AsianTsunuami2004

Tsunami Women Trapped by Hair

2005-01-05T22:09:00.001-08:00

Tsunami Women Trapped by Hair

By Tony Jones, PA

A British aid chief tonight revealed the full horrors suffered in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where almost 8,000 people were killed by the Boxing Day tsunami.

Charles Badenoch, chief executive of World Vision UK, said many of the dead were women and children and described how whole communities had been devastated.

He arrived in the area on Monday and said staff from his organisation’s sister charity World Vision India told how scores of local women died when their long hair become caught in trees, gripping them in the path of the giant wave.

“The people have been coping very well but I still think there’s an element of shock,” said Mr Badenoch.

He added: “They’ve been saying ‘there are no more tears to shed’ but they will have to go through a process of grieving.

“It took 15 minutes for the tsunami to destroy their lives but it’s going to take 10 to 15 years to put it back together.

“I hope this tremendous interest from the UK will last and go on over the coming years to help the people in India and the rest of Asia reconstruct their lives.”

Workers also told how thousands of pilgrims died as they visited the shrine town of Velankanni, the site of the famous Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Good Health.

“There had just been a service and people were wandering down to the beach along a passage way lined with shops. Three thousand people were killed when the waves hit.

“At this one point in India, more people were killed then at any other.”

The global charity, which has 3,700 staff in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), is providing food, blankets, tents and emergency supplies.

Vital goods are also being airlifted from World Vision’s warehouses in Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Mr Badenoch first arrived in Chennai, a city in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, then drove more than 130 miles south to visit various relief projects in the district of Cuddalore, where 1,000 people had been killed and 60,000 had their homes damaged.

The chief executive then travelled to the district of Nagapattinam where more than 6,000 lost their lives – more than 50% of them women and children.

“The women have long hair and when they were fleeing they got their hair caught up in brambles and the wreckage and were dragged under the water,” he said.

Several of the Christian charity’s workers have lost members of their own families, including Arahi Japanthan, of Tamil Nadu, India, who saw two of her three daughters swept into the sea.

In Sri Lanka, a member of staff has had confirmation that 16 members of their family have died.

Mr Badenoch added that staff from the charity were helping the survivors of the disaster within 12 hours of the huge wives hitting the country.

“I’m immensely proud of our staff here, they are tired but they just keep on going – that’s marvellous.”

Tsunami Women Trapped by Hair

2005-01-05T22:09:00.000-08:00

Tsunami Women Trapped by Hair
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3966010
By Tony Jones, PA

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A British aid chief tonight revealed the full horrors suffered in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where almost 8,000 people were killed by the Boxing Day tsunami.

Charles Badenoch, chief executive of World Vision UK, said many of the dead were women and children and described how whole communities had been devastated.

He arrived in the area on Monday and said staff from his organisation’s sister charity World Vision India told how scores of local women died when their long hair become caught in trees, gripping them in the path of the giant wave.

“The people have been coping very well but I still think there’s an element of shock,” said Mr Badenoch.

He added: “They’ve been saying ‘there are no more tears to shed’ but they will have to go through a process of grieving.

“It took 15 minutes for the tsunami to destroy their lives but it’s going to take 10 to 15 years to put it back together.

“I hope this tremendous interest from the UK will last and go on over the coming years to help the people in India and the rest of Asia reconstruct their lives.”

Workers also told how thousands of pilgrims died as they visited the shrine town of Velankanni, the site of the famous Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Good Health.

“There had just been a service and people were wandering down to the beach along a passage way lined with shops. Three thousand people were killed when the waves hit.

“At this one point in India, more people were killed then at any other.”

The global charity, which has 3,700 staff in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), is providing food, blankets, tents and emergency supplies.

Vital goods are also being airlifted from World Vision’s warehouses in Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Mr Badenoch first arrived in Chennai, a city in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, then drove more than 130 miles south to visit various relief projects in the district of Cuddalore, where 1,000 people had been killed and 60,000 had their homes damaged.

The chief executive then travelled to the district of Nagapattinam where more than 6,000 lost their lives – more than 50% of them women and children.

“The women have long hair and when they were fleeing they got their hair caught up in brambles and the wreckage and were dragged under the water,” he said.

Several of the Christian charity’s workers have lost members of their own families, including Arahi Japanthan, of Tamil Nadu, India, who saw two of her three daughters swept into the sea.

