Author: @0#UT9##7L

The earthquake that hit parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on the morning of Saturday 8 October 2005, 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Islamabad, caused massive devastation, razing entire villages and towns to the ground.

We are working with our partner, the global alliance ACT International, to ensure that aid is delivered to those in need. ACT members are responding in Pakistan to assist families in North West Frontier Province and Azad Kashmir.

Emergency food packages (including wheat flour, rice, pulses and cooking oil) and shelter kits are being distributed and medical camps have been set up in affected areas.ACT members are working closely with international and local organisations and authorities to organise relief efforts which will address immediate needs, and determine what longer-term response may be needed.

Days before the World Trade Organisation summit in Hong Kong, and on the eve of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty’s International White Band Day III, 60 young people and youth leaders from YMCAs across the UK and Ireland gathered at Y Care International’s annual conference to discuss how to take the Make Poverty History campaign forward into 2006.

A Capoeira workshop explored another type of self-expression, through a combination of dance and non-violent combat.The diversity of ideas expressed throughout the day was partly due to the diversity of the people present. Jane Turner from the Everyday Theatre Company, who led a drama workshop, said: “Quite often when you do workshops it’s the same kind of people but the great thing about working with Y Care International is that it crosses age groups and backgrounds. It’s national and international”.

Towards the end of the day the conference split into regional action groups – the aim: to come up with a pledge of action for the coming year. Once again there was a remarkable range of ideas: regional partnerships, letter writing marathons and petitions; from asking shops about the origins of their products, to asking YMCA board members about their investment policies.The entire day was a powerful antidote to the jaded assumption that all young people are apathetic about politics. For confirmation you only had to listen to a young representative from the north of England: “We want to speak to Tony Blair face to face. We don’t know how easy it is but we’re going to try”.

One year on from the South Asian Tsunami, Pamela Nowicka meets YMCA Base Co-ordinator Charith de Silva, whose work with his community is providing for present needs and preparing for a better future.

Y Care International’s partner YMCA in Matara, Sri Lanka, offers a model of post-Tsunami rebuilding work. But not just of structures – like houses, or providing help in the form of grants to help with small business set-up or education – but in building that most tenuous but vital intangible… community.

And instrumental in that process is the combination of youthful enthusiasm and empathetic maturity found in 22-year-old Charith de Silva, the YMCA Base Co-ordinator for Galle and Matara.Charith has been involved in the YMCA in his native Badulla in central Sri Lanka since he was 15, firstly as a youth member, then working his way up to Youth President.

“My father was a warrant officer in the Sri Lankan army. He’d been working with the YMCA for 10-15 years and he encouraged me to get involved by going to a national camp. There were so many opportunities – badminton, Christmas programmes, youth camps. I enjoyed myself very much.

Most of my friends are Buddhist and most of them came with me after I joined.Charith was working as a volunteer in Kalmunai, when, shortly after the Tsunami, he was given the post of Base Co-ordinator. “My job is about Tsunami relief work. But the YMCA is not just for Tsunami work, it’s for everything: youth and child rights work, peace building, awareness building and building a YMCA identity.

Over 10 million people are in urgent need of aid and their lives are at risk if food and water do not arrive soon. The failure of the annual rains last year has triggered the emergency in East Africa, but it has been developing over recent years with poor or no rainfall. Although some rains have now been reported, there are concerns these may worsen the situation by causing the spread of disease.In one of the worst affected countries, Kenya, the President has declared the famine a ‘national disaster’ – 3.5 million Kenyans are facing starvation. In Malawi, the rains were as normal until January 2005, when they stopped three months early, severely damaging crops.

Y Care International is supporting the relief efforts of YMCAs in the region, and the work of members of the global alliance ACT International in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Malawi.Donations to the appeal will go towards urgent food aid and other relief work. This will help save lives where malnutrition is becoming severe and will help people survive day-to-day.Y Care International’s partners will address the immediate food and water needs of the worst affected communities by distributing food, water tankering for domestic and livestock use, as well as drilling and repairing boreholes.

Assistance is also needed for more long-term needs, like restocking farmers’ cattle and seed stock in preparation for the next crop season.As well as emergency food distribution, YMCAs in the region are providing a health centre and income generating activities, as well as planning education to give people the skills to cope with drought in the future.

