February 3, 2005
by Henrike Müller

Nearly two months ago, a tremendous earthquake off the coast of Sumatra caused powerful tsunamis to hit coastal stretches of South East Asia and East Africa. The trail of devastation left over 200,000 people dead and more than half a million injured, and emergency relief was provided almost immediately by governments and organizations around the world. Looking back at the weeks just after the tsunami, we can attempt a first assessment of the churches' reactions and the solidarity shown by people and countries not themselves affected. We can also attempt to make recommendations for sustainable reconstruction work from the churches' point of view.

When Lutheran pastor Augustine Jeyakumar from India saw the breaking news on TV during his Christmas holidays in Cuddalore, he immediately decided to go towards the coast to see what was happening. "People were rushing towards us, carrying all their belongings and shouting ‘The sea is coming, the sea is coming!'," he recounts, sharing his first impressions of the tsunami day.

"Every day we received new information," he continues. "People were found ten feet under the sand, others were discovered fifteen kilometres away from where they were lost. Families didn't know if their relatives were still alive. Everyone was struggling for basic everyday needs. Medical care, food supply, logistics – nothing was sufficient."

The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) immediately contacted the Geneva-based organization Action by Churches Together (ACT), a global alliance of churches and related agencies that provided a first emergency relief grant of about 50,000 US dollars. "It was financial but also practical support that was mostly needed in the beginning," says Jeyakumar, who directs the UELCI Division of Social Action. "Faith-based and secular non-governmental organizations as well as committed individuals helped by giving money, distributing clothes, doing burials."

For Jeyakumar, being involved in relief work is a priority task for the churches. "If something like the tsunami happens, it is evident that the church takes care of people, does counselling or gives psychological support." From the very beginning of Christianity, he explains, the church has taken care of people in need, of the deprived and the poor, as a vital task according to the gospel.

Governments and individuals, faith-based and secular organizations all over the world supplied a tremendous amount of money for relief and reconstruction work. Is a catastrophe like the tsunami necessary to make world-wide solidarity visible?

"It is very easy to sympathize with something you see on a television screen," explains Ranjan Solomon, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT). "It is so obvious that people are suffering. But this is only one catastrophe in the world. Others, like Darfur, Afghanistan, Iraq, are even worse. But those areas where people are victimized for political reasons get far less attention in terms of practical aid. The humanitarian catastrophe following the tsunami is much easier to relate to since one doesn't have to make political choices."

But it is not only the very visible catastrophes that make people all over the world struggle. "There are lots of small tsunamis happening in everyday life," emphasizes Jeyakumar. As an example, he mentions the oppression of the Dalit people in India, and racial or gender discrimination. These "small tsunamis," less visible than natural disasters, deserve just as much solidarity. "Many things are already being done to overcome the small tsunamis, like advocacy work and development programmes that try to support those who suffer from injustice. But it is a long road, and it takes time to reconstruct society so that everyone can live in dignity," he says.

On the subject of reconstruction, Solomon has a clear vision of what should be done in the tsunami area. During the fifth World Social Forum (26-31 January, Porto Alegre, Brazil), ECOT co-organized a seminar and panel discussion on the theme "Natural and human-made disasters threaten stability of small island developing states." Representatives from the affected areas shared their experiences and recommendations for reconstruction work from an ecological point of view.

"Most humanitarian organizations as well as the churches gave a lot of support. But they did not consider the mid- and long-term effects enough," says Solomon. "It would have been even more helpful if the relief efforts had been put in the hands of the affected people right from the start to make sure that the reconstruction efforts stay with them, even when humanitarian and other organizations have left the area."

According to him, reconstruction work needs a clear plan that considers the ecological conditions in the specific area. "It is not just a question of rebuilding houses and tourist locations. Whatever is built can easily be wiped out again. We rather need to think of a sustainable ecology which, for example, would include replanting mangrove trees that originally served as a protective greenbelt along Asian coasts."

Solomon also shares the experiences of some indigenous communities which managed to escape the tsunami territory in time because they could read the songs of the birds, the sound of the wind and the sea. "Technical science can't solve every problem. It is the people's science we need to rediscover and a sustainable ecology we need to implement. With a more sustainable ecology, the tsunami effects could have been less."

Solidarity, tourism and tsunamis

"What does solidarity in tourism mean at this point in time?" asked members of a Global Tourism Interventions Forum (GTIF) attending the fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

In a call for action in solidarity with the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami, the group – including representatives of the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) – stressed the need to "urgently put in place mid- and long-term reconstruction plans based on people's aspirations to rebuild livelihoods and, at the same time, to be able to live in safety and security. This should include restoration of mangrove forests and other coastal ecosystems, which in the past protected coastal regions from storms and waves."

The group warned against "the hasty reconstruction of tourism infrastructure in the areas dependent on tourism," and stressed the need "to observe, in every project, strict and clear criteria of environmentally friendly, socially responsible and participatory tourism, with a view to an overall sustainable development that benefits the whole population."

It also called for "comprehensive debt cancellation as a precondition for sustainable development."

See full text of the call for action: http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/tsunami-call.html.

World Council of Churches
Henrike Müller is a curate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover currently working in the office for Media Relations of the World Council of Churches in Geneva.