IOCC Aid to South Asia Focusing On Long-Term Recovery
INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES (IOCC)
110 West Road, Suite 360, Baltimore, Md. 21204 — Tel: (410) 243-9820 — Fax: (410) 243-9824
Web: www.iocc.org — E-mail: news@iocc.org
For immediate release
May 19, 2005
IOCC AID TO SOUTH ASIA FOCUSING ON LONG-TERM RECOVERY
Jakarta, Indonesia (IOCC) - The group of Indonesian men and women,
mostly young people, gathered in the large hotel meeting room here to
learn about counseling survivors of the South Asia tsunami.
There was only one catch – many of these psychology students and
mental health professionals were themselves tsunami survivors. They had
lost family members, friends, fellow students and colleagues in the
tsunami – and they also would need grief and trauma counseling.
As part of its ongoing tsunami response, International Orthodox
Christian Charities (IOCC) is supporting efforts such as these to train
professionals in trauma counseling techniques and to provide counseling
to tsunami victims.
As the seminar participants told their stories, it was clear that
they carried with them an unbearable sadness, coupled with a fierce
determination to help friends, relatives and others who had suffered
trauma and loss.
One woman, a grandmother and Indonesian relief worker for one of
IOCC’s partners, said she was in Jakarta when she heard the news on Dec.
26, 2004. She rushed to Banda Aceh only to learn that more than 50
members of her extended family – cousins, grandchildren, nieces and
nephews – had perished in the tsunami.
She reminded the group of the need to care for themselves and one
another as they gave counseling to others in the months ahead.
About half of the $1.3 million raised for IOCC’s tsunami relief
efforts has been committed to provide assistance in the form of
counseling services, medical supplies, fresh foodstuffs, temporary
shelter, multi-vitamins, clean drinking water, personal hygiene items
and schools supplies.
The remaining funds are being allocated for ongoing relief and
long-term recovery efforts focused on activities that generate
employment and help people to recover their livelihoods.
Through staff posted in Medan, IOCC is working with the local
Orthodox Church and ecumenical partners such as Church World Service,
and Action by Churches Together.
In Indonesia, IOCC continues to distribute fresh fruits, vegetables
and other food items to displaced people living in temporary camps and
private homes in North Sumatera Utara and East Aceh, and to provide
school kits to affected children and schools in Sumatera Utara.
In Sri Lanka, IOCC recently shipped more than $225,000 in liquid
multi-vitamins (424,000 daily adult doses) for distribution to tsunami
survivors.
IOCC also is supporting efforts to provide livelihood recovery,
medical assistance, emergency shelter, and counseling to mostly women,
children and the elderly in Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, Aceh Barat and Nagan
Raya, and relief supplies to Nias Island.
Founded in 1992, IOCC is the official humanitarian aid agency of
the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas
(SCOBA). For more information about IOCC’s tsunami relief efforts to
date, please visit www.iocc.org.
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For media inquires, please contact IOCC Communications Associate Stephen Huba at 1-877-803-4622 or shuba@iocc.org.