Help now

Children and young people living with HIV/AIDS in India will receive vital care thanks to a corporate partnership between Y Care International, the international relief and development agency of the YMCA in the UK and Ireland, and Kent Reliance Building Society.The partnership will see the Building Society donating £10,000 to support a children’s home in Mangalore for children and young people living with HIV/AIDS and AIDS orphans.Chris Roles,

Y Care International’s Chief Executive, said: “A safe home is a basic need – something which both Y Care International and Kent Reliance Building Society understand. With the support of Kent Reliance, children and young people in India who would otherwise be homeless and without care, will be able to receive the protection and help they deserve.”Kent Reliance has also pledged to support other work of Y Care International’s partner, Mangalore YMCA, to raise awareness with vulnerable groups about the prevention of HIV/AIDS infection.

Kent Reliance’s subsidiary Easiprocess, based in nearby Bangalore, will work with Y Care International on this and similar projects in the future.Kent Reliance Building Society has traditionally supported charities in its home county of Kent. Now it has a presence in India, it is expanding its charitable activities to communities in India too.Mike Lazenby, Chief Executive of Kent Reliance Building Society, said: “With a significant part of the Society’s processing operations now based in Bangalore it seems appropriate and reasonable to support charitable initiatives in India as well as in the UK.

The work with Y Care International will complement the existing relationships with the NSPCC Full Stop campaign in the UK and SOS Children’s Villages India.”Since 1989 Kent Reliance has also supported Y Care International’s emergency appeals, by making it possible for members of the public to donate to appeals in branches.Terry Waite CBE is Y Care International’s President. He said: “I am delighted that Kent Reliance is adding to its support of Y Care International’s emergency work by making this commitment to our long-term programmes too. This is encouraging for us, but more importantly it will bring hope to many young people in India.”

A powerful anthology of stories about the real-life experiences of children and young people affected by December 2004’s South Asian Tsunami has been published to raise money for Y Care International.

The charity is one of five international aid agencies (along with UNICEF, Save the Children, SOS Children and Handicap International) to have contributed background information for the stories in ‘Higher Ground’, all on real young people who have been supported by their post-Tsunami relief work.They are each receiving a portion of the royalties on the sale of the book from its publisher, Chrysalis Books Group.‘Higher Ground’ is a collection of sixteen short stories, each written by a well-known children’s author.

Each story is about a different child or young person from a country affected by the Tsunami that ends with an update on their real-life progress by the charity that supported their recovery following the Tsunami.The book’s authors – which include Melvin Burgess, Eoin Colfer, Gillian Cross, Narinder Dhami, Malachy Doyle and John Fardell – tell incredible stories of bravery and survival, and look at how money the public generously donated towards charity aid efforts has supported the children involved.

Y Care International, the international relief and development agency of the YMCA in the UK and Ireland, has launched an emergency appeal for communities affected by the worsening food crisis in East Africa.The charity is supporting the relief efforts of YMCAs in the region, and the work of members of the global alliance ACT International in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Malawi. Donations to the appeal will go towards urgent food aid and other relief work.Over 10 million people are in urgent need of aid and their lives are at risk if food and water do not arrive soon.

The failure of the annual rains last year has triggered the emergency in East Africa, but it has been developing over recent years with poor or no rainfall. Although some rains have now been reported, there are concerns these may worsen the situation by causing the spread of disease.Where communities have coped in the past, their methods of coping are no longer working. People depend on crops and livestock for their survival but both are in depletion as the situation deteriorates.

As water sources dry up, famine conditions and deaths are being reported.In one of the worst affected countries, Kenya, the President has declared the famine a ‘national disaster’ – 3.5 million Kenyans are facing starvation. In Malawi, the rains were as normal until January 2005, when they stopped three months early, severely damaging crops.In other cases across the region, many children are too weak to walk to school or families have no money to pay their school fees.

Money donated to the appeal will help save lives where malnutrition is becoming severe and will help people survive day-to-day. Y Care International’s partners will address the immediate food and water needs of the worst affected communities by distributing food, water tankering for domestic and livestock use, as well as drilling and repairing boreholes.

Assistance is also needed for more long-term needs, like restocking farmers’ cattle and seed stock in preparation for the next crop season.As well as emergency food distribution, YMCAs in the region are providing a health centre and income generating activities, as well as planning education to give people the skills to cope with drought in the future.Donations to Y Care International’s East Africa Emergency Appeal can be made at www.ycare.org.uk and also over the counter at high street building societies and some banks.