On 26 December 2004, many of us were relaxing, taking a day to recover from the Christmas rush. But across the seas, life changed forever for millions of people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand and other Asian countries.
A 9.1-9.3 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean propelled the largest and deadliest tsunami in recent history, destroying entire villages and claiming approximately 230,000 lives. In some cases, the waves crashed into land only 15 minutes after the earthquake, but most regions experienced a lag of several hours. Nonetheless, the tsunami took most people by surprise because there was no infrastructure to warn the affected populations.
For ChildFund, the days, months and years following the tsunami posed many challenges and opportunities to help families and children who had experienced traumatic loss of homes, livelihoods and loved ones.
In the period immediately following the disaster, our focus was setting up Child-Centred Spaces (CSS) in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. These are safe spaces where children can play, learn and receive trauma support. These spaces remain central to ChildFund`s emergency responses today, most recently in the Philippines after last year`s Super Typhoon Haiyan.
“The tsunami disaster poses a kind of double jeopardy for children,” said John Schultz, ChildFund International`s president at the time. “After having survived the catastrophe, they are now subject to increased risk of disease and malnutrition, as well as longer-term risks like dropping out of school to work because they have lost a parent.”
In the days after the disaster, we sent emergency response teams to Banda Aceh, the worst-hit region in Indonesia, as well as Sri Lanka and India. Many of our staffers worked to fulfil immediate health needs and provide relief materials like nutritional supplements, delivery kits for pregnant women, cooking utensils and toiletries. We also participated in massive clearing and cleaning efforts through a food-for-work program supported by the US government.
Donations from our generous supporters around the world flowed in, and after less than a year, $18 million in donations went toward emergency relief supplies, installation of more than 16,000 water tanks, construction of six new schools, repair of nine community wells, construction of more than 400 fishing boats and establishment of more than 300 CCSs that served 43,000 children.