AUB comes to aid of Tsunami victims

Maysam Ali
Outlook Staff Writer

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

 

At AUB, several groups have shown interest in helping the people of the Far Eastern countries affected by the massive earthquake that set off a series of devastating tsunamis. The Arab Heritage Club, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Student Representative Committee (FAS SRC), Faculty of Engineering and Architecture Student Representative Committee (FEA SRC), Human Rights and Peace Club, IMUN, Lebanese Red Cross Club, Music Club, and the Syrian Cultural Club coordinated a fundraising activity, the Donate for Humanity Campaign, on January 13 and 14. The financial profits mounted up to $2000, of which $700 are allotted to the ICRC and $1300 to the UN, which in turn donate it to the Tsunami Relief Program.

   At least 290,000 lives in more than eleven countries were wiped out by tsunamis resulting from an undersea earthquake that hit Southeast Asia on December 26th. The earthquake was estimated to have a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter Scale, and was the fourth strongest earthquake historically since 1900 and the largest since the Good Friday Earthquake off Alaska in 1964.  The earthquake caused deadly tsunami waves on the shores of the countries neighboring the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra, which lost more than 100,000 people.

   Thirty minutes after originating in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Sumatra, the earthquake stimulated an upsurge of tidal waves of up to 15 meters high on the coastlines of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives, and as far as east Africa. The waves took over 290,000 lives, left over five million people homeless, 500,000 badly injured, tens of thousands missing, and thousands threatened by disease.

   International agencies rushed to the aid of the obliterated villages and affected countries by launching their relief operations, starting with Australia and Germany pledging a sum of $4 billion. Third came Japan with its prime minister offering $500 million, and then President Bush pledging $350 million. More relief efforts were pledged by more than 55 countries, and the World Bank is reconsidering increasing its aid to $1.5 billion, its first bid being $600 million to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. The aid officials plan to provide two million survivors with food for the coming six months, at a cost of $180 million. The survivors, most of them poor families, have yet to rebuild their lives which were once sustained by the sea, and regain meaning to their lives after the terrible loss.

   In Indonesia, at least 111,000 are reported dead and 127,000 missing. Sri Lanka's death toll reached 31,000 with 7,000 missing. Some one million people lost their jobs in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. India confirmed 10,750 dead and 6,000 missing, Thailand 5,300 people dead and 3,900 missing, with thousands killed in Somalia, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Kenya and the Seychelles. The numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks.

   On the humanitarian level, the dreadful disaster drew global sympathy, and stirred a sense of solidarity among the international community. Pope John Paul II prayed for the Tsunami victims in his New Year's sermon. On the other side of the globe, international aid agencies constantly provide the survivors with food, water, hygiene kits, and shelter. Japan is helping with doctors and rice, China is contributing tents and blankets and other supplies, and foreign troops are helping to repair the damage. The reconstruction phase is expected to prolong over the few coming years, especially in the countries severely affected by the disaster, namely Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Maldives. Mental health care should also be administered, as advised by the Bangkok conference, as the survivors are deemed by psychologists to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.