"Tsunami"
Aitape Diocese Rehabilitation Committee Report

A THANK YOU MESSAGE
FROM
BISHOP AUSTEN CRAPP, OFM
BISHOP OF AITAPE

As the Bishop of Aitape, it gives me great pleasure to thank you most sincerely for the very generous donations, compassion and love you all showed towards our tsunami-affected people.

I was personally involved in this dreadful disaster right from the beginning and saw the suffering and pain the people went through.

So much donation flowed into the Diocese of Aitape. I did not want people to think that the Diocese was using donation funds to undertake its normal pastoral responsibilities. Hence I established the Diocese of Aitape Rehabilitation Committee to take on the responsibility of accounting for all the donated funds and to coordinate and to undertake the actual work of relief and rehabilitation.

I am pleased that the Committee had done the job well and has properly accounted for all the donated funds under very difficult and at times, trying circumstances. I thank the Chiarman, Tas Maketu, and his team for the generous giving of their time and for a job well done.

For your support and prayers, I thank all of you. May God bless you richly.

 

+Austen Crapp, OFM
Bishop of Aitape

A THANK YOU MESSAGE
FROM THE CHAIRMAN
DIOCESE OF AITAPE REHABILITATION COMMITTEE

This disaster had everything and I mean everything. It had good and it had bad. It tested every aspect of government responsibility in a disaster situation and it tested every aspect of a relationship between the Church and State. Many useful lessons can be learned from this disaster for the benefit of better dealing with future disasters of this kind and of this magnitude.

Thank you for your many many messages of love, compassion and sympathy. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Indeed, thank you all for your generous donations-in-kind and donations in cash. What we were able to achieve would not have been possible without these donations.

For me personally, it was the most challenging assignment I have ever undertaken in my working life. Despite the many pains and difficult times, I feel a sense of satisfaction in having been involved almost from day one and to have made some contribution towards the return to normalcy of our people.

Thanks a million to all you people all over PNG and all you wonderful people all over the world for all your prayers and support. Special thanks go to all my Rehab Staff, Greg Browne, Phil Turner, Murray Perry, Garri Mantese, our ever popular and intrepid drivers Brian Palai, Odrick Wesley and Herbert Arar, our only local female staff Gertrude Numara, Steve Garry, Julian Menchalo, Claudia Vogt and Abel Bowmania our fearless security and Martin our storeman. As a member of our Committee, Lucy Keino offered advice on matters to do with women. We thank her for her part. Without their commitment, dedication and loyalty it would not have been possible to achieve what we did achieve in such a short space of time. A very special thank you go to our Bishop, the father of Rehab for all his total and an unwavering support.

Let us not ask why the disaster happened and why so many lives were taken and so much destruction was done. On the contrary, let us thank God for the tsunami survivors and ask Him of His plans on how we can serve Him.

B T Maketu
Chairman
Diocese of Aitape Rehabilitation Committee