Teacher heads off to help tsunami victims

30/12/2004 - 16:12:09
A schoolteacher today gave up his Christmas holidays to help the survivors of the tsumani in Asia.

Tiernan Dolan, from Longford town, agreed to join GOAL’s emergency response team in Sri Lanka after receiving one day’s notice.

“This is the first time I’ve gone so quickly,” he said, “But if I can survive teaching, I’ll survive this.”

The secondary school teacher, who has also worked as a volunteer in Afghanistan and Rwanda, will act as a logistics co-ordinator with the GOAL team.

“The logistics team will open up channels of communication and get supplies in as quickly as possible,” said Mr Dolan.

Sri Lanka was the second-hardest hit nation by the tsunamis, with an official death toll of more than 23,000 deaths so far and another 4,000 people reported missing. There are also more than 745,000 people who have been left homeless.

Mr Dolan said he had been "humbled" by the response of people in his own area to the disaster.

Members of Longford Town FC Supporters Club stepped in to carry out the fundraising collection he had been planning, while local people called around to his house to offer money.

“I think there’s a very generous streak in Irish people. When you see the images on television, they are so moving and the plight of the people is so desperate,” he said.

Mr Dolan’s main involvement in GOAL was through fundraising but he began spending his school holidays on volunteer work abroad. Last Easter he went with GOAL to Ethiopia and last Halloween he travelled to Uganda.

However, his time in Sri Lanka will be curtailed by the resumption of the school term.

“I only have a week because I have to teach my children,” he said.

Meanwhile, the phone switchboards at GOAL’s headquarters in Dun Laoghaire, have been jammed with callers since the aid organisation launched its fundraising appeal for victims of the disaster.

“The response has been incredible. We’ve taken in €350,000 in the last three days,” said GOAL co-ordinator Jonathan Edgar.

He said GOAL was also using the money to send supplies to the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India. More than 7,000 people have been reported dead in Nagabatttinum, the most seriously affected region.

GOAL is feeding up to 20,000 families in the state, as well as providing clean water, kitchen utensils and plastic sheets for shelter.

“We are also looking to send a ship of supplies to the Amdaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean. There have been up to 4,000 deaths and up to 40,000 people reported missing, but the jetty was destroyed and we can’t dock the ship,” said Mr Edgar.

However, he added that the supplies would be landed as soon as the jetty was repaired.