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March/April 2005 Featured Stories
Community Stars: Mercy Corps

When a global tragedy like the tsunami strikes, there is a great army of humanitarian professionals and volunteers that moves quickly and efficiently into action. They are charged with the first response of effective relief, when the victims, survivors and the rest of the world are still in shock. I think they also serve a vital function in our global psyche. When faced with such disasters, the human impulse is shock, grief, compassion and the inner need to do something to help. These organizations serve as our surrogates, putting our collective arms around the survivors and bringing comfort and help.

But it is not only when the tragedies are still fresh and in the headlines that help is needed. It is even more necessary for the painstaking, rewarding yet sometimes heart breaking work of piecing together shattered lives and livelihoods – efforts that take months and years. The forces causing such destruction are as often man-made disasters as natural ones. Whatever the source, humanitarian agencies patiently do their work.

One of the finest of these bodies has its roots here in the Pacific Northwest. In 1982, Ellsworth Culver joined Dan O’Neill to establish MERCY CORPS in Portland, Oregon. Since then Mercy Corps has generated nearly $830 million in humanitarian aid in 80 countries, assisting children and families through emergency relief projects, self-help development programs and civil society initiatives. The organization has been listed among the top charities in the nation for its cost efficient, high-impact programs worldwide – truly a Community Star (if not a whole galaxy!)

Mercy Corps has been in the forefront of those working toward both immediate and long-term recovery in response to last month’s disaster in Asia, where the death toll was approximately 230,000 dead or missing; 500,000 who have lost their homes and many family members; thousands more who have lost their livelihoods, and a devastated infrastructure. Undaunted by the scale of the disaster, Mercy Corps, working in cooperation with local authorities and non-governmental groups, has launched programs to generate income for survivors and re-establish economic opportunities through programs that begin long term recovery for the thousands of communities and hundreds of thousands of lives. Mercy Corps' innovative "Cash for Work" program is paying thousands of villagers a daily wage to clean up their communities, build simple bridges so they can reach their homes to salvage anything remaining, clean out schools so the children can resume their normal activities and move fishing boats back to the sea. With some money in their pockets, villagers can buy vegetables and other things that are not distributed by aid agencies - and they get the psychosocial benefit of starting to "move forward" instead of sitting hopelessly in camps. Its Cash-for-Work programs employ 1,800 in Indonesia, while aid reaches over 150,000 in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.

Because it is not sustainable to remain an "employer" of daily laborers forever, Mercy Corps is also jump-starting the local economy by helping survivors with micro enterprise that will generate their own income. Mercy Corps is giving soft loans and technical assistance to revitalize old businesses (repairing fishing boats and brick making kilns) and to develop new enterprises (such as recycling wood debris to make pallets for recovery efforts).

Alissa Keny-Guyer, wife of Mercy Corps’ Chief Executive Officer, Neal Keny-Guyer went to Indonesia to volunteer, as she is fluent in the language. Asked what her feelings were about what she saw, she responded: "One of the most uplifting aspects of the disaster response was the outpouring of compassion from people all around the world - from the local Acehnese who have taken thousands of IDPs into their homes and villages, to the Indonesian university students and other groups who flocked to Aceh from all over the country, to the foreign and national military and government groups who worked in collaboration and appreciation for each other's efforts, to the humanitarian aid workers who sleep on any available floor and work 16 hours a day, to the millions of citizens around the world who opened their pocket books to support the relief and recovery efforts. This disaster really seemed to bring out the best in the vast majority of people."

When asked What three words she would use to encapsulate her recent experience in Aceh, she answered "Compassion, spirit, hope."

For more information go to www.mercycorps.org or call 1-800-852-2100. Donations can be made online at: www.mercycorps.org/donate/
or sent to:
Mercy Corps Tsunami Fund
Dept. NR
PO Box 2669
Portland, OR 97208-2669