In Sri Lanka, a member of staff has had confirmation that 16 members of their family have died.

Mr Badenoch added that staff from the charity were helping the survivors of the disaster within 12 hours of the huge wives hitting the country.

“I’m immensely proud of our staff here, they are tired but they just keep on going – that’s marvellous.”

Paedophiles in tsunami affected areas kidnapping children for slavery and porn.

2005-01-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

Paedophiles in tsunami affected areas kidnapping children for slavery and porn.

ChildFinders will be focusing special teams and a special campaign to assist the Swedish International Police Board, Save the Children, Unicef, NCMEC, Interpol, the Thailand police and Tsunami victims in this effort to protect and to find the children kidnapped in the aftermath of this disaster.

please check http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChildFinders/ for immediate updates on teams, meetings and campaign!

Paedophiles in tsunami affected areas kidnapping children for slavery and porn.
AM - Tuesday, 4 January , 2005 08:06:23
Reporter: Kirsten Aiken
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1276415.htm

ELEANOR HALL: The disappearance and possible abduction of a Swedish boy from a Thai hospital has also raised the spectre of children, displaced or orphaned by the disaster, being preyed upon by paedophiles.

Child protection agencies say child abuse in the aftermath of displacement is not uncommon.

As Kirsten Aiken reports.

KIRSTEN AIKEN: The frontpage of a Swedish tabloid shows Kristian Walker as every child be – content and beaming the widest of smiles.

The photo was taken before last week's disaster. Kristian Walker's family was holidaying in Thailand when the tsunami hit the coastline. He and his siblings survived, his mother and her boyfriend are missing. And now, so is the 12-year-old.

The boy's father Dan Walker raised the alarm after travelling to Thailand to comfort his children. Staff from a hospital near Khao Lak, who were shown Kristian's photo, say they treated him, before watching him leave with a man described as European in appearance.

Ulf Goranzon is from the Swedish International Police Board.

ULF GORANZON: The information was so interesting that we decided to send police officers to support the police… the local police in Thailand, to help them with an eventual investigation.

KIRSTEN AIKEN: The unspoken fear is that child victims of last week's tsunami are easy prey for paedophiles already operating in the region.

The fear is not without precedent. Already in Sri Lanka, there are reports of children being sexually abused and in one instance a teenager gang raped.

Child protection agencies have confirmed it is not uncommon to see an increase of abuse and violence against women and children in the aftermath of displacement and shock.

Rosie Jordan is from the charity Save the Children.

ROSIE JORDAN: Over the last few days we at Save the Children have been in talks with UNICEF discussing how we can get guidelines in place for this and how we can then educate local people who are actually working with this, within camps, to combat this. And then as quickly as possible, looking at the long term side, we want to really just get kids into care, into their own community.

KIRSTEN AIKEN: With aid agencies still struggling to provide food and water to affected communities, the protection of the 100,000 children who are estimated to have been orphaned or misplaced by the tsunami is impossible to guarantee, especially when Save the Children's Rosie Jordan says the incredible trauma which accompanies displacement has seen some survivors claim children they mistakenly believed were their own.

ROSIE JORDAN: There have been a number of reports of all sorts of things happening where local families have gone in and they've lost children and they've falsely identified other children. I mean these people are traumatized and these sorts of things do happen in an emergency, and it's something that I know every charity will try and combat.

ELEANOR HALL: Rosie Jordan from Save the Children, speaking to Kirsten Aiken.

2005-01-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

Could the tsunami disaster be a turning point for the world?

As the international aid effort grows and George Bush launches a fresh appeal, we ask politicians and commentators if 2005 might see a new determination to tackle global poverty

04 January 2005

THE RIGHT REV TIM STEVENS, Bishop of Leicester

I am hopeful, but we must see a real commitment to changing the economic relationships between the West and the poorer countries. As well as charitable giving, we need to tackle these fundamental issues.

RORY BREMNER, Comedian

On an individual level, it is not just about what we are prepared to give, but what we are prepared to give up. Having left Afghanistan and Iraq in their wake, can our leaders be trusted to fight a war on poverty?

KANYA KING, Founder, Mobo awards

No longer can we exist in isolation when we see lives and livelihoods being destroyed. All of us need to be pro-active to change things, but we have shown that public opinion and the media can influence government.

