BANGKOK: 31st December '04 -- "For us, the saddest thing is the orphaned children", said Fr Dheparat, Thai provincial, in a brief communiqué.  The Salesians in Thailand are closely monitoring the situation in conjunction with Bishop Prathan, given that the greatest loss of life and property has occurred in his diocese in Southern Thailand.

    The Salesians' first response was to provide the Bishop with cash and consumer goods to help meet the immediate needs of the people.  But on 2nd January, the Provincial and his council will meet at Surat Thani to discuss how best to proceed with the long-term needs in mind.  The current thinking is a sustainable and lasting project to help orphans and other children affected by the disaster - a possible project is to build a home to shelter and educate destitute children, giving a particular Salesian slant to the witness of solidarity.

    Fr Dheparat notes that the situation along that coastal area is as one could imagine it - besides the obvious aspects adequately commented on by international news media, and the growing toll, even in Thailand which was not as badly hit as Aceh to the South or the Andaman islands to the West, the people along the coast are living in constant fear that killer waves will return. And it is the ordinary folk who are suffering from lack of drinking water since all of their usual sources, mostly underground, are contaminated now by seawater.