October 17, 2005: Headlines: COS - Colombia: COS - Sri Lanka: Tsunami Relief: Crisis Corps: The Argus: Colombia RPCV Bob Loew helps tsunami-rebuilding efforts
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October 17, 2005: Headlines: COS - Colombia: COS - Sri Lanka: Tsunami Relief: Crisis Corps: The Argus: Colombia RPCV Bob Loew helps tsunami-rebuilding efforts
Colombia RPCV Bob Loew helps tsunami-rebuilding efforts
An algebra and geometry teacher at Pleasanton's Foothill High School, Loew came home toward the end of the school year in May and told his family he had planned to re-enlist in the Peace Corps with the intention of going to a tsunami-ravaged country.
Colombia RPCV Bob Loew helps tsunami-rebuilding efforts
Fremont man helps tsunami-rebuilding efforts
High school teacher uses expertise in civil-engineering to construct buildings in Sri Lanka
By Eleni Economides, STAFF WRITER
FREMONT — Bob Loew is pretty familiar with distant lands. After he spent two years in Colombia and six months in Peru with the Peace Corps, Loew's confidence in his ability to help propelled him to make a difference in one of the most distant lands yet — Sri Lanka.
"I was very impressed by the magnitude of the damage shown on the news after the tsunami hit, but I wanted to play another role besides donating money. I wanted to use skills I had to make a difference," said Loew, who recently returned from a three-month adventure.
A Fremont resident and a University of California, Berkeley, civil engineering graduate, Loew wanted to go to Sri Lanka and use his engineering expertise to help rebuild tsunami-ravaged homes and other buildings.
"My desire to help was much stronger than any reservations I had about safety," he said.
An algebra and geometry teacher at Pleasanton's Foothill High School, Loew came home toward the end of the school year in May and told his family he had planned to re-enlist in the Peace Corps with the intention of going to a tsunami-ravaged country.
"My daughter was very supportive and thought it was great," Loew said. "But my wife — well, it took her a few days, and then she felt comfortable with it."
In order to leave, Loew also needed to take a month off from teaching at Foothill. When he asked Principal Kevin Johnson for the time off, Johnson told him it would be no problem.
"He (Johnson) had an extraordinary attitude about this," Loew said. "He told me he wants Foothill to have a larger world view — one that is outside of the campus."
Johnson said he knew Loew would share his experiences in Sri Lanka with his students.
"I wanted my students to know what it's like to give up yourself in order to help others," Johnson said.
When the Peace Corps — in cooperation with the Christian Children's Fund — finally called Loew to tell him it needed volunteers in the coastal Sri Lankan town of Matara, he jumped at the chance. Loew would be able to use his civil engineering training to help Sri Lankans prioritize and organize their rebuilding efforts.
When Loew arrived in Matara, about 160 kilometers from the capital city of Colombo, most of the immediate damage seen on news clips and fresh in Americans' minds had been repaired.
"I got there six months after the tsunami hit, so things like bodies and rubble were obviously cleared away. What hadn't been cleared away were the completely devastated coastal areas where entire sites — homes and buildings — were demolished," Loew said. "Although progress had been made, the town of Matara still had a long way to go."
One of the most common misconceptions about tsunami-ravaged areas, according to Loew, is the needs in the area. People continue to contribute money, and Loew said from his firsthand experience that "money
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is not an issue anymore — money is there and it's being spent. Resources will come back slowly, and international relief organizations are doing a good job of making sure that happens."
And so did Loew in his three-month mission of surveying, formatting blueprints and overseeing the rebuilding of four high schools, rural public health clinics, public libraries and hospitals.
"At first, we had to assess the damage," he said. "Next, we had to talk to community leaders and prioritize what needed to be built first."
As health clinics and hospitals took precedence, high schools and libraries, dear to Loew's heart, played an essential role in allowing citizens to return to normal daily life. Among Loew's special projects was building a children's playground from scratch.
"There was a clear and urgent need for rebuilding housing," said Loew, who pointed out that one of the major problems in the town of Matara is deciding exactly where to rebuild. "The locals are having a hard time determining if they should rebuild along the coast again, and the public policy debate on whether they should build where another tsunami can hit is really stalling the process."
Vivid in Loew's mind are the people of Matara. "The Sri Lankan people have such a natural courtesy," he said. "They were immediately hospitable."
When Loew spoke with locals, he also realized just how horrific this tragedy has been. With the Sri Lankan death toll at an estimated 30,000 people, there was hardly a person Loew came into contact with who didn't have a story.
"What was hardest was listening to the stories of parents whose children couldn't run fast enough and got swept away," he said. "People are displaced and homeless. Families are separated. It was hard to listen to the stories."
Now back in Fremont, Loew plans to educate people in the area about how they can make a difference.
"I urge people to get into contact with international organizations — the ones I saw there making a difference," he said. "I urge people to contact UNICEF, CCF, World Vision and Save the Children. It is important that people find out what these people need now, in this stage."
For more information and to find out how you can help, visit http://www.unicef.org, http://www.christianchildrensfund.org, http://www.
worldvision.org and http://www.savethechildren.org.
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Story Source: The Argus
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Colombia; COS - Sri Lanka; Tsunami Relief; Crisis Corps
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