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Except for a few reprinted old documents, articles on this site are copyrighted by the author, and may not be reprinted without permission. You are, however, free to link to any article or page on this site without prior permission although it's nice to know who's linking to us.  Bill Samuel Webservant QuakerInfo.com |
Friends (Quaker) Efforts
for Relief and Reconstruction in Earthquake & Tsunami Affected Areas This page is to point people to efforts by Friends (Quakers) aimed at relief and reconstruction work in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and other countries affected by the late December 2004 earthquake and tsunami. If you know of other Friends' efforts which should be noted, please e-mail the Webservant. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)The AFSC has some work and experience in affected countries to give it some perspective on help needed and how best it can be provided. It is collecting funds, which initially have been used for grants to other groups doing direct relief work. For updated information on AFSC efforts, see the AFSC Asia Relief Web page.Evangelical Friends Mission (EFM)[Information from EFM as of January 4, 2005]Our initial response in Evangelical Friends Mission is to "help the helpers." Indonesia was the hardest hit of any country. As I write, 90,000 deaths were reported from the island of Sumatra alone. Evangelical Friends Church Southwest has deployed an exploratory team to assess the next steps to be taken by Friends in Indonesia. EFCSW sponsors the Indonesian Friends mission field. They are issuing a call now for volunteers to go in a couple weeks, should the team and the Indonesian church so recommend. D.K. Sarkar and our EFM ministry in Kolkata (Calcutta), India is the nearest to the damage there. He would like to send help and a team to serve the survivors. We will keep our eyes and ears open for other Friends teams who want to go. To "help the helpers" please send your gift marked "Tsunami Relief" to Evangelical Friends Mission, P.O. Box 525, Arvada, CO 80001. If you sense the Lord leading you to join a volunteer team to go, send an email to Scott Sward (a member of the exploratory team from EFCSW). Thank you for your prayers, your gifts and your asking our Lord Jesus what the next steps should be. Update as of January 12, 2005 Alan Amavisca and Scott Sward are in Indonesia to establish partnerships with Friends Church leaders in Indonesia and relief agencies for work there. A call has been issued for medical and construction personnel to help in relief and reconstruction. If interested, please contact Steve Metzger or Ray Canfield. Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR)[From the RSWR Web site, as of January 15, 2005.]RSWR is implementing a two-part response to the tsunami-related disaster in south India. First, funds will be provided immediately to help past RSWR partners who are located on the coast and which have been directly affected by the tsunami. Second, funds will be provided to support development after the work of immediate relief and clean-up slows. This work would be very similar to our regular support of income-generating projects, with those persons affected by the tsunami given particular consideration. We are in communication with the RSWR representative in Tamil Nadu (Dr. R. Kannan) and have received specific requests for funds from three current project partners, one past partner, and three NGOs with which we have communicated, but not funded. It has not yet been determined the best means of managing and disbursing the funds in Tamil Nadu. What we do know is that the NGO(s) we collaborate with will be well known to us, and have established a strong record of effective project work. The RSWR Board will be releasing funds from our budget. We also are soliciting funds to make our relief effort as effective and expansive as possible. 100% of donated funds will go directly to our relief effort. Please send contributions, with a memo that the gift is restricted to the RSWR relief effort, to the RSWR office. |
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