A three-minute Sound of Silence starting on Dec. 25 at 7:58 p.m. (EST) will commemorate the anniversary of the Southeast Asia tsunami. One year after the disaster the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International is encouraging the world take the time to honor the survivors and remember those who lost their lives.

“ADRA urges your participation in three minutes of silence,” said Charles Sandefur, president of ADRA International. “When the tsunami struck, the world responded with overwhelming financial generosity. When the world pauses on the anniversary, survivors will be reminded that they are not alone, and that the loved ones they lost have not been forgotten.”

ADRA has also prepared a special report to help individuals learn how the agency has allocated its disaster funding. The report includes photos, a timeline of the disaster, narratives and stories from ADRA front-line workers, as well as details of ADRA’s immediate response and its current long-term rehabilitation projects.

The Southeast Asia tsunami struck on December 26 (local time in Indonesia), 2004, and killed at least 280,000 people. In the hours and days following the world’s most devastating tsunami, ADRA was on the ground with emergency aid. Its initial emergency response included the provision of food, water, shelter, blankets, water containers, chlorine tablets, and mosquito nets.

A year later, ADRA remains active in its tsunami response. To date it has programmed more than U.S. $39 million worth of aid. ADRA has long-term development programs in place that are rebuilding lives and restoring dignity and hope in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. 

ADRA’s long-term development projects in Indonesia focus on three areas: health, educational rehabilitation, and livelihoods recovery, some of which includes: upgrading local hospital facilities, school rehabilitation and sustainability of school systems and community linkage projects.  Because Indonesia is the most severely affected country tsunami response there is planned through December 2009.

In Thailand,  ADRA will focus on health interventions, community recovery, household recovery, and educational rehabilitation. Rehabilitation projects in that country are planned through January 2008.

Its long-term development projects in Sri Lanka focus on providing shelter, water, and sanitation. Additionally, ADRA is working to restore livelihoods through local grants, a vocational training center, and an energy farm, which provides the first gasification to grid energy farm in Sri Lanka, a viable cash crop alternative for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and relocated households. ADRA Sri Lanka’s tsunami response is scheduled through December 2009.

ADRA’s long-term development projects in India focus on reconstruction and infrastructure rehabilitation by providing temporary, intermediate, and permanent housing, and intermediate and permanent community halls to be used for health centers and school classrooms and later as health education classrooms, for women’s groups meetings, and vocational skills training centers. Its tsunami response projects are planned through December 2009.