Hi,
The Ad Hoc Committee of the Hash Tsunami Relief Effort wish to inform you that the contribution you have made to the Fund in cash/kind has been delivered in person by representatives of the committee and other volunteers. Please note that more is still pouring in. Please check out www.ph3.org The website shall be updated as the contributions are received. We are now planning to make another trip down.
A total of 300 families from 5 refugee centers in and around Khao Lak were receipients of your kind donation.
We would like you to know that each family of the surviving victims of the disaster received an ang pow amounting to RM50.00, (TB500) apart from toys and goodies that the Committee deemed necessary to purchase for distribution.
The Committee wishes to thank you for your kind consideration to the victims in their hour of need.
On On
Hardy Boy
On Sec Ad Hoc Committee
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hash Scribe by Opera Cheong
THE HASH TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORT
We all witnessed through the electronic and print media the horrendous destruction wrought upon the coastal communities in our region on Dec. 26th, 2004. What was at first greeted with absolute disbelief upon learning that 6 people have perished in a giant wave in Phuket island turned to stunned horror as reports of the extent of damage caused by the tsunamis started pouring in, with casualty rates skyrocketing literally by the minute. We sat in horrified silence as CNN, and in tandem the BBC, reported up to 6000 deaths around the region, and retired to bed with heavy hearts at around 2.15am on the morning of the 27th, grieving at the loss of so many innocent lives.
When we got up around 8.30am, the morning papers roared an updated casualty count of about 12,000, portending that the figure was only preliminary. Incredibly, even northeastern Malaysia, which is sheltered from the epicenter of the tremendous earthquake by the northern tip of Sumatra, was not spared, but suffered a casualty rate of about 70 lives lost and over 300 homes damaged.
As it dawned on us that hapless thousands, if not ten of thousands, of people would have lost not just kin, houses, property but also businesses and livelihood, the need to lend a helping hand particularly in some form of relief effort, quickly set in. With an almost daily doubling of body count, organized effort at collection of donations sprouted up at every level of society. Some of us in the hash, too, felt that we should create an avenue to channel this humanitarian outpouring of aid to assist the surviving victims of the catastrophe, and thus the formation of the Hash Tsunami Relief Effort. This was envisaged to be a Pan-Malaysian effort, but it quickly dwindled down to a small group of hashes that we belonged to, as separate efforts were already initiated by many others with similar endeavour.
Within 10 days of the fundraising effort, a total of more than RM18,000.00(More is still coming in & we are planning another trip down) were collected, plus goodies probably worth just as much. The region around Khao Lak was chosen as the beneficiary as it suffered the most damage in Thailand from the tsunamis, and is also accessible to our 4 X 4, a consideration crucial to our choice as we wanted to provide the aid directly to the victims and not pass it to other organizations. Some individuals from Songkhla Hash were asked to accompany the KL hashers to the sites most severely affected, and four eventually went along, led by ‘Useless Whitney’ Oi and ‘Roadrunner’ Pai, together with Ann and a staff from the Victory Bar, as well as Thomas, a visiting German friend. There were 9 of us from Kuala Lumpur in the team, including ‘Chuck Wow’ Don, Jocelyn, William, Irene and 4 members of her family, and myself. All of these volunteers were going on their own expenses, and this was made very clear from the beginning, so that all funds collected would go directly to the refugees.
After an overnight sojourn and goodies packing in Songkhla, the team set off on the morning of January 15th, and headed straight to Khao Lak, getting there in early evening, too late to proceed on to the refugee camps. But the following morning, with helpful input from Oi and Ann, we managed to identify and visit 5 camps, where more than 300 families were grateful recipients of angpows containing TB500 each, plus goodies in the form of tooth brushes and pastes, candies, and soft toys plus some medications. The poignancy of the effort was not lost on us, as we realized that each so-called family unit comprised on average only around 3 members, as the rest have perished in the tragedy! Some head of family, in fact, were hardly in their teens, as they have lost parents and elders.
The adopted slogan of ‘Restore The Smiles’ was evidently fulfilled, when recipients showed their appreciation with wais and smiles, uttered thanks, and even shed tears to this simple act of human generosity. Many others simply accepted the gifts in catatonic silence, as they were still coming to grips with the sorrow of the tragedy, a situation that perhaps only time and psychiatric help can alleviate.
Most of the team headed directly back to Songkhla immediately after the distribution as the more mundane chore of work beckons back home, while the rest headed somewhere else for other assignments.
The trip was viewed not only as fulfilling, but also very taxing on our physical bodies as well as our psyche, having witnessed at virtual close quarters the utter helplessness of the victims during the onslaught of the tsunamis.
May we be thankful for our own well-being and continue to lend a hand when the need arises.
By
Opera Cheong
Posted by onsec at January 27, 2005 06:52 PM