Reaching out to help

U.S., Canadian and British Catholic aid agencies said support for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunamis surpasses the response to previous disasters.

Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ agency for overseas aid and development, raised $18 million in the first 11 days after launching its appeal to help victims of tsunamis that hit 12 countries in Asia and Africa. The money is being applied to the $25 million that CRS pledged to provide to countries most affected by the disaster.

The agency said it has raised more than $9.7 million through its Web site, www.catholicrelief.org.

“We have been averaging $100,000 an hour” in donations, said Karen Moul, spokeswoman.

Much of that came from Chicago-area Catholics, said Adrienne Curry, who directs CRS operations in the Archdiocese of Chicago. As of Jan. 10, the agency reported that residents of the archdiocese had donated $227,588.67 directly to the agency. That did not count money contributed in second collections at parishes the weekends of Jan. 1-2 and 8-9 and through other fundraisers, Curry said.

“We haven’t tallied the money from the parishes yet,” she said.

Moul said the majority of Catholic parishes in the United States were scheduled to raise relief funds during Masses the weekend of Jan. 8-9. Some parishes began raising cash donations at Masses Jan. 2, she said.

The New York-based Catholic Medical Mission Board said the agency has moved beyond its traditional Catholic base of donors in the response to the tsunami disaster, in large part because of its Web site, www.cmmb.org. The agency has been receiving eight donations a minute via the Web.

“What this shows is that people are really investigating what they can do and looking for creative ways to respond to the disaster,” said Claudia Hite, spokeswoman.

As of midday Jan. 4, the agency had raised $118,000 toward a $250,000 fund created to help provide financial and program support for partner agencies in Asia, she said.

Hite said relief workers in Indonesia fear an outbreak of diseases, such as cholera and malaria, and are seeking preventative medicines. She said the region needs anywhere from $2 million to $10 million in drug donations from pharmaceutical companies in order to contain any outbreaks.

On the CRS Web site, the agency said it was “overwhelmed by the compassion and generosity of our loyal donors and many new ones.”

In one example, the agency said a Baltimore cab driver walked into its headquarters and asked for a stack of envelopes that he could pass out to his customers throughout the day.

In another example, two children arrived at CRS headquarters with their mother to donate their Christmas money in an envelope marked, “This is for the people who help the people who were hit by the wave.”

Jesuit Refugee Service, was reporting “scenes of turmoil and desolation.” The United Nations said it expected the death toll in the 12 affected countries to exceed 150,000, including 100,000 in Indonesia.

JRS set up 49 camps in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and was providing food, shelter and health care. The agency also offered a tracing service to enable family and friends to be reunited.

In Ireland, the Irish bishops said that Jan. 7 would be a day of solidarity for the tsunami victims. They asked Irish Catholics to give generously to disaster relief and to pray for the victims and survivors.

In India, about $1,400 collected at St. Anne’s Church in a Mumbai suburb was stolen.

Parishioner Philomena D’Souza said both rich and poor gave “everything they had in their pockets” for tsunami relief.

“How could someone be so heartless as to ransack a house of prayer,” she asked UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.