his slippers to a barefoot tourist who couldn’t pay the ride. Those who lost their loved ones were hugged and cared for by local people. Did they ever understand that these comforting Thais had lost much more than they had themselves? Kristiansen was right. By the first week of January, it was obvious that those most affected by the tsunami were the most marginalized. Humanitarian veterans were hardly surprised. As communicator Gesine Wolfinger of Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe put it: “Death and destruction came from the very ocean that provided the only source of income to the poorest of the poor in India’s southern coastal regions. The fishermen, who with their families lived next to shoreline, close to their boats, now have nothing.” As grieving continued, numbed survivors recounted their experiences. All one woman,Verammal, could do was weep: her grief was overwhelming. Another woman, 26-year-old Anandavel, who lost both her children, had a body that “trembled as in tears,” Wolfinger reported. Relief provisions alone would not suffice. Sushant Agrawal, CASA director, said survivors required trauma counseling, and this needed to be a priority for the ACT family. “We want to give them hope and strength for the future,” he said. Still, as Agrawal and others surveyed the damage around them, it was clear the task ahead was enormous. “Whatever we give them, no matter how much,” he said, “it can never be enough.” That was already evident in Sri Lanka, where survivors were living in hundreds of temporary shelters. The NCCSL was now providing care of some sort to nearly 1 million people and its staff had to be increased. Assisted by an initial US $50,000 grant from
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With Courage, In Hope