CNS STORY: Catholic aid agencies report record giving levels for tsunami relief

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CNS Story:

TSUNAMI-RELIEF Jan-4-2005 (860 words) With photos. xxxi

Catholic aid agencies report record giving levels for tsunami relief

By Stephen Steele
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S., Canadian and British Catholic aid agencies said support for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunamis surpasses the response to previous disasters.

Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' agency for overseas aid and development, raised $17 million in the first nine days after launching its appeal to help victims of tsunamis that hit 12 countries in Asia and Africa. The money is being applied to the $25 million that CRS pledged to provide to countries most affected by the disaster.

The agency said it has raised more than $9 million through its Web site, www.catholicrelief.org.

"Normally we raise a little under $1 million in a year through our Web site," said Karen Moul, spokeswoman.

Nearly 66,000 individuals have made or pledged donations to tsunami relief, Moul said.

"We have been averaging $100,000 an hour" in donations, she said.

Moul said the majority of Catholic parishes in the United States are scheduled to raise relief funds during Masses the weekend of Jan. 8-9. Some parishes began raising cash donations at Masses Jan. 2, she said.

The New York-based Catholic Medical Mission Board said the agency has moved beyond its traditional Catholic base of donors in the response to the tsunami disaster, in large part because of its Web site, www.cmmb.org. The agency has been receiving eight donations a minute via the Web.

"What this shows is that people are really investigating what they can do and looking for creative ways to respond to the disaster," said Claudia Hite, spokeswoman.

As of midday Jan. 4, the agency had raised $118,000 toward a $250,000 fund created to help provide financial and program support for partner agencies in Asia, she told Catholic News Service.

The board is not normally involved in disaster relief, but Hite said the agency has a long working relationship with several organizations in affected areas in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka and was responding to the region's overwhelming immediate medical needs.

Hite said relief workers in Indonesia fear an outbreak of epidemic diseases, such as cholera and malaria, and are seeking preventative medicines. Hite said the region needs anywhere from $2 million to $10 million in drug donations from pharmaceutical companies in order to contain any outbreaks.

In Britain, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development reported $1.1 million in donations from a Jan. 2 appeal made through parishes in England and Wales. The agency had pledged about $5.5 million in tsunami relief.

A second collection is scheduled during Jan. 9 Masses, the agency said.

In a statement, the agency said the funds would be used to help provide for immediate food, shelter and medical needs to survivors, but that the agency was looking to the long term to help survivors "rebuild their lives."

"Certainly in terms of speed, this is by far the biggest response we have seen in the past 20 years," Patrick Nicholson, CAFOD press officer, told CNS.

The agency has sent assessment teams to Indonesia and Sri Lanka, Nicholson said.

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace also reported record giving levels, receiving $361,000 (US$300,000) in donations in advance of a national collection scheduled for Jan. 9, said Jack Panozzo, communications officer.

"The figures keep going up every hour," he told CNS.

Panozzo said the agency did not set a goal for its fund-raising efforts.

"We're going to make our contribution and do the best we can to collect as much money as we can," he said.

An order of nuns from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, gave $15,000 (US$12,000) to the agency and said "they would probably be donating more in the near future," he said.

Panozzo told CNS that within hours of the Dec. 26 disaster, he began receiving e-mails and phone calls from Canadians wanting to help.

The various aid agencies' Web sites have been providing up-to-the-minute information on the disaster and what individuals can do to help.

On the CRS Web site, the agency said it was "overwhelmed by the compassion and generosity of our loyal donors and many new ones."

In one example, the agency said a Baltimore cab driver walked into its headquarters and asked for a stack of envelopes that he could pass out to his customers throughout the day.

In another example, two children arrived at CRS headquarters with their mother to donate their Christmas money in an envelope marked, "This is for the people who help the people who were hit by the wave."

On CAFOD's Web site, the agency said its partner agency in Indonesia, Jesuit Refugee Service, was reporting "scenes of turmoil and desolation." The United Nations said it expected the death toll in the 12 affected countries to exceed 150,000, including 100,000 in Indonesia.

JRS set up 49 camps in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and was providing food, shelter and health care. The agency also offered a tracing service to enable family and friends to be reunited.

In Ireland, the Irish bishops said that Jan. 7 would be a day of solidarity for the tsunami victims. They asked Irish Catholics to give generously to disaster relief and to pray for the victims and survivors.

END

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