Ecumenical Disaster Relief Efforts In Asia

Baptists appeal for aid after typhoon hits Southeast Asia
By ABP staff
Published: September 29, 2009

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) -- Baptists in the Philippines are appealing to the global Baptist community for donations as they gear up for relief efforts in the wake of a Sept. 26 typhoon that has killed 300 people there and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

"For Christians, every disaster is a call to action," said Joel Raner, president of the Luzon Baptist Convention, a regional body affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance that serves in an area of the Philippines hard hit by Typhoon Ketsan. "We are called to help those who are suffering when they need it, and this is certainly the time of most need."

Baptist World Aid, the BWA's relief-and-development arm, urged Baptists around the world to respond to drastic needs of victims of flooding.

"We are also concerned that Typhoon Ketsana is now heading for the Mekong Delta in Vietnam," said Paul Montacute, BWAid director. Montacute said the BWA has also relationships with some Baptist groups in Vietnam, and BWA president David Coffey has visited with Baptist leaders there.

BWAid's Rescue 24 team, operated by Hungarian Baptist Aid and made up of trained international volunteers, is trying to work out details to offer services to the Philippine government, the Luzon convention and Vietnam.

Donations can be made online at the BWA website.

PCUSA'S Response:

PDA Response

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is working with our partners, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP). The NCCP has been monitoring the situation through its member churches, regional ecumenical councils and people’s organizations in the affected areas. Local churches in the affected communities have been immediately opening their premises as evacuation and relief centers and providing basic humanitarian assistance of food, drinking water, nonfood relief items, basic medicines and personal hygiene necessities.

Action by Churches Together (ACT) is cooperating to provide assistance to poor urban communities in the riverside areas of Quezon City; there, in addition to the loss of homes and possessions, most residents have also lost their means of livelihood as factory workers, tricycle drivers and small vendors. ACT is preparing a package of relief goods, including food, water, clothes, candles, sleeping mats, mosquito nets, pots and pans, etc., that will be distributed to the most vulnerable families affected in this region.

ACT is preparing an international ACT appeal to provide additional assistance of food, drinking water, nonfood relief items, basic medicines and personal hygiene items. Support for local partners will include transportation, communications and operational support for volunteers and relief coordinators as well as design of relief packages that are compliant with Sphere Minimum Standards of disaster relief, monitoring and reporting.

The ELCA's response is here. The ECUSA's response is here and last but not least, many Roman Catholics are helping out alongside their Protestant brothers and sisters:

Philippine churches work frantically on relief for storm victims
Wednesday, 30 Sep 2009
More news

By Maurice Malanes

Churches and church-based organizations in the Philippines are helping thousands of families, who have lost relatives, homes and other properties after a tropical storm unleashed torrential rains for nine hours, flooding Metro Manila and neighbouring provinces.

As of 28 September, the government's National Disaster Coordination Council reported 144 people killed, four missing and 23 injured as a result of the storm "Ketsana" two days earlier, locally known as "Ondoy". It said the numbers of victims are expected to increase.

"We are concentrating on massive relief operations. The system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed," the disaster council's head, Anthony Golez, told reporters. "We were used to helping one city, one or two provinces but now we were following one after another. Our assets and people are spread too thinly."

The nine-hour deluge left some areas of Metro Manila, a sprawling city of 12 million people, under six metres (20 feet) of water.

Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and organizations such as Caritas Manila, a Catholic agency, immediately responded, delivering at least 1000 bags of relief goods to hundreds of families on 27 September.

(Read on: Here).

Real Life Superhero

Thai 'Spider-Man' Saves Boy in Peril
AOL
posted: 24 MINUTES AGOcomments: 37filed under: Good News, World NewsPrintShareText SizeAAA

(March 24) - An everyday hero became a superhero to save a boy in distress Monday.
Rescue workers got the call when an 8-year-old autistic boy had crawled out onto a third-floor ledge at a Bangkok special needs school, AFP reported. The boy was scared because it was his first day at the school, police said.

After the boy's mother mentioned that the child loved superheroes, firefighter Somchai Yoosabai hustled to his fire station and donned a Spider-Man costume that he kept to wear during school fire drills.
"I told him Spider-Man is here to rescue you, no monsters are going to attack you and I told him to walk slowly towards me as running could be dangerous," Somchai said. The boy then stood and let Sonchai carry him in, AFP reported.

2009 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2009-03-24 11:07:42

Also on the same page under a Java Widget on Survival Stories was the story of:

A 93-year-old Japanese man has been certified as a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tsutomu Yamaguchi, here in an undated photo, was in Hiroshima where the first bomb was dropped in 1945. He suffered serious burns, but returned to Nagasaki where a second bomb was dropped days later.

It is amazing and a miracle that humanity has survived this long after all our inhumanities to each-other and natural disasters.

--- Tsutomu Yamaguchi gazes at the booklet which fails to mention his exposure to two atomic bomb attacks, in Nagasaki on Oct. 31. (Mainichi)

Here are some other news stories about Tsutomu Yamaguchi:

Japan Confirms First Double A-Bomb Survivor

1:08pm UK, Tuesday March 24, 2009

A Japanese man has been confirmed as the first person to have survived both US atomic bombings at the end of World War II. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was already recognised as having survived the Nagasaki bombing, on August 9, 1945. And now he has been confirmed as a surivor of the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier. The "hibakusha", or radiation survivor, was three kilometres from ground zero in Hiroshima on a business trip when the bomb hit. He was seriously burnt on the left-side of his upper body and spent the evening in the city. He then returned to his home city of Nagasaki, just a day before the second atomic bomb attack. Four days after the bombing he was exposed to residual radation while searching for his relatives. Nagasaki city official Toshiro Myamoto said: "As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognised as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki." "It's such an unfortunate case, but it is possible there are more people like him." (Read On: Here).

Japanese Man Certified as Double A-Bomb Victim
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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TOKYO — A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II, officials said Tuesday.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certified "hibakusha," or radiation survivor, of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki, but has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier as well, city officials said.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.

"As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognized as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto said. "It's such an unfortunate case, but it is possible that there are more people like him."

Certification qualifies survivors for government compensation — including monthly allowances, free medical checkups and funeral costs — but Yamaguchi's compensation will not increase, Miyamoto said.

Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bomb attacks. About 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki.

Yamaguchi is one of about 260,000 people who survived the attacks. Bombing survivors have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver illnesses.

Details of Yamaguchi's health problems were not released.

Thousands survivors continue to seek official recognition after the government rejected their eligibility for compensation. The government last year eased the requirements for being certified as a survivor, following criticism the rules were too strict and neglected many who had developed illnesses that doctors have linked to radiation.

See also: Tsutomu Yamaguchi.