|
A Vision Among the Wreckage
Sacramento Bee
Sunday June 26, 2005
By Charles MacCormack
 |
Wearing blue jeans and a white headscarf, Sri twists a ring as she tells the story of the painting she has in the exhibit of children’s art at the Aceh Museum . But her voice is steady. Her mother and brother stand beside her. Her sister was lost in the December 26 tsunami, but Sri survived – and thanks to an innovative art therapy program, she is well on her way to psychological recovery as well.
The tsunami’s first wave swept Sri and a cousin into town about two miles from their home near the beach, and they were separated. Sri was swept out to sea again, repeatedly dragged under and thrust up into the air. When the waters calmed, Sri found herself alone and drifting in a clogged sea of debris. That’s when she had her vision of a golden orb in a field of blue.
Hours later, Sri was picked up by a passing boat. She found her cousin, and three days later they found their family.
Sri is one of 3,000 children of Banda Aceh who took part in an art therapy workshop held at a local mosque and designed to help children process their feelings about the tsunami -- feelings about terror, disaster, loss, death and life that many children are not able to put into words.
Black water here, vivid colors there – the paintings are moving, and equally moving is the fact that they were made possible in part by the generosity of the American public, including many thousands of American children in more than 3,000 schools who donated funds to Save the Children’s tsunami response.
U.S. schools raised more than $4.7 million, and community groups like the Boys and Girls Clubs of America donated another $2.3 million. From children, this is truly an incredible response. Overall, Save the Children raised and received pledges totaling $245 million worldwide, about half of which came from the United States.
At Save the Children, we recognize our special responsibility—especially to children like Sri Rahmawati of Banda Aceh and our young donors in the United States —to spend this money wisely. That is why we have issued a new in-depth report, available on our website at www.savethechildren.org, on the results of our response since December. The report notes that 94 cents of every dollar spent so far has gone to the hardest hit tsunami areas to provide food, water, shelter, health care, education, job opportunities and child protection.
We have registered more than 7,000 children separated from their parents and helped reunite children with loves ones. We have set up safe spaces to protect children from possible abuse and exploitation in temporary camps where thousands of homeless families continue to live. We are training teachers and midwives to fill vacancies left by the tsunami deaths, and we are expanding small loan and cash-for-work programs to aid those without income.
Our great accomplishment so far: working in partnership with other humanitarian organizations to avert a second wave of death from disease and malnutrition that many health experts predicted would occur following the tsunami. From the point of view of saving children’s lives, our response has been enormously successful.
Despite our achievements, we see many challenges ahead over the next five years as our focus shifts from relief to recovery and reconstruction. The process of rebuilding homes, schools and health clinics needs to move much faster. We need local and national authorities to jumpstart their plans so that Save the Children and others active in this effort – including the local communities themselves -- can help with on-the-ground expertise, human resources and financial support.
As we move forward, we try to keep children like Sri Rahmawati in mind, along with her beautiful drawing. It is testimony to the kind of independent vision that guides her life and our efforts as well. We will work hard to make sure she is not disappointed.
*******
Charles MacCormack is President and CEO of Save the Children USA, based in Westport , CT.
