austraLasia 1085
Thai Tsunami relief leaves vivid memories - lest
we forget.
PHUKET: 17th March 2005 -- Hard to believe
but true. Just yesterday, Salesian regional superior Fr Vaclav Klement
visited part of the 300 km coastline near Phuket to realise that at Yanyao and
Ban Muang 800 corpses lie unidentified in refrigerators and 4,000 are still
listed officially as 'missing'.
With the help of Fr Patrick Maccioni SDB
(Rector, diocesan minor seminary Surat Thani) and Fr John Suthep SDB
who conducts the emergency Thai Boy Scouts Camp in the region - and of
course with the overall assistance of Bishop Joseph Prathan, Fr Klement was able
to gauge the situation for himself.
The 'scout' story is a modern version of
Don Bosco's encouragement to the Oratory boys to get in and help Turin's cholera
victims. A local fisherman and business man who lost all 7 of his boats to
the Tsunami, but whose house was miraculously saved, has offered 3 hectares to
the scouts on an indefinite basis. At the Tsunami scout camp, hundreds of
Thai Catholic scouts spend a number of days, visiting villages (100% temporary
housing). During the day, the scouts spend their day with the families,
listening, helping. At night in their tents they share, amongst
themselves, their common experience of compassionate help .
Other Catholic volunteers from university
groups (holidays have begun in Thailand) are also helping out. The
striking factor, for locals, is that the Thai Catholic community, young and old,
has never left them!
Surat Thani Don Bosco Tech students met
with Fr Klement and shared their own experiences of working for up to two weeks
at a time in nearby villages, a neat experience of service of this
kind for the first time in their young lives.
Two FMA Sisters with 15 of their students
and past pupils of four different FMA schools have been doing something similar,
in particular helping with reconstruction, some helping non-Thai (often illegal
Burmese, or tribal people) in nearby villages.
Fr Klement visited one of the completely
destroyed villages along the coast where the Catholic community has been hard at
work. There he found 50 tonne fishing boats dropped 500 metres from the
coast, on houses. He visited the three camps where 28 Religious
Congregations are at work as part of the joint task force mounted by the Thai
Episcopal Conference.
Amongst the most striking of images for the
Visitor were: the work being done on fishing boats and the aim to have them
at sea by end of March; the appreciation for the unique NGO, if you can call it
that, of Catholic Religious who have stayed with the people all this time.
The SIHM Sisters led by Bishop Prathan's niece have entered villages as yet
without government help - and in special need of doctors and dentists (if any
are reading this!).
It is a matter of money, now. The
resorts are mainly back up and running. The Salesian project, a modest
orphanage, is moving to a point of planning agreement but in need of land -
which has rapidly escalated in price!
___________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian
Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based
in Rome. Try also www.bosconet.aust.com and Lexisdb
