict with religion
Indian Info.Com
http://news.indiainfo.com/2004/12/29/2912indonesia.html |
27,000 dead in Indonesia; mass graves to be dug
Banda Aceh (Indonesia): The Military was preparing to dig mass graves today (Dec 29, 2004) on Indonesia's battered Sumatra Island, where the official death toll from an earthquake and Tsunamis jumped to more than 27,000, as Naval ships packed with food and medicine headed to remote areas.
Bulldozers stood ready to bury the thousands of dead bodies that littered the streets and lined the front lawns of Government offices in Banda Aceh. With the threat of disease on the rise and very few ways to identify the dead, officials said they had no choice to but start burying them in mass graves, said Military Col Ahmad Yani Basuki.
(Please click link on the left for full story.) |
Disasters Means burials without ritual
ABC News Reports
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=374722&page=1
|
ABC News -Jan. 2, 2005
As authorities across 12 stricken nations grapple with the overwhelming number of dead from last week's earthquake and tsunamis, people from a wide range of religions are being forced to forgo their usual rituals in parting with lost loved ones.
While the victims of last week's tragedy represent every religion, it appears that many, if not most, of their families and friends may be forced to do without their usual parting ceremonies. That may or may not affect the dead, but Obeyesekere points out, it's sure to have an impact on those left behind.
(Please click link on the left for full story.) |
Tsunami aid conference brings pledges from leaders
USA Today Reports
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-01-05-tsunami_x.htm
|
USA Today
A tsunami warning system — like the one already in place in the Pacific — should be established in the Indian Ocean as quickly as possible, the leaders agreed.
http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/i/1104/1-5-2005/20050105114504_27.html
Indonesia Starts Building Refugee Camps
On Thailand's ravaged resort island of Phuket, thousands of people gathered on a soccer field and lit candles as Christians, Muslims and Buddhists remembered the dead. The ceremony, televised live across Thailand, began at dusk, with white-garbed mourners passing a flame from candle to candle. Monks chanted and paper balloons lofted by flaming lanterns were released into the sky - another symbolic ritual meant to lift the spirits of the dead to the heavens.
With hospitals overcrowded, about a dozen people lay on stretchers on the sidewalk outside Fakina Hospital in Banda Aceh. Many of the hospital's rooms had no power. Walls were flecked with blood and doctors had run out of stands for intravenous fluid bags, hanging them from cords strung across the ceiling.
(Please click link on the left for full story.) |
International Committee of the Red Cross
Indonesia : ICRC activities in Aceh
http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/bulletin_indonesia
|
ICRC
The same day, a plane carrying ICRC specialists and additional supplies arrived in Banda Aceh, and the team has since been working closely with the PMI. ICRC water and sanitation engineers are assessing displaced persons’ access to water and sanitation, providing sanitation facilities and clean water where necessary. They are in touch with the authorities and have assessed Banda Aceh’s water-treatment plant (currently working at about 60% of capacity) with a view to helping repair it. The ICRC now has fresh supplies in Aceh, allowing it to provide water for up to 20,000 people if needed
(Please click link on the left for full story.) |
| Week of January 19,2005 |
|
Providing Counseling centers for at risk youth
World Vision
http://www.worldvision.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKVLbMVIwG&b=279487
|
WORLD VISION
A special children’s center is now providing traumatized kids with a safe place to play, express their grief through art, and find some type of normalcy and laughter in the midst of the chaos. Fifty children are already attending and more are expected to join. World Vision will continue to open more centers as needed.
(Please click link on the left for full story.) |
Rebuilding Schools and childrens lives
World Vision
http://www.worldvision.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKVLbMVIwG&b=288177 |
WORLD VISION AND BASIC EDUCATION COALITION
Children are paying an especially high price following this unprecedented disaster. According to UNICEF, children will likely account for more than one-third of those killed by the tsunami. An estimated 1.5 million children have lost homes or parents.
A new report from the Basic Education Coalition shows that children’s futures are also at risk as the education system has suffered huge losses.
In Aceh, Indonesia, officials report that 1,000 teachers are missing and 50 percent of schools have been destroyed. This leaves 140,000 elementary and 20,000 junior-high students with nowhere to study. Sri Lankan authorities report that 112 schools were damaged or destroyed and another 244 are currently being used to house refugees. Hundreds of schools in the Maldive Islands have also been destroyed.
(Please click link on the left for full story.)
|
Other resources regarding architecture and social and community rebuilding relief efforts:
Fears rise about Tsunami Orphans
PSU offers support to tsunami victims
Health authorities on 'high alert' in Banda Aceh
Habitat for Humanity Plans up to 25,000 Homes for Displaced Tsunami Victims |
|
|
