| " Caritas took up the historical challenge of giving hope and life to the helpless victims of tsunami. Caritas was there with open arms, arms of consolation, arms of hope and above all open arms of unconditional love, a love that heals.It was also a major challenge for caritas to muster not only the means, but also agglomerate a diversity of experience, diversity of knowledge and above all a diversity of means to bring hope to the people. This was possible through the caritas network partners who were already present and ready to serve said Mr. Aloysius John Head of Asia Department of Caritas France at the Tsunami closing ceremony held on 23rd June 2009 at the BMICH. |
Your lordships
Venerable religious leaders,
Honourable Distinguished Guests,
Rev Fathers and Rev. Sisters,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is an honor and privilege to stand before you at this important moment to share a few thoughts as the facilitating partner representative. At a moment when this natural disaster struck the island, Caritas Sri Lanka had to respond to the needs but the magnitude of the problem was so huge that there was a need for a coordinated solidarity and support.
In such a desperate context, the church through Caritas took up the historical challenge of giving hope and life to the helpless victims of tsunami. Caritas was there with open arms, arms of consolation, arms of hope and above all open arms of unconditional love, a love that heals.
It was also a major challenge for caritas to muster not only the means, but |
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Mr. Aloysius John |
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also agglomerate a diversity of experience, diversity of knowledge and above all a diversity of means to bring hope to the people. This was possible through the caritas network partners who were already present and ready to serve. As member of the caritas internationalis confederation, caritas was able achieve this and today we can be proud of having achieved our mission, a mission of lightening rays of hope in those faces drowned in an ocean of despair.
These four and a half years were moments of expression of universal solidarity, unconditional compassion for the suffering and above all placing the human person before everything. It was also a lesson of humility for all of us, because before a task of such a huge magnitude we were also helpless and had to device new working methods, novel ways of responding and above all keeping in mind that action carried out is for the sake of the people, and as Khaleel Gibran a famous Lebaneese author says, “our action does not belong to us, they are for those whom we stand for”. Caritas with the sister member organizations stood up to this basic value and principle, motivated its staff towards unconditional commitment.
The tsunami experience was a moment of witnessing as caritas family ; it was also a moment of sharing and caring blended with high profile professionalism, sharing a common vision and undertaking the mission of serving the victims in a spirit of co-responsibility. At each moment of the activities, no effort were spared to ensure good governance and professionalism. In this journey, We as caritas network learnt a lot from you and we are also convinced that Caritas Sri Lanka has also gained immense experience and knowledge in this collaboration.
I wish to conclude by thanking each and every one of the partners for their collaboration and understanding, Caritas Sri Lanka for their good spirit and acceptance to high expectations, all the diocesan involved in the tsunami operations and last but not the least the Bishops task force which was a wonderful monitoring instrument for the tsunami operations. I also wish to thank this little girl in the arms of a lady whom I met on the 29/12/2004 near Batti, who said, I was there with my father, he left me and went away in the water and somebody took me, but he will come back. She incarnated the purpose of our commitment for the victims.
My last words are words of remembrance of the two staff of the Jaffna diocese, one of them whom I knew well, and who gave their lives in a bomb blast during their service.
Thank You !! |
