[Lapg] [starhawk] Tsunami Relief--Four Suggestions for Empowering Aid

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

            Tsunami Relief:  Four Suggestions for Empowering Aid
             by Starhawk
(Please forward widely)

Our hearts are grieving for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the 
December 26 tsunami, which may be the worst natural disaster in human 
memory.  The scope of the tragedy is hard to imagine.  Most of us have lost 
someone dear to us in the course of our lives.  We know the anguish, the 
grief, the confusion and disorientation that comes with major loss the 
sense of having become in some ways a different person.  But with personal 
loss, we can generally turn to our families, our friends, our communities 
for support and comfort. What must it be like to suffer the loss of half 
the community, of every means of livelihood, of whole families and whole, 
ancient ways of life, all at the same time?

             The global community is the only place the survivors can turn 
for help.  But how do we help in a way that empowers communities and does 
not strengthen the grip of the international institutions of power?

             Politically, we can continue to pressure the US and other 
governments to provide aid, and to call for a moratorium or better yet, 
outright cancellation, of the World Bank and IMF loan repayments owed by 
affected countries.

              Personally, we can donate to groups that are working close to 
the ground, that have longstanding ties to communities, and that share the 
values of sustainability and justice.  If you don t have money, consider 
some sort of fundraising effort or benefit.  Immediate needs are great but 
the need will continue long after the headlines shift to a new topic.  So 
think about making a long term commitment to one of the organizations 
below.  Here are four suggestions.  Thanks for your generosity, Starhawk


South India:
             Prithvi Prithvi works with the CARE Trust in Tamil Nadu, the 
state in south India that was hardest hit by the tsunami.  He is a personal 
friend of mine, a graduate of our very first Earth Activist Training who 
works with rural communities of farmers and fisherfolk to develop 
sustainability and local resources. A warm and compassionate man with a 
beautiful smile, he told me at our first meeting that his name literally 
means Earth , and that in his culture, people never enter the fields with 
shoes on, but always barefoot, out of respect for the earth.  The CARE 
Trust is administering aid to five affected fishing villages, with 2500 
families.  Their immediate goal is to safeguard the lives and health of the 
survivors.  The long term goal is to restore the livelihoods and 
self-sufficiency of the villagers by rebuilding houses and providing new 
catamarans , nets and fishing boats. To keep a family alive for a month 
costs $72.  To repair a catamaran: $355.  A new catamaran costs $1667 and a 
new vallam (fishing boat) with engine and net costs $2778.

A donation to Prithvi s organization will go directly to help empower and 
support these communities.  To support the CARE Trust:

Collect the money in the name of CARE TRUST,
Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
Tsunami Relief Fund
and transfer the money to their sister organization in
Kanyakumari :

Stephen Charitable Trust
Current Account No 830
Swift code   soinin55
South Indian Bank
Nagercoil Branch
St.Assisi Building
Nagercoil-1
Kanyakumari District
Tamilnadu
India

Sri Lanka:

The Nonviolent Peaceforce has been working in Sri Lanka, attempting to be a 
neutral, nonviolent presence in the ongoing civil war.  They suggest 
donating to Sarvodaya, one of their partner organizations, which will be 
providing relief in one of the most devastated countries.

To donate to Sarvodaya online by credit card you may donate
through the Nonviolent Peaceforce:
<http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/english/help/donatetosarvodaya.asp>http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/english/help/donatetosarvodaya<http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/english/help/donatetosarvodaya.asp>.asp
{http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/english/help/donation.asp}

Go directly to the Sarvodaya donation page. 100% of the money we
collect at this site will go to Sarvodaya.

To donate via post within the USA, please send a tax-deductible
check made out to:

Sarvodaya USA
5716 Manchester Avenue #3,
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Please note that the check is for the Tsunami disaster and sent via
the Nonviolent Peaceforce.

To donate to Sarvodaya directly in Sri Lanka using a wire transfer
here is the information you will need for foreign remittance:
Sarvodaya Inc.
Acct. No 159000 8015
Commercial Bank of Ceylon Limited.- Moratuwa branch
Swift Code CCEYLKLX.

Sarvodaya info in Sri Lanka: 
<http://www.sarvodaya.lk/>http://www.sarvodaya.lk<http://www.sarvodaya.lk/>/
{http://www.sarvodaya.lk/}

Aceh Indonesia

Nonviolence International has been working in Aceh for five years. The 
Peace Education Program has been working with religious leader, teachers
and youth to build the capacity for peacebuilding and nonviolent resolution
of conflicts in Aceh,  where a civil war has been raging for years.  At 
last report, three of their staff members were missing.  Their library of 
books and manuals on peacebuilding, computers,  financial records, 
curricula, and works in progress are all gone.  One of their surviving 
staff members has lost his parents and a sister.


Nonviolence International-USA has established a relief fund for the victims
and survivors of the earthquakes and tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia.  According
to Chairman, Dr. Mubarak Awad, donations to the Aceh Earthquake/Tsunami
Relief Fund will be distributed directly to Acehnese humanitarian aid
agencies.

Funds can be sent via the website at www.nonviolenceinternational.net, or
checks can be made out to Nonviolence International, PO Box 39127,
Friendship Station, Washington, DC 20016, USA.

All Over:
Via Campesina, the global organization of farm workers, has set up a relief 
fund with the specific intention of empowering local civic society and 
communities.  Here is their message:

Via Campesina 
(<http://www.viacampesina.org>http://www.viacampesina<http://www.viacampesina.org>.org) 
- the global alliance of
peasant, family farmer, farm worker, indigenous and landless peoples
organizations, and other rural movements - calls for solidarity with the
millions of people affected by the tsunami disaster and is launching a
global fundraising campaign to channel assistance to affected communities
of fisherfolk and peasants, for their own relief and reconstruction
efforts, through grassroots organizations.
We ask for your donation for direct  emergency support to provide basic
needs of food, clean drinking water, shelter and health care to affected
fisherfolk and peasant families, as well as to help us initiate the long
term work of reconstructing our own communities and rebuilding our
livelihoods.

