Emergencies
Volunteers Bring Help to Thailand’s Flood Victims
Volunteers float relief supplies on Styrofoam to stranded flood victims near Bangkok. Photo by Elizabeth Tromans/CRS
By Elizabeth Tromans
Filling the lobby of Caritas Thailand’s central office in Bangkok is a mountain of donated food and cases upon cases of bottled water. The Royal Thai Army quickly loads the food and water onto a military truck. In the lobby I find a group of ladies from various church groups bustling about, loading a few last items into the truck and taking turns snapping photos of each other. We boost each other up into the back of the truck. Amidst laughter and heaps of food we manage to find the last bits of open floor space, lay a piece of cardboard and settle in together in a pile bound for flooded neighborhoods on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Since July, Thailand has been suffering from the worst monsoon flooding in more than 50 years. At its height, floodwaters covered one-third of the country and affected an estimated 13.5 million people. The flooding made its way slowly south to Bangkok and surrounding areas. The crisis is taking a huge toll on the poor, particularly on the estimated 2.2 million undocumented migrant workers who have no access to government services.
With a significant middle class and a cultural proclivity for helping others, the outreach from volunteers wanting to help victims of the recent floods has been enormous. In some cases, even flood victims themselves whose homes are full of standing water have rallied to help those in worse situations than themselves. Caritas Thailand has received assistance from churches, youth groups, Catholic schools, hospitals, religious orders, and Diocesan Social Action Centers with offers to donate time, money or relief items.
Caritas Thailand has quickly mobilized staff and volunteers. They appealed to Thai Catholics—who contributed over $200,000—and mobilized funds from the Caritas community. They are distributing food and water as well as other non-food items, such as soap, flashlights, mosquito repellent and medicines. They are also providing training and supplies for purifying water and waste disposal; 70 volunteers have been trained by Caritas Thailand and are using what they learned to train flood-affected communities.
Volunteers load a boat to deliver food items to flood victims near Bangkok. Photo by Elizabeth Tromans/CRS
Caritas is also addressing the health needs of communities with volunteers from various Catholic healthcare providers by organizing mobile medical clinics; nearly 1,000 people have been diagnosed and treated so far. Volunteers are also helping to arrange “Big Cleaning Days” as waters begin to recede in some areas.
As we bounce down the road, the women volunteers begin to tell me about the work they do in various social action groups. I learn that they represent groups who, in non-emergency times work on a issues such as job training, peacebuilding, and hygiene education.
We squeeze together as one volunteer reaches for a plastic bag in which she has put aside meals for us out of the 1,000 meals for flood victims prepared by the Thai Catholic Women’s Association. We pass meals around, then squeeze our sticky rice out of a small plastic bag and carefully pick the fried fish away from tiny bones. We take turns standing up to peer out the canvass flaps of the truck to catch a view of the damage.
We reach one of our distribution sites for the day, a school building in Klaisorn village that is serving as a refugee center for 91 people forced from their homes as water rose. We volunteers divide into two groups; one group entertains the children with silly songs and a dance while the other unloads the food and other items from the truck.
Meanwhile, the head teacher named Choochat explains to me the situation in his village.
“At first,” he says, “we had some vegetables that were growing and bananas from our trees, but now there is no more food from our surroundings.”
Since supplies can’t reach them because of the water and mud, Choochat goes out to request help. He says the bottled water is especially useful, as their community well has become contaminated since the flooding. “We can cope with little food, but we really need clean water.”
In the background a volunteer is explaining how to purify the water while another demonstrates. The 91 people living in the school in Klisorn village will now have continual access to clean water.
Though the situation is dire and the water is anticipated to remain for several weeks, help is coming to people in Thailand through an unprecedented volunteer response. As volunteers continue to donate money, time, and resources, the water also begins to recede. And as it does, scores of passionate volunteers will continue to bring relief to their most needy neighbors.
Elizabeth Tromans, an Emergency Program Manager based in Afghanistan, is currently assisting Caritas Thailand on behalf of CRS for responding historic flooding throughout the country.
Tags: Asia, Emergency Response, Flooding, thailand
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