Person of the Week: Tsunami Volunteers

Jan. 7, 2005 — -- After devastating tsunamis pounded South Asia, destroying property and killing hundreds of thousands of people, Charlie Higgins -- like so many others -- responded unselfishly to calls for help.

Higgins, an Englishman who lives in Bangladesh, works for the United Nations. He now coordinates the aid that is pouring into the heavily damaged Banda Aceh province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

"It's been a tough week," Higgins said. "There's been a lot of work. It's been a very confusing situation."

Managing logistics is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the relief effort. Food, water, clothing and medicine sent to Indonesia are being funneled through one airport. Almost as difficult, Higgins says, is knowing where to send it next.

"There will be evaluations of what we're doing now for years to come, and so posterity will say whether we did a bad job or a good job," said Higgins. "I'm sure there are elements of both