Tsunami survivors left struggling one year lateR

12/26/05

By SHELLY LEACHMAN
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Exactly one year after an Indian Ocean tsunami devastated South Asia, the brand names of aid organizations are emblazoned on banners, tents and water barrels throughout the disaster zone.

But 12 months and billions of donated dollars later, the number of actual aid workers is dwindling as the real reconstruction -- that of the lives of those most affected -- has barely begun.

"Their banners are there, but where's the help?" asked Santa Barbara-based freelance photojournalist Jodie Willard, who spent much of October documenting Direct Relief International efforts in India. "The people were very angry. They feel that they've been left now that it's not newsworthy."

"The need there for assistance, that still remains a year after, is staggering," said Jason Kravitz of Santa Barbara-based aid organization DRI, which in the last year has furnished $50 million in medical supplies and grants to tsunami-recovery efforts.

Myriad DRI projects -- "from rebuilding clinics to providing more insecticide and mosquito nets so malaria is not transmitted" -- are ongoing in the pipeline throughout South Asia, where the agency has so far sent 158 tons of medicine and medical supplies, he said.

DRI staggers relief spending in order to ensure funding for long-term efforts, said Mr. Kravitz, insisting that 100 percent of tsunami-tagged donations will be spent on tsunami-recovery projects. It was the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks here that he said forged the agency's realization that old spending models needed to be upgraded.

"We made a conscious decision that if someone wanted to give us $10 for tsunami relief, they want it to go to the tsunami, not to our utility bill," Mr. Kravitz said.

Of the $50 million, $14.4 million came as cash contributions. About $5 million remains unspent but is earmarked for use in the next six to nine months, said Mr. Kravitz.

In an average year, about 3,000 people donate to DRI. In the year since the tsunami, they've had more than 30,000 donors.

"That is unprecedented support," he said. "It was an all-around outpouring of generosity."

It started in the morning hours of Dec. 26, 2004, when people here were still sleeping off holiday dinners. A 9.3-magnitude earthquake hit offshore from Indonesia, triggering a titanic tsunami that rocked Sumatra and, by the time waters calmed, had wreaked havoc on 12 countries directly. Among the hardest hit were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

All told, 231,452 people were left dead or missing, according to the United Nations Development Program. More than 1 million were homeless.

Today, many of those 1 million still live in tent cities erected shortly after the disaster. In India especially, some of those camps sit in water -- it's monsoon season.

Some survivors must still walk great distances to meet a water truck that fills jugs of all shapes, colors and sizes with rations of clean water. Food, as always, is in demand.

"There are people still clearly in survival mode," said Ms. Willard.

Her latest trip was her third journey to South Asia since the disaster, which led her to volunteer and shoot pictures in Sri Lanka, Indonesia's Banda Aceh and throughout India, including on the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

"People are living in a foot and a half of water," she said of families she saw on her recent trip.

"Instead of a big wave it's a smaller amount of water, but it has cobra snakes in it. The recovery is not going that smoothly, from what I saw."

Ms. Willard spoke of a woman she met wading through the water in a survivor camp. The 28-year-old once had six children. "Two had died, another was sick with a staph infection, another was jaundiced and mute," said Ms. Willard. "She said to me, 'I wish I would've been killed by the tsunami because this is worse.' They obviously didn't have enough food and the baby in her arms was too weak to walk."

Helping such families is the ongoing goal of Direct Relief, whose presence Ms. Willard said is palpable and "all over the place" in India. The agency recently cut ribbons on several new medical clinics there.

"We'll be assisting in a much more dramatic way over the next few years because of the vast need," said Mr. Kravitz.

Before and since the tsunami, Alissa Sears of Santa Barbara has given an inordinate amount of assistance to the region. At 23, Ms. Sears is a seasoned humanitarian.

She has worked in Sri Lanka in many capacities -- from teacher and teacher-trainer to volunteer coordinator. The latter role has been her biggest in the last year.

Home when the disaster occurred, Ms. Sears returned to Sri Lanka in January and stayed until May, when unexpected illness brought her back. But she remains active in relief efforts from her home base here, fundraising for various organizations, connecting relief groups to better concentrate their efforts and keeping in contact with aid workers and natives alike in Sri Lanka.

"Put people together across the world and you realize how similar we are, how we are all faced with challenges," Ms. Sears said.

"I had a team of 10 Sri Lankans trying to come over here to help with hurricane relief. When you see that impact, that outflow of just care and admiration and respect for all the different people that had helped ... it's just incredible.

"That's human nature at its finest," she said.

It's a child's nature to smile in the face of adversity, whether they're unaware of the difficulty they face or are simply too young to feel grown-up fear. Regardless, it was that almost reflexive optimism among children that Ms. Willard said struck her strongly as she traveled the still-tattered region.

"Even in the worst circumstances, the kids still have hope and spirit," said Ms. Willard.

"But the adults are tired, worn out. They've lost their land, their belongings, their jobs. It's a year later and they're still so dependent."

JODIE WILLARD PHOTO

Families like this one in India are still living in tents surrounded by water. When they tromp through the water they have to watch for cobras.