NCC Interfaith Relations
Office provides guidelines for U.S. churches continuing tsunami response
work[Press release from National
Council of Churches]
[Posted here 3-2-05]
February 28, 2005, New York City -- The
media blitz is over, but the pain of thousands of tsunami survivors goes on.
The Rev. Shanta Premawardhana, the National Council of Churches' Director of
Interfaith Relations, has prepared a set of guidelines for U.S. churches
that want to continue to be engaged with Asians in rebuilding their
communities.
Two months after the tsunami struck, the
needs remain especially severe in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and Aceh
Province of Indonesia; there, recovery will take years.
The NCC document, "Listening to, Learning
from and Living into Asia's Pain," was prepared in consultation with
ecumenical leaders in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and was informed by the Rev.
Premawardhana's own experiences as a native of Sri Lanka.
He says that "building relationships
through religious institutions seems to be one of the best ways" to maintain
a continuing commitment to rebuilding the devastated nations.
Included in the document are practical ways
for churches to get involved, including sister church relationships, house
building projects, micro-credit schemes and several specific small-scale
projects needing support. Also detailed are advocacy concerns, cautions
about the use of money, background on Asian Christianity, learnings from
9/11 about interfaith cooperation, and even several denomination-specific
ideas.
The document is available at www.ncccusa.org/interfaith/churchguidelines-tsunami.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Speaking of Aceh, this
devastated province in North Sumatra is apparently facing the threat of new
tightening of control by the Indonesian government, now that many of the
foreign agencies are leaving.
A new report from the Oakland Institute,
Aceh Abandoned:
The Second Tsunami,
exposes not only the failure of the Indonesian government to respond
adequately to the tsunami disaster, but how it is using the chaos of
post-tsunami to further its political agenda to crush the independence
movement in Aceh, an oil rich region in the northern tip of the island of
Sumatra.
