| Media and Updates NESRI MEDIA ADVISORY For Immediate Release: December 1, 2006 For More Information Contact: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton Meets Tsunami Community Advocates Former President Clinton travels to Thailand at the beginning of December to meet with community groups using innovative strategies for post-tsunami rebuilding and recovery. The efforts of tsunami-affected villages to rebuild their homes on their own terms, with support from Thai organizations and agencies like Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI) and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), are attracting increased international attention. A month ago, a delegation of hurricane Katrina and Rita survivor advocates went to the region to meet with these communities as part of an international exchange between grassroots disaster recovery activists. “The groups we are connecting with in Thailand are inspiring because they offer a framework for survivors to claim their human rights and dignity, while leading the process of rebuilding their communities with full participation and empowerment,” says Sharda Sekaran, Associate Director of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), who traveled with the Katrina delegation last month to help facilitate the exchange. “This has not been happening in the wake of the U.S. hurricanes but it gives us hope and a practical vision for what is possible.” The ten-member delegation from Mississippi, Louisiana and New York visiting the region last month included service providers, community organizers, human rights advocates, neighborhood leaders, environmental activists, local religious leaders, and a documentary filmmaker. They met with villages impacted by the 2004 tsunami in Thailand and the more recent earthquake in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The group also attended a regional conference on people-centered disaster recovery. The trip was part of an on-going exchange between activists in Asia and the United States, who are promoting models for rebuilding based on human rights, community participation and recognition of government responsibility to hurricane survivors as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). IDPs have special protections under international human rights standards and the post-disaster policy guidelines recommended by a number of countries, including the U.S. “Experiencing these community-led initiatives was transformative. It showed the potential impact when people come together to drive their own planning and rebuilding, and take control of their destinies,” says delegate Vicky Cintra from the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Association (MIRA) in Biloxi, MS. “As a grassroots organizer, it offers a great model for strategies to bring our people home and start our road to recovery. We are deeply grateful that President Clinton has taken time to visit the communities involved in these important projects.” Another member of the delegation, Latosha Brown from Saving OurSelves (SOS) in Alabama, says, “Having met with President Clinton here on the Gulf Coast after the storm, I’ve heard him discuss his respect for community leadership firsthand. In Thailand, he will have the opportunity to see what this really looks like when it is genuinely put into practice. It would be wonderful for him to channel his personal commitment into a process for supporting community-led efforts in the U.S., informed by successful models he observes in Asia.”
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