  Make a secure on-line credit card donation now by clicking on:
  https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589
[SEE BELOW IF YOU PREFER TO GIVE BY MAIL OR BY WIRE TRANSFER]

  The relief philosophy of Via Campesina is that our communities should
participate actively and be the key actors in the re-construction process,
and that our fisherfolk and peasant organizations should play a key
mobilizing and supporting role.Via Campesina wants to give our communities
and organizations the political support they need in this process, and to
help get the funds we need for reconstruction. The funds raised in this
campaign will be used to strengthen local communities as the key actors in
this process.

  The success of local, self-organized, civil society disaster relief
efforts in previous disasters in Latin America, Asia, and Africa,
contrasted with government inefficiency and top-down, demobilizing
programs, has often marked a key stage in the empowerment and growth of
large, popular, grassroots, civil society social movements by which
previously marginalized people take control of their own lives.  Let us
work together at this time, and let us do so in ways that help build
self-sufficiency, grassroots organization, and peoples power for the
future.

  In addition to the millions who have been displaced or affected, many
tens of thousands have lost their homes and fishing equipment or farming
tools. Fisherfolk have lost their boats, and the land of peasant families
has been contaminated, their crops destroyed and their farm animals
lost.Your donation will help us get back on our feet.

  Examples of actions already underway:

    -   In Indonesia, the National Federation of Indonesian Peasant
Organizations (FSPI), a member of Via Campesina, together with a
number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has created a civil
society relief team that is now working in Aceh (with an estimated 25,000
dead and many times more missing and/or homeless) and in North Sumatra
(5,000 dead) provinces to distribute supplies, and to carry out search and
rescue missions for missing people. The situation in dramatic, and at the
moment (30 Dec) there is no direct communication with many areas.

    -   In Sri Lanka, perhaps the country worst hit by the tsunamis, the
National Organization of Fisherfolk (NAFSO) has sent 5 teams to
affected areas for relief work and help communities start the task of
reconstruction. They have organized fact finding missions and are now
defining  how to cope  with the urgent relief needs while communities plan
and begin to carry the  medium term work of rehabilitation.

  Make a secure on-line credit card donation now by clicking on:
  https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589 or
  SEE BELOW FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO GIVE BY MAIL OR BY WIRE TRANSFER.

  INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO GIVE BY MAIL OR BY WIRE TRANSFER

  1. If you are in Europe, you can deposit funds in the following account:

    Account number: 3035 0022 4202 2005 5606
    Beneficiary: Via Campesina-Honduras
    IBAN code:   ES23 3035 0022 4202 2005 5606
    BIC/SWIFT code: CLPEES2M
     Bank:  Caja Laboral
    Bank address:Calle 8 de enero, Guernika, Pais Basco (Basque Country)
     Tel:   +34 94 625 0098
     Fax:   +34 94 625 6662

     Please send an email alerting us of your donation to: nico.verhagen at
t-online.de

   2.If you are in the United States (and/or have US dollar denominated
checks or money orders), and want to donate by mail:

     Please make your check out to "Via Campesina/CENSA" and mail it to:

    CENSA/Via Campesina
    2288 Fulton Street, suite 103
  Berkeley,  CA  94704  USA

  3. If you want to make a bank wire transfer for the relief campaign, you
can wire funds to:
     NOTE: the funds must be transferred to the First Union Bank in the
USA,  where the Banco Grupo El Ahorro Hondureño (BGA) has an account. In
the communication with the transfer you have to put in the data of the
final
beneficiary.

     a. Data of the final Beneficiary Bank
  - Bank: Banco Grupo    El Ahorro Hondureño (BGA)
     - Name of Beneficiary:    Pedro Rafael Alegria, Maria Concepción
   Betanco, Via Campesina
     - Account Number at BGA:  107 108 6292
   - Telephone:       ( 504 ) 235-9915 and 239-4679
  - Country and City:    Honduras, Tegucigalpa M.D.C.

   b. Data of the Bank in the USA
- Bank:     First Union Bank (now called Wachovia)
- ABA Code    026005092
   - Swift Code B/C:    PNBP US 3N NYC
- Account Number:  2000192001436
  - Name:      Banco  Grupo El Ahorro Hondureño (BGA)
     Please send an email alerting us of your donation to:
     viacampesina at multivisionhn.net

  4. If you want to make a bank wire transfer for relief specifically in
Indonesia, you can wire funds to:
   Bank: Standard Chartered Bank
       Swift Bank Code:  SCB LIDJ XAXXX
     Address of Bank:  Jl. Imam Bonjol No. 17 North Sumatera,
Indonesia.  Account number :  047-1-005467-2
     Name of Payee : Sintesa (Yayasan Sinar Tani Indonesia)

     Please send an email to alert us of your donation to:   ilubis at
cbn.net.id

   THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY,
   Via Campesina 
(<http://www.viacampesina.org>http://www.viacampesina<http://www.viacampesina.org>.org)

This message will also be posted at Starhawk s website:
Www.starhawk.org

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Starhawk is a lifelong activist in peace and global justice movements, a 
leader in the feminist and earth-based spirituality movements, author or 
coauthor of ten books, including The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, 
Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, and her latest, The Earth 
Path.

Starhawk's website is www.starhawk.org, and more of her writings and 
information on her schedule and activities can be found there.