Tsunami aid fund surpasses $400,000
Advertiser Staff
The East-West Center Tsunami Relief Fund has passed the $400,000 mark, with most of the money earmarked for immediate relief efforts and the rest to be spent for longer-term recovery and rebuilding.
Monetary donations to the East-West Center Tsunami Relief Fund can be dropped off at or mailed to the East-West Center, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96848-1601. Gifts also can be made online at www.eastwestcenter.org or dropped off at any First Hawaiian Bank. Information: 944-7111.
The East-West Center, other nonprofit organizations and Hawai'i businesses also have contributed in-kind services to make sure 100 percent of the tsunami relief fund — this week totaling more than $410,000 — is distributed to relief agencies working in the affected areas.
HOW TO HELP
Agencies and projects receiving money so far:
• WALHI-Friends of the Earth Indonesia ($30,000) — Addressing environmental and humanitarian issues.
• Sarvodaya ($30,000) — Providing for children orphaned by the disaster, as well as women and girls below the age of 19.
• Uplift International ($30,000) — Providing medicine and medical supplies to victims in North Sumatra, Indonesia.
• Operation U.S.A. ($50,000) — Providing medical and shelter supplies to tsunami victims in Indonesia, as well as food, water, medical supplies and water purification equipment in Sri Lanka.
• Vivekanand Medical Research Society ($10,000) — Aiding the poorest and most vulnerable people affected by the tsunami in India.
• Rajaprajanugroh Foundation ($10,000) — Working primarily with children orphaned by the tsunami in Thailand.
• Chennai, India ($5,000) — Buying fishing nets for island villages hit by the tsunami.
An additional $25,000 has been earmarked as matching funds for money that is raised by East-West Center alumni chapters in the affected areas; $6,500 of that already has been matched by alumni in Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
That money will benefit the humanitarian group Mercy Malaysia and Samaritan Home Relief, a project to rebuild the Samaritan Children's Home, an orphanage on Sri Lanka's eastern peninsula that was washed away by the tsunami.