STEPHEN TINDALE, Executive director, Greenpeace

It seems churlish to say it, but while it's relatively easy for most of us to give £50, it would be much harder for us to make the changes in our modern lifestyles that are needed if we are to move to a fairer world.

DR GHAYASUDDIN SIDDIQUI, Leader of Muslim Parliament

Compassion, care and concern for mankind joins each of us - whatever our faith or ethnicity. The tragedy has shown there is a formula on which all mankind can be united to help each other. Mankind has moved forward.

BILL BAILEY, Comedian

It was the same after 11 September. Everyone said it was a great opportunity to try to understand the world but it was used by the US as a reason to go on a rampaging adventure in Afghanistan and Iraq.

MO MOWLAM, Former cabinet minister

I think most people will simply forget. Some charities say people will even forget how much they pledged to give. I wish it would change our attitudes to other people in other countries, but I'm afraid that it won't.

SIR JONATHON PORRITT, Environmentalist

The response reveals a deep sense of empathy that could be of lasting value. If it is just a philanthropic flash, then we have seen those before, but if people gain a sense of their interdependence, we will be better off.

DINOS CHAPMAN, Artist

Western capitalism demands that people must be impoverished. I cannot think that anything will change this year, because we are the ones who have made the world the way it is. I don't believe in altruism.

LORD HURD OF WESTWELL, Former foreign secretary

The danger is that resources which might have gone to Africa will go to this instead. While huge publicity continues to be given to the tsunami, human beings are killing each other in Iraq, and places like Darfur.

SIR MAX HASTINGS, Journalist and historian

We have to bear in mind that we have been here before. There have been tragedies before, and many fine things have been said, a lot of them by the US. We just have to hope that in this case they will follow through.

J G BALLARD, Novelist

It would be one of the biggest breakthroughs mankind has ever experienced if we pooled our wealth in order to look after the poorer people of the world. Sadly, I don't think it will happen.

SUE MACGREGOR, Broadcaster

I hope politicians will take note of the public reaction. But it is difficult to tell whether it will do anything to change the way politicians see things, when our own Prime Minister chose not to break his holiday.

TONY BENN, Former cabinet minister

It may make people realise that the UN needs to be well-equipped and funded. If people diverted money from weapons and war, we have the technology and money to be able to help - if we decide to do that.

SIR RICHARD BRANSON, Entrepreneur

I think that politicians must realise that people do care about these issues and want them to do more. If 2005 could become the year when people make a real effort, then it could make a real difference.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=597488

there are 20 online groups and blogs for tsunami news, needs, people and relief...

2005-01-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

there are 20 online groups and blogs for tsunami news, needs, people and relief...

we have the links and will put them in the links section in the yahoo group so they are easy to find and share relevant posts from them on the blog

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsianTsunuami2004/
and
http://asiantsunuami2004.blogspot.com/

Tsunami blogs launched for help services, missing persons inquiries

2005-01-02T23:19:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Tsunami blogs launched for help services, missing persons inquiries
The group responsible for tsunamihelp.blogspot.com have launched two new collaborative blogs: tsunami enquiry, with numbers for emergency help services in affected areas, and tsunami missing persons, which aims to assist people in connecting with loved ones.

Sangeeta thought she would never see him again. The family dog saw to it that she did.

2005-01-02T22:46:00.000-08:00

Sangeeta thought she would never see him again. The family dog saw to it that she did.

While water lapped at Sangeeta's heels as she rushed up the hill, the scruffy yellow dog named Selvakumar ducked into the hut after Dinakaran.

Nipping and nudging, he did everything in his canine power to get the boy up the hill.

See photo and full article at...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=3&u=/ap/tsunami_boy_s_best_friend

top blog for tsunami aid and help

2005-01-02T21:57:00.000-08:00

http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

yahoo group for AsianTsunami2004 victims, stories, volunteers...

2005-01-02T21:40:00.000-08:00

yahoo group for AsianTsunami2004 victims, stories, volunteers...

We just started a Yahoo group for AsianTsunami2004 victims, stories, volunteers, etc http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsianTsunami2004 Please feel free to post any 1. fundraising activities 2. victim needs and stories 3. photos of the missing and memorials 4. volunteers stories and a Blog on Google to share daily highlights from the group http://asiantsunuami2004.blogspot.com We'll send out daily press-releases as often as needed to support victimes or volunteers. Blessings!