THE RAPID response of community-based organisations, including churches, is critical to saving lives after natural disasters such as the tsunami, Christian Aid said on Tuesday. Early warning systems must be in place, it declared.

The charity reported that one of its partner organisations, a women's collective in India, had been able to mobilise volunteers in Tamil Nadu just hours after the tsunami struck.

But Sushant Agrawal, the director of the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) in India, said its village-based task forces could have saved many more lives in Tamil Nadu if they had received early warnings of the impending disaster.

In the Lords last week, the Bishop of Southwell, the Rt Revd George Cassidy, said: "Emergency assistance to those in immediate need and debt relief for the poorest must surely be accompanied by the determination on the part of the international community to tackle those systemic barriers, such as the imbalance in international trade, which continue to prevent many countries in the region from realising their full economic potential."

A fund started by the Bishop of Ripon & Leeds, the Rt Revd John Packer, to help its link diocese in Colombo, Sri Lanka, has reached £100,000. This Sunday, a party of 12 staff from church schools in the diocese will fly to Sri Lanka.

www.riponleeds.anglican.org
www.christian-aid.org.uk