Focus on the Famliy and World Harvest Team Up To Aid Indonesia

By Katherine T. Phan, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Focus on the Family and World Harvest have now teamed up to deliver aid in the provinces of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra, Indonesia.

The provinces were devastated by an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter Scale and a tsunami that struck the coastline shortly after. The Indonesian government estimates there are over 94,000 casualties and hundreds of thousands of injured/homeless.

Areas hard hit by the tsunami in Indonesia are grossly under reported because they lack infrastructure, according to World Harvest. "Nobody goes there yet, nobody knows what is going on." So many corpses, many of them children, are still stuck in trees, because the 100 ft. monster wave that ran inland at least 6 km inland, completely wiped out many villages. According to AP, the death toll is now reported at 94,081. More than half of all the victims worldwide (most recent number is 155,000) is in Indonesia, and a third of all deaths are children.

80% of Meulaboh, the capital of West Aceh regency is gone. More than 10,000 of its 60,000 people are lost.

World Harvest states, "The area is only accessible by helicopters, and until today only two helicopters have made landings there. Only about 10% of the damaged areas have been surveyed!"

World Vision has called for help for the Indonesian victims who desperately need moral and material support including food, body bags, drinking water, generator sets, medical supplies and medicines, blankets, tents, white cloths for burial of victims, cotton, mosquito nets, water buckets, article of clothing, mattresses/sleeping bag, and others.

Dr. Dobson of Focus on the Family has issued a statement concerning what WorldHarvest Korea/I Care Indonesia Brochure calls, "the biggest tragedy in human history." Dobson states, "Tens of thousands of men, women and children in southern Asia were swept away by an incredible tsunami. The survivors face famine, disease, dehydration and homelessness."

Through our affiliate offices and ministry partners in the area, Focus on the Family is working actively through affiliate offices and ministry partners in the area in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Sri Lanka, and the goal is to raise $1 million for this ongoing emergency relief effort.

World Harvest/Somebody Cares Indonesia, a non-profit mission organization, is working around the clock to help the victims of this disaster. They are collecting donations, purchasing medicine and relief supplies, and sending the supplies to the disaster area.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred the day after Christmas, and generated tsunamis that are among the deadliest disasters in modern history. At a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale, it is the largest earthquake since the 9.2 magnitude Good Friday Earthquake off Alaska in 1964, and tied for fourth largest since 1900.

The resulting tsunamis devastated the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other countries with waves of up to 50 feet high, reaching the east coast of Africa.

At least 150,000 people are known to have died as a result of the tsunamis and the count is still taking place, but the true final toll may never be known due to bodies swept out to sea, but estimates have the true count at twice that number.

Relief agencies warn of the possibility of more deaths to come as a result of epidemics because of poor sanitation and starvation.