“The devastation is even worse than reported.” That’s what folks I met with this week are saying about Banda Aceh. In one area where there were 28 villages, now there are 4 and those are barely there. Whereas official government reports coming from Indonesia are saying about 115,000 dead or missing, people in those areas are saying it is closer to half a million
Sadly, one of the other difficulties is the competition among and between some of the relief agencies (including Christian ones). As community development projects are proposed and implemented, some agencies are saying that they want to be responsible for this village or another. As one can imagine, other groups also would like to be involved. Instead of trying to work together to meet needs (and therefore be able to do much more), organizations want to be able to “report back” to their constituency all that “they” are doing
This is the kind of thing that REACT is trying to work for – assisting ministries in both their understanding and execution of partnering.
For more see www.REACTServices.com
