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  Students Offer Assistance to Tsunami Victims
  by Rob Detlefsen ’07

David Beckstrom ’06 helps process food donations in northern Sumatra as part of relief efforts in the region.
David Beckstrom ’06 helps process food donations in northern Sumatra as part of relief efforts in the region.

Two Colorado College students traveled to areas leveled by the December 2004 tsunami to offer their hearts and hands directly to people affected by the disaster.

A graduate of the Jakarta International School, David Beckstrom ’06, had returned there for the holiday break. After the tsunami, Beckstrom stayed to help; after weeks of frustrating delays, he found work with Save the Children. As he left for the city of Medan in northern Sumatra, Beckstrom wrote in an e-mail, “I am incredibly excited to be getting closer to the main (assistance) operations and am thrilled that I am able to be part of them.”

Meanwhile, Anna Morton ’07 simply packed her bags in January and left for Asia, with nary a local contact or mission in mind. She wrote the following about her experience in Banda Aceh.

“Not until I smelled the undeniable stench of death did I understand what I had come to. Though workers have cleared away many bodies, 1,000 are found daily in the rubble.
When I first walked into “the Broken Town,” it was late in the day; the light was low and the flies were thick. It was so quiet; nothing moved. The air was heavy with death. I felt the devastation crush me… and I wept uncontrollably. I finally understood what had happened. I went to Banda Aceh in January without any mission in mind. I was just going to let it fall into place. I know that sounds crazy: I am a 19-year-old girl with no special skills, experience, or expertise. Could I do anything to help the victims of the second-largest natural disaster in recorded history? But going was not a mistake.

The first campus response was a fund-raiser at a January hockey game; fans donated $3,000 toward the relief effort. In February, CCCA, RISE (an anti-oppression student group), and the Renaissance Club sponsored a concert, above, featuring Livesounds bands, with proceeds going to Feed the Children. “We wanted to do a positive event with campus-wide support,” says the Renaissance Club’s <strong>Tyler Montgomery ’05</strong>.
The first campus response was a fund-raiser at a January hockey game; fans donated $3,000 toward the relief effort. In February, CCCA, RISE (an anti-oppression student group), and the Renaissance Club sponsored a concert, above, featuring Livesounds bands, with proceeds going to Feed the Children. “We wanted to do a positive event with campus-wide support,” says the Renaissance Club’s Tyler Montgomery ’05.
Photos by Brian Miller '05.
A young man named Rahmad became our driver and interpreter. He lost his family in the tsunami and had nothing but the clothes on his back. We helped him contact UNICEF and Mercy Corps, two NGOs looking for local contractors to build relocation camps for people left homeless after the disaster. I also worked with Mercy Corps’s Cash for Work programs and UNICEF’s vaccinations program.

Anna Morton ’07 and her father, Craig Morton, traveled to Banda Aceh in northern Sumatra to connect victims of the tsunami to the relief organizations that could best help them.
Anna Morton ’07 and her father, Craig Morton, traveled to Banda Aceh in northern Sumatra to connect victims of the tsunami to the relief organizations that could best help them.

When we first met Rahmad, he was hopeless. Like so many, he didn’t know how to move forward. He told us, “Why should I stay? There is nothing left for me here.” But by the time we left, Rahmad decided to stay and rebuild Aceh. He saw hope. And so did we.”

 
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