"Reality Check"

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NOW WHAT

We have passed the magic window of 2 ½ years which humanitarian aid workers refer to as the “period”. The average length of time most “long term” aid projects complete in. What it means really is that the novelty is wearing off, the next global disaster is attracting emergency humanitarian aid and the last location is left to more or less fend for itself. It means aid is diminishing, projects are expiring, livelihoods supported by initial aid are just barely becoming fruitful… and the real time of challenge is beginning.

This blog is not intended to discredit or critique the emergency aid process, a thousand journalist, political writers and individuals have done that for me already….I simply want to highlight to you, my own audience, what experiences I have here.

There will always be emergency aid; it is human nature to be spurred into emotive reaction when children die. But when the smiles come often in the sponsorship packages, when the school uniforms and books are bought, the pictures taken, the donation plaques hung…this is the time when the most need is apparent. Now is the time when those who survived intact or semi intact as families start to come apart…when mothers have no more aid funds to feed their children, when the tourists stop buying the Tsunami trinkets, when the fundraising projects stop sending funds, now is the time when the orphanages turn away starving families looking for respite, looking to abandon their children to an entity that can care for them better than they can themselves….despite what they have survived together.

The Bangkok post reports that the number of families entering a period of extreme poverty is rising. The initial shock of lost lives and livelihoods is past now, on the eve of the third anniversary of the Tsunami that claimed almost 220,000 lives. World Vision even suggested in a report in 2005 that it would take “7-10 strong economic years” for the tsunami zone to recover”. The post-tsunami effects are just beginning to show.

Of the families that lost loved ones on December 26 2004, an estimated 48% percent of them were families supported by members working in Phang Nga. Most of these families came from Esaan in the North East of Thailand. The poverty that is growing there is enormous. Shanty towns are developing quickly as families lose their homes when rents can no longer be paid. The family they lost in the tsunami were the same money earning supporting the family back home in Esaan. Children would not see their parents for most of the year as the tourist seasons offered good pay employment. Elderly relatives were left to care for the small ones at home. Now the aid money has stopped, the income generated by those who dies cannot be replaced and the Elderly are too old or infirm to earn an income. Most can no longer care for the children left behind when their parents did not come home from the south. What now?

The orphanages are overflowing with abandoned children, stories are developing daily of “foundlings” turned out after the relatives could no longer feed and clothe them. the cities have seen increases in street children as have the temples that feed those who can come to them, and here, Rotjana has visits from desperate families every TWO days…and most she must turn away, we cannot take in every child in need….somehow those children with families must find a way…

And what of another set of faces; the demographic of Burmese migrants? (not counting the further Cambodian and Laos registered migrant workers) The Tsunami has brought to the forefront of political debate, the quandary of the Burmese worker and the shanty towns they occupy hidden in the nearby jungle, along side roads and behind half finished building sites.

The manager of the Thailand Disaster Victim Identification Centre put it bluntly,”…there was little awareness of migrants in the province (of Phang Nga) until they washed up in such great numbers with the Tsunami.”

The great numbers have since been estimated at near 2 million, many of those in the Andaman Coast region. With their presence comes the problem of “seeing them”. Acknowledging their existence and remedying the issues of safety, human rights and poverty that have come to light.

The aid organizations recognized that the work was more than just immediate…that a disaster of this immense size would extend beyond food and shelter, beyond identifying bodies to this day buried in temporary graves in Phang Nga waiting for DNA to find their homes.

Some of the “recovery” would have to address so much more than just rebuilding, redeveloping, and renewing. One participant in the recovery commented, “We have to be careful of the tyranny of rush: trying to get things done quickly can actually put us
behind in the long run." And it did…Indie news has been littered with stories of politics, misappropriation of funds, poor quality buildings and others. I love the comment that I read a year ago, just when the first assessment reports were coming out about the work of the NGO’s and aid relief in the region. He simply summed the story up by saying, “…21 months later, recriminations are rife, with aid agencies standing accused of planning poorly, raising unrealistic expectations and simply being incompetent.”

I had to smile at that. This was a common feeling among the critics of the aid work in southern Thailand. My familiarity with one agency that tried to coordinate all the activities in the region, D-Trac, helped to clear the air a bit, but even today I am able to locate illustrations of the mess that was made in the name of helping out. The highway between Phuket Town and Ranong along the Andaman coast, has numerous examples of project started and not finished, projects and developments that have been abandoned due to funding, management or simply because they weren’t useful or feasible in the first place. Entire survivor villages sit empty and never occupied due to misplaced lists of those who should have moved in, or because some other agency completed their housing project first.

My favorite example is the Samsung Community Centre outside Ban Niang near Khao Lak. An entire complex costing millions of baht was donated by the Samsung technology company and the photos were taken, the plaques hung, the press releases written and the company president congratulated. The centre has remained closed since its opening ceremony. In the immediate surrounding area, shanty towns and shacks have sprung up around the shiny empty building.

The point of my blathering is this: Most aid from government agencies and NGOs focus on immediate and short-term relief efforts (i.e. donating food, houses, and boats) but little emphasis is placed on the on-going and longer term issues. For us at the orphanage that means looking at what will happen to the kids when they finish school? How will they obtain training, where will they go and who will pay for it?

For the Burmese it means addressing long term awareness and recognition of human rights…just for a start. Safety and comfort will have to wait until the very smallest amount of recognition is gained. One journalist pegged the problem with initial aid as such, “….21 months later recriminations are rife, with aid agencies standing accused of planning poorly, raising unrealistic expectations and simply being incompetent.”

Not a huge show of faith for those responsible for disseminating the billions of aid dollars that were pledged towards supporting the decimated region…the biggest aid response in the history of the modern world.

Not a pretty picture, but what does this mean…now?

It means maintaining the awareness of what happens after. It means coming up with creative ways to make the lives of these people matter…everyday even if it’s a little bit. It means that

Every night I get to go home to my village house and write about what I see, hear and feel here. Maybe someone out there will read it and have a plan of their own that will change the lives of one of these kids, one family. Just maybe…

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