mrya at conncoll.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all,
Apologies for the bulk email. This is an appeal to you to contribute, if you can, to relief work in South and South East Asia where the devastation will leave its impact for several years to come. In some of these regions-- Sri Lanka, the Andamans, Aceh, among others, there are *no* families or communities that have remained unaffected by the disaster. Children, in particular, have been the single largest category of victims. This would be a good time to globalize solidarity and reconstruction. (Can someone with access to MLG please post to them?)
At the same time, we need to be aware that there are self-interested and chauvinist groups--Islamist, Buddhist, Hindu--associated with majoritarian
nationalism in these regions that will, once again, make use of this disaster to carry out 'grass-roots' cultivation of hatred and communal divison. These groups have powerful front organisations in the UK and the US. On behalf of the Cambridge South Asia Forum, I urge you to contribute generously to tsunami relief but to do so through channels that will make use of the aid in non-partisan and non-violent means. Below is a list of groups that are more likely than some others to effect this. Some have specific goals--medicine and home-building, for instance. I hope you find it helpful: these are groups able to take international donations; there are other groups based in these regions that, while doing excellent work, may not be able to.
(If you wish to know about Hindu extremist groups in the UK and the US, posing as 'charity', 'service', 'international' or 'development' organisations, please go to www.awaazsaw.org).
Best wishes and thanks, Priya
The International Red Cross/Red Crescent http://www.ifrc.org/index.asp http://www.redcross.org.sg/press_bayofbengal_appeal.htm http://www.indianredcross.org http://redcrescent.org.my/campaigns/donate.html http://www.redcross.or.th/english/home/index
CARE
http://www.careaustralia.org.au/index.asp
UNICEF
SAVE THE CHILDREN http://www.savethechildren.org
DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS/MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/index.shtml
OXFAM http://www.oxfam.org.uk
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY
http://www.architectureforhumanity.org
In North America, you can also send to SINGH Foundation c/o Ramakrishnan 50 West 97th St. 15-T New York NY 10025
The website singhfoundation.org also has some information.
The national newspapers of all these regions--e.g The Times of India, the New Straits Times, the Jakarta Post--are co-ordinating or providing information about donations, but I'm not sure that they or other regional organisations can take foreign cheques/currency. You can go directly to their websites.
In Sri Lanka, the government has set up a Disaster Management Unit (DMU) at the President's office. The Unit can be contacted on 011-2-435082, 011-4-733531, 011-2-437362 and 011-4-733427.
The following 12 banks in India have been authorised to receive donations - State Bank of India - Central Bank of India - Union Bank of India - Dena Bank, Syndicate Bank - Corporation Bank - Bank of India - Indian Overseas Bank - Punjab National Bank - Indian Bank - Allahabad Bank - Citi Bank.