MRDS Online Newsletter:
Spring 2006

Imagine… you live in a harsh corner of the world. You survive recurrent droughts. You survive tribal incursions. You survive rebellions, bombings and Janjaweed raids. You are surviving in Darfur.

Imagine… an infection in your leg will not go away. Your health deteriorates. Soon you will be unable to care for your family. The medical clinic is hours away and besides, it was raided by the Janjaweed months ago. You have heard the clinic has reopened, but you find it almost impossible to believe. Who would stay if they were not born here?

Imagine… you are lifted onto a donkey and you head out with a companion to the medical center, praying the whole way that the rumors are true. Hours later you see the long line of people outside the small building and you breathe a sigh of relief. Today you will receive the help you need. Imagine that.

The upheaval and continued conflict in Darfur, western Sudan has created a desperate situation. Millions have been displaced or killed and many villages burned to the ground. Those who remain are faced with unbelievable obstacles. Even so, hundreds are returning from refugee camps to reclaim their land and their lives.

Millennium’s Darfur partners operate a medical clinic in a rural area of this troubled land. While many aid agencies are set up to help the many thousands of people sheltered in refugee camps, our team focuses their efforts on those living in villages out in the countryside.

Before the Janjaweed looted the medical clinic last September the doctors and assistants were seeing 120 people a week. After rebuilding and restocking the clinic they now serve 500 patients a week. The ill and infirm are coming from an ever widening area, some traveling six hours or more to receive attention. Besides the medical clinic, our partners operate a Women’s Health Facility, Supplementary Feeding Program, and a Health and Hygiene Program. There are plans to develop a program to acquire and distribute books and teaching materials to the area schools.

With more and more displaced people returning to their homeland, the needs continue to grow. And though the need is great and our team is small, they are determined to struggle alongside these incredibly courageous people, bringing them hope and a future. 

In post-tsunami Indonesia Millennium has two new teams who are dedicated to helping people as they restore what the earthquake and tsunami destroyed.

It has been over a year since the devastating earthquake and tsunami shook the area around the Indian Ocean in December of 2004. In Indonesia alone over 150,000 people were lost and the geographical composition of the island completely changed. Entire communities were washed away, families ripped apart, and lives forever altered in a matter of hours. One can only imagine the amount of time it will take to rebuild the many communities affected by such a catastrophe.

Thanks to our experienced workers from other parts of Indonesia, Millennium was one of the first NGOs on the scene in Banda Aceh. Initially, we worked pumping contaminated sea water from over 100 fresh water wells. We coordinated work-for-pay clean up projects and assisted in trauma counseling for children. In addition, our team’s knowledge of the language and culture gave them a prominent roll in communication between local people and the myriad of foreign aid companies just coming into the area.

In October of 2005, a new Millennium team was in place to take over the work begun in Banda Aceh. Local staff had been hired months before and now, with the full team in place, research into the needs of the community was stepped up. The local people recognize Millennium’s commitment not only to their disaster recovery but to long term recovery and economic development.

One such commitment has been in agricultural development. An Agro forestry project began in September 2005 when the first pomello tree seedlings were distributed to one of the villages near the coast. Before the tsunami hit, this village was a main center for growing and selling pomello fruit. The business was centered at a busy bridge near the village and travelers between Banda Aceh and Meulaboh would stop to buy fruit. More importantly, businessmen from Banda Aceh came down daily to buy pomello, shipping them to Medan, Jakarta, Singapore, and elsewhere throughout the area.

This project is breathing life into people who are rebuilding every aspect of their lives. The project has spread to two other villages and also includes replanting of mango and coconut trees. Bringing back the agri-business is an important component of economic recovery in the coastal region where it is second only to fishing.

Even though our team is new to this area, and still working with the community to assess long term needs, they have been able to begin small projects. They have distributed books in 21 village schools through “traveling libraries”. They have also helped a group of women begin a handicrafts business making woven baskets for the packaging of fair trade coffee for a local coffee grower.

These seem like small things, but every effort is a restorative step for a man, woman or a child as they journey from adversity to hope.

Our partners had not prepared for a natural disaster of this magnitude, but their ingenuity and steadfast efforts provided winter shelter for 36,000 people in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.

“What Should We Do, Bill?”

After the October 8, 2005 earthquake struck Northern Pakistan and India our phones did not stop ringing. Millennium partners were calling the Houston office for advice on how to best help the quake victims. Snows would soon be falling in the Himalayas on over two million people who suddenly found themselves homeless.

As is often the case with good relief planning the reply was, “Whatever you do, plan as though you will not get any outside help.” The first step is to help the affected community take ownership of the need and begin working from the inside out. The result was an adaptation of a shelter design made from locally available materials.

Early decisions like these proved crucial in the days that followed. This was a race against time and in retrospect, supplies from the U.S. would have been too late. Yes, help did come from the outside and it was invaluable once the shelter plan was put in motion. Thanks to the generous support of donors and volunteers around the world, needs and solutions were wed bringing intelligent compassion to a very complex situation.

Implementation of the plan, however, brought many challenges. Getting supplies into remote locations before winter was a logistical nightmare. Helicopters, trucks, jeeps and mule-trains were all utilized in getting materials and men to villages high in the mountains. Businessmen, students, relief workers, reporters and soldiers worked together night and day until 6,000 shelters were manufactured, transported and set in place.

Shelter Timeline

October 8, 2005: 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes high in the mountains of Northern Pakistan and India.

October 10, 2005: MRDS partners in Pakistan begin surveying the damage. Shelter is a pressing need.

October 24, 2005: A plan is put into action. Phase One focuses on emergency shelter construction and placement in the less accessible, higher elevations of 5,000 to 8,000 feet.

November 9, 2005: The UN reports: “The job is colossal.” In designing, building, and delivering shelters, MRDS partners become suppliers for several other organizations on the field, as well as our own program.

November 20, 2005: First volunteers arrive to aid in logistics and implementation. Ultimately over 300 volunteers came from Pakistan, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom and the United States to help our team over the next six weeks.

December 14, 2005: U.S. volunteers arrive in Manserah, split into teams and go to three base camps above 5,000 feet to begin shelter coordination and placement.

December 15, 2005: The UN reports there is significant concern that people will not come down from the mountains to get the help they need and will be trapped by the snow without shelter or food.

February 9, 2006: The Millennium team reports that by the end of January, 2006 over 36,000 people benefited from the 6,000 emergency winter shelters provided.

March 1, 2006: Phase Two, work with local people for effective long-term reconstruction begins. Phase Three, establishing a working Development Center in the area will begin later in the year.

The world is made up of survivors. We are all surviving one thing or another.

For some, life is smooth and survival is measured in years of relative calm. Then sickness or disaster brings reality into sharp focus and, for a time, life is fragile and dear. Inevitably, over time, the smooth rhythm of life resumes and survival is once again taken for granted.

For others, life is rarely smooth and surviving each day is a triumph. Tragedy and disaster sweep over people even as they are recovering from the last onslaught. Life is difficult, unpredictable and survival is definitely not taken for granted.

At Millennium, we step out of the calm and into the rough places where people struggle to survive. Together we can bring another day of triumph to people who are determined to survive.