Poem for Mothers / Tsunami Charity for Women
AP photo
When she awoke he was not there
She recalls a man with a mask shaking her
To a consciousness she'd wished she'd not regained
For all the pain that followed when memory fell
back in, like the flood that swept him away
from her desperate arms, his cries drowned by the sea
If she'd only been carried along with him
She would not be left here, cursed with knowing
she'll leave without his body, miraculously saved, alone.
--Jude Nagurney Camwell
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There are many agencies ready and waiting to take donations for tsunami relief. I have posted a list of these agencies, with links, at my personal website. Sri Lanka and Indonesia are likely to have the greatest need for humanitarian support. In Sri Lanka alone, over one million people have been displaced. Among them are tens of thousands of pregnant and nursing women, who are especially susceptible to waterborne diseases and require emergency medical attention and trauma counseling.
I want to make readers aware of one of those agencies, which is called MADRE.
MADRE is an international women’s human rights organization that works in partnership with women’s community-based groups in conflict areas worldwide. MADRE specializes in assisting displaced women and families, offering them crucial trauma counseling which will help them cope with the deaths of their children and other loved ones, gradually heal from their trauma, and begin to rebuild.
MADRE has chosen to partner with INFORM. They are part of a regional network of women’s groups that can reach out immediately to many different communities at at time such as this.
MADRE can be found on several websites (including Charity Navigator and GuideStar) that rate the business practices and overall effectiveness of charities.
Donation information can be found HERE.