CCA Appeals for Immediate Humanitarian Assistance

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ!

According to news sources more than 10,000 people are dead and millions homeless and hungry in cyclone-hit Bangladesh, while army and aid workers are battling to reach the devastated coast. Many are still awaiting basic humanitarian assistance and aid in the country.

The chairman of the Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society, the country's central humanitarian organization, said 3,000 bodies had already been recovered. Red Cross workers said they are using their network of volunteers to distribute dried food and plastic sheeting for temporary shelters, but the task is much difficult. "Our estimate is that 900,000 families are affected," Red Cross official Shafiquzzaman Rabbani said. Survivors on the isolated southern coast, where many areas are still out of reach for aid convoys warned that the death toll may raise if help does not arrive in time.

"I lost six of my family members in the cyclone. I am afraid that the rest of us will die of hunger. We are without food and water for the last few days," 55-year-old farmer Sattar Gazi said. "For the corpses, we do not even have clothes to wrap them in for burial ... we are wrapping the bodies in leaves," he told AFP in a village situated on the Bay of Bengal coastline, smashed by a six-meter high tidal wave.

Abdul Zabbar, a 50-year-old teacher, said the situation in the area, already one of the most impoverished places on earth, is unbearable. "There is no food and drinking water. Bodies are still floating in the rivers and paddy fields," he said, adding the rice harvest - or four months of food had been washed away. Victims told an AFP correspondent who managed to reach this coastal area that they had not seen any aid workers, let alone a plane or helicopter.

Officials say they expect many more victims to be found in the remote areas, including poor fishing villages in the string of small islands off the coast. Aid efforts are being hampered by roads blocked by fallen trees and the sheer scale of the devastation. Most of the deaths were caused by the tidal wave which engulfed coastal villages, as well as flying debris and falling trees that crushed flimsy bamboo and tin homes. (Source: AFP, 18 November, 2007)

Along with our ecumenical partners in Bangladesh, Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) and National Council of Churches in Bangladesh (NCCB) are closely following the situation. The NCCB has sent a team to the devastated areas to assess emergency relief and humanitarian assistance. They visited churches and affected communities. They will share assessments of the situation and needs of people in communities with us. 

CCA express deep concern over the situation and appeals for immediate humanitarian assistance to the people affected by the catastrophe. I request all our member churches, councils, ecumenical partners and friends to remember those affected in your daily prayers, and send your messages and financial assistance directly to the National Council of Churches in Bangladesh. It can also be sent to CCA at the following account:

A/C Name: Christian Conference of Asia
A/C No: 295-4-709594 (Multi-currency)
Bank: Hang Seng Bank
Hankow Road Branch
4 Hankow Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Swift code: HASEHKHH

Sincerely,
Prawate Khid-arn
General Secretary
Christian Conference of Asia
C/O: Payap University
Muang, Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand
Tel: +66-53-243906, 243907
Fax: +66-53-247303