The contribution of Blessed Gérard's Disaster Relief Project towards the relief efforts, in aid of the victims of the seaquake in Asia on 26 December 2004

The Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard responded to a request and re-routed a considerable amount of medication (valued at approximately 15,000.00 Rand) for the disaster victims, which had been donated to us. The medication waited at Munich for an import permit into South Africa, but the most urgent need of the people, desperately waiting for medical supplies in East Asia, motivated us to send the medication there. The original donors of the pharmaceutical products agreed to the re-routing of their donation and we trust that our donors will honour our readiness to share, through their continued support of our work. The medication has been transported on 31 December 2004, by Cargolux, into the disaster area to Madras/India and Bangkok/Thailand.

Active Members of the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard - in their capacity as members of the Crisis Intervention Team of Malteser Hilfsdienst Traunstein - have been deployed to Franz-Josef-Strauß Airport (Munich International) to care for returning disaster victims. Gabriele Rauecker reported: "The first ones who arrived had nothing of their own, some of them arrived just in their underpants and were tremendously traumatised by the catastrophe. Their very life is all they could salvage."

Further information about the help of the Order of Malta for the disaster victims is available at

1. Sovereign Order of Malta - Official site

2. BASMOM Foreign Aid Service

3. Seebeben Asien Überblick

4. ECOM - Home

5. A picture of a German nurse with the Order of Malta comforting an injured elderly German national before he is loaded onto an emergency flight back to Germany. They are in a converted cargo hangar at the Phuket airport, Thailand. -> The News-Review - News

6. In Germany, the Order of Malta on Monday had 400 specially-trained child psycho-therapists read to help children who survived the tsunami. One of them is treating a five-year old child whose father died and whose mother was badly injured in the tidal waves. "These children are usually completely apathetic and it takes a long time for them to understand that they will never see their dead parents again," Order spokeswoman Claudia Kaminski said. -> Tsunami in the classroom DW-RADIO Deutsche Welle

7. 420 relief workers from the Order of Malta are currently on the ground in India and Thailand.
   In India, help began on Sunday, 26 December, together with our local partner the Diocese of Marthandam. This has now been extended on to the Diocese of Trivandrum and the Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI). Help to the east coast of India, at Pondicherri and Kollam in the Kerala district, is currently being assessed.
   In Thailand, an Emergency Corps Order of Malta (ECOM) team from the refugee camps in North West Thailand arrived in the region of Phuket on 28 December and began first relief operations with the distribution of food and non-food items such as blankets and mats to the most vulnerable and poorer villagers in the severely neglected towns of Phang-Nga and Ranong provinces. In the province of Phang-Nga, ECOM and Malteser Germany together with more local Order of Malta Associations are providing 2,000 families with supplies. All items are currently being bought on the local market. We are currently evaluating the feasibility of establishing partners in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and requests for information have also been sent to the Malteser Germany delegation in Kenya, as the East African coast was also struck by the wave. €250.000 was made available by Malteser Germany to cover the start up costs and the Order's Associations and Embassies across the world are currently raising funds -> News and Events - Order of Malta in the UK

How You can help us to help:

• By your prayers that God may bless our service and those we serve.
• By a donation towards our charity work.
• By joining us

  Join the Brotherhood!

  • as an Active Member, if you are able and prepared to participate in our projects to serve the poor voluntarily and agree with our principles.
  • as a Donor if you cannot help actively, but want to support our service financially on a regular basis.
  • as a Spiritual Supporter if you want to help us through your prayers regularly.

Press Release- The Holy Father helps the victims of the tsunami in South-East Asia and Africa

Back to the homepage of the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard

This page was last updated on Tuesday, 22 April 2008 00:54:15