Ten Years On

Oxfam Scotland says donations from people in Scotland helped save lives following the 2004 Tsunami.

The tsunami on Boxing Day ten years ago was unprecedented. It hit 14 countries and affected 5 million people, killing an estimated 230,000 people and making 1.7 million homeless. 

An estimated $13.5 billion (£8.6bn) was raised by the international community. Up to 40% was donated by individuals, trusts, foundations and business, making it the highest ever privately funded emergency. 

Globally, Oxfam received $294 million (£187m), with over 90% coming from private donors. Most of this was raised in the UK. Even now, the Disasters Emergency Committee's tsunami appeal, of which Oxfam is a member, remains the highest total ever raised. Up to 80 per cent of UK households are thought to have contributed to the £392 million donated. 

The generous funding meant that Oxfam was able to respond in seven countries - Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand and Somalia, making it Oxfam's biggest emergency response ever. The international agency provided emergency water, food and shelter, and then had enough to improve livelihoods over a five-year period. 

Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam in Scotland, said: 

"People in Scotland, and indeed throughout the UK, should be left in no doubt that they were part of an extraordinary life-saving and life-changing effort. Their generosity meant that people who had lost so much in a matter of minutes were able to recover, piece back their lives and today be in a stronger position than hardly anyone dared imagine ten years ago."

Oxfam and its partners helped an estimated 2.5 million people between 2004 and 2009. In the period immediately after the tsunami, the international agency provided shelter for more than 40,000 people, provided blankets and trucked in clean water. Over the next three years, Oxfam continued to truck more than 300 million litres to Aceh, Indonesia, which was among the hardest hit. 

Work from Oxfam and partners included improving or building more than 10,800 wells, 90 boreholes and 55 gravity flow water systems. In Aceh, a municipal system to supply 10,000 people was built and training provided for local communities to maintain it. A return trip to the communities in Aceh earlier this year confirmed that water systems are still running under the eye of local volunteers and that Oxfam’s wider response made a difference to people’s lives. 

The charity also reached a further 960,000 people to help improve their incomes, either by recruiting people to help with clean-up projects or by restoring livelihoods such as replacing fishing boats, constructing docks in Indonesia and Somalia, improving agricultural practices and replacing livestock. Other work included constructing or repairing 100 schools in Indonesia and Myanmar. 

The speed of donations for the tsunami response was unique: 80% of Oxfam's total donations were made in just one month. Oxfam set up a special fund to help manage the funds during the response.