Asia Tsunami Update 805

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Asia TSUNAMI UPDATE

from YWAM Chennai Tsunami Relief Committee

August 2005

We are very pleased to report that the response to the tsunami has been amazing! We have received more than enough funds for the projects and places we have committed to and we - YWAM Chennai Tsunami Relief Committee - are not needing any more funds at this time. We want to thank you all so much for your prayers and contributions. At the same time, we remember the various other places in the world where other disasters have struck and pray for those who have been similarly affected.

THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS

Our work on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is going very well, by the grace of God and the generosity of His people. Thank you for praying for us.

Repairing houses

Bamboo Flat is a village near Port Blair. The earthquake and the tsunami destroyed a lot in this area and many houses are still severely damaged or missing. Our team made a survey of the damage and decided to repair or rebuild all the houses in the village. In the future we are hoping to do similar surveys and re-building projects in many more villages on the islands. We are already working on the repairs of 140 houses.

Health Awareness and Counselling Program

We have focused our rehabilitation program on New Wandoor, an area 25 km from Port Blair. We recently held a Health Awareness and Counselling Program in this community and close to 200 people attended it. We arranged for one-on-one counselling, and a friend from the Health Department of the government taught on hygiene and precautions against diarrhoea, viral fevers and other infectious diseases. We provided tea and a small snack for the attendants, and it really helped us in building relationships with the villagers.

A helping hand to some forgotten tsunami victim

Dullaban and Suchitra are fishermen from Diglipur, south Andaman. When the tsunami hit and Dullaban saw the waves approaching he quickly ran to his boat and tried to move it into safety. Not only did he lose his boat, he also broke his back. Miraculously enough he did not get washed out to sea, but was left on the shore. Eventually people found him and brought him to the hospital. The government brought them to a relief camp and promised to provide shelter for them. Still, eight months later, they haven't gotten anything from the government. Three of their children have missed their entire school year since Dullaban and Suchitra couldn't afford tuition, school books or uniforms. When we met them in a small rented hut we listened to their story, prayed with them, helped their children with getting into school and shared the Gospel with them. All their children now go to school, and the whole family regularly attends a nearby church.

Maharani Das

Maharani Das is an elderly lady who lived near the shore in New Wandoor along with her daughter and grandson. They made their living running a small grocery shop and a tea stall on the roadside. Decemebr 26th, 2004 they were shocked by the sudden earthquake, but instead of running out of the house they panicked and hid inside. While sitting inside they heard a loud roar, so they ventured out to see what it was. An enormous wall of water was rushing towards them. They tried to outrun the wave, but it was too late. Before they knew it they were tossed about under water, but amazingly none of them were killed.

When our team visited them they ascribed their luck to their gods. Needless to say their house, tea stall and grocery shop were all washed away by the tsunami. They are now living in temporary shelters and we were able to help them out with groceries and household utensils. We also shared the Gospel and prayed for them.

POWERHOUSE CHURCH TSUNAMI PROJECTS IN KARGIL

Vetri Nagar, located in Kargil Nagar, near Ennore is a place where around 2600 families from 8 fisher colonies have been provided temporary shelters by the Government. One of the local churches in Chennai, Powerhouse Church, has been involved with helping the people there and recently we have decided to aid them in their work. Powerhouse Church has been working there since January and has three full-time workers there. They have rented a thatched roof facility, which is their base, from where they run a tailoring center as well as a new church for the tsunami affected. Over the last two months, they have run two youth camps (for boys and girls separately), a children's VBS and tuition classes for young students. The response to their ministry has been very encouraging and over 30 people have accepted Jesus in the last few months and around 100 people are currently attending this new church.

They have also focused on "alternate livelihood development projects" and have helped 42 people to start small businesses such as general stores, fish stalls, tricycle rickshaws etc.

Unfortunately all the temporary shelters and the peoples' belongings were completely destroyed in three major fires last month. The people now face the same situation they did right after the tsunami, with no food, shelter or clothing. One NGO (non-government organization) has provided them with tarps to use as roofs, and the government has given a compensation of Rs. 2000 (approximately USD 50) per family. Since they are back in the relief phase, having lost everything that was supplied to them earlier by NGOs and others, there is now an immediate need for basic relief materials such as cooking utensils and vessels.There is also need for boats and nets for fishermen and material for other "alternate livelihood projects".

As YWAM Chennai we have decided to contribute financially to the projects that Powerhouse Church is conducting. Together we were just recently able to provide over 2600 families with cooking vessels, rice, oil and lentils. We are also looking into how to further work with them in the future, in providing staff or even starting additional projects. We will keep you posted as things develop.

HARVEST APOSTOLIC MINISTRIES - HOUSE OF HOPE

As we reported in an earlier update, another organisation we are working with is Harvest Apostolic Ministries. They have recently started a Children's Care Project for tsunami affected children. The facility for this project is called House of Hope where they are housing the children. The children are well taken care of. The staff helps them with laundry, they have an outing once a week, they are given nutritious food and offered a good environment to grow. The parents who have come to visit have been very impressed. The facility is 12,000 square feet, and provides bunk beds with sheets, towels, soap, washrooms, sitting areas and indoor toilet facilities. The children have chapel every day, and attend church on the weekends. Once a week the kids have special activities led by a children's evangelist. The ministry makes sure that all the children attend school and are providing a ride for all of them in their own school bus.

Seeing the tremendous work they are doing we decided to help them out, so at this point we are contributing to the House of Hope financially. Pray for these children, that they would grow up become men and women of God!

FISHERMEN'S VILLAGE MINISTRY

One of our main focuses in Besant Nagar has been the peanut sellers. They lost everything in the tsunami but we have been able to get them back in business by giving them new peanut carts. We can now gladly report that they attend church regularly, and that the government has provided new houses for them. This is a miracle, and the peanut sellers give Jesus the credit for their new accommodation. We just handed over three more push carts to some other tsunami affected peanut sellers that we weren't able to help last time. Thank you very much for contributing to this project and for praying for the sellers.

This last month we were able to distribute 150 school bags, umbrellas, geometry boxes, pens and pencils to the tsunami affected fishermen children. The parents were just as grateful as the children and most of them came to thank us personally. It was very encouraging.

COLACHEL

Last month, we were able to give 10 boats to be shared among 40 families in the Colachel area (4 families per boat). With each boat we also gave 3 types of nets -- to catch different kinds of fish in different seasons. They have already started to use the boats and nets and in their first trip they had a big catch of prawns. We had a handing-over ceremony with the local politician, police officers and the local Roman Catholic Father in attendance. The fishermen and their families are very happy to be able to go out into the sea again! Now we have received applications for boats from other families in the area.

We have also received proposals from the local Catholic church to help them with education of college-going kids, a computer centre and small scale business for handicapped people as well as other development projects. So we are looking into partnering with them in these ventures. We will be giving a moped to a handicapped person who lost all his things in the tsunami so that he can sell dried fish. We are happy to report that other organisations have been given the go-ahead to build houses so people will be getting houses again soon.

YWAM Chennai Tsunami Relief Committee