As the death toll climbed as high as 150,000 in the aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated coastal areas of Asia, Christian relief organizations have already started assisting those in need in the affected areas of Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Indonesia.
Compassion International teams have spent the last week trying to reach families in their programs in India, Thailand, and Indonesia. At least one Compassion-assisted child was killed in India, where the organization has projects on the devastated eastern coast. More than 25 fathers of Compassion-assisted children were lost at sea when the waves struck North Chennai, India. Many homes and villages were completely destroyed. Compassion projects in Thailand and Indonesia were not severely impacted.
"In India, Compassion staff is traveling to the home of each child living in the impacted areas to see if all children and family members are accounted for and if their homes have been damaged," said David Dahlin, senior vice president and Chief Operating Officer of Compassion International. "This tsunami has devastated families across many Asian nations."
Compassion, like many other agencies, has created a Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund to help victims. Agencies are asking for monetary donations rather than donations of food and other items because of the difficulty in getting the items delivered. Compassion is pledging $375,000 in a major relief initiative to Aceh, Indonesia, to identify and care for orphaned children and to deliver food, clean water, medical care, and counseling to specific families in crisis.
"A disaster such as this is terribly devastating to those living in poverty because they have few resources to help rebuild their lives," Dahlin said. "They don't have homeowners insurance or health insurance, or any of the safety nets we have in developed countries. Many of our children lost their homes and everything in them, and have no clothes except what they are wearing on the day the tsunami struck."
Through the Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund, Compassion is providing its immediate relief aid to orphans and families in Aceh in a three-phased relief plan over the next 3 months, with a kitchen providing two meals a day, emergency shelter construction, and distribution of basic household and hygiene kits.
The second phase will include distribution of dry rations and cooking kits, while the third phase is a long-term assessment for stabilization of the area.
Food for the Hungry is responding to the disaster by pledging $3 million to relief efforts in the countries of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India, and FFTH teams began working in the affected areas immediately after the tsunami struck.
According to David Evans, Vice President of Government and Gift-in-Kind Resources, "The disaster response effort is significantly more complex than most emergencies due to the huge geographical area that has been devastated by the tsunami. At least five countries 
were hard hit and large swathes of their coastlands are in ruins," said David Evans, vice president of government and gift-in-kind resources for FFTH. "This is compounded by the difficulty in getting help to the many islands that were inundated. Millions of people are without food, water and shelter. Those will be the key needs that we respond to over the next few weeks."
