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Virtual Dialogues with Tsunami-Affected Region

Posted: Thursday January 20, 2005 5:19 PM EST

By Church World Service

Students, Citizen Networks, Think Tanks, and Nonprofits Combine for Virtual Dialogues with Tsunami-Affected Region

On January 26, people from around the United States and the United Kingdom will sit down face to face with victims of the South Asian tsunami for an unprecedented live videoconference dialogue. The event is designed to strengthen public awareness of the need for development in South Asia and ensure that the generosity inspired by the disaster continues even after the region leaves the headlines. This first videoconference will feature speakers from Sri Lanka and will occur exactly one month after the tsunami killed upwards of 150,000 people and spawned the largest United Nations relief effort in history.

Reporters can attend the videoconference from 8 to 10 a.m. EST on Jan. 26 at the World Bank Office at 1818 H St., NW. in Washington, D.C. The D.C. site will be linked via live video with Colombo (Sri Lanka), Bloomington (Indiana Univ.), Chicago (Northwestern University), Dallas (Univ. of Texas), New Brunswick (Rutgers), New Haven (Yale), New Orleans (Tulane), Philadelphia (Univ. of Penn.), Washington, D.C. (World Bank), London (World Bank), and Oxford (Oxford University). The videoconference will feature opening reports by Sri Lankan leaders and citizens, including Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the Prime Minister and Member of the Task Force to Rebuild the Nation; Dr. Kan Tun, World Health Organization; and Dr. Lalith Wikramanayake, Chairperson, Environmental Foundation Ltd. (Sri Lanka). After these opening reports, American and British students and citizens will be able to ask questions and share comments.

The eleven-city videoconference is the kick-off event for a new, ongoing series that seeks to sustain public awareness about the tsunami-affected region and to ensure long-term international support for rebuilding. More videoconferences with Sri Lanka and other affected areas, as well as a series of town hall meetings on U.S. development aid, are already being planned to follow up this event.

The series, called Partners for Progress, has brought together a rare coalition of organizations—student groups, civil society organizations, think tanks, and international relief NGOs. The goal behind this diverse coalition, organizers say, is to allow citizen to citizen dialogue, but at the same time to inform that dialogue with cutting-edge research and up-to-date information from the ground. The coalition includes Americans for Informed Democracy, the United Nations Foundation, Action Against Hunger, the Center for Global Development, Church World Service, the Democracy Collaborative, the Global Interdependence Initiative, International Relief and Development, Inc., NetAid, Refugees International, OrangeBand Initiative, and Women’s Edge Coalition.

Seth Green of Americans for Informed Democracy, a global student organization, said the idea for the initiative came out of an e-mail he received from a colleague questioning how the tremendous outpouring of sympathy after the tsunami could be sustained over the long-run. Green and others believed that allowing citizens in the U.S. to talk directly with citizens in the tsunami-affected region could help ensure that the rebuilding effort there continues to have a “human face.” Green also said that the ongoing nature of the videoconference would allow citizens to see how their contributions are creating real progress for people half a world away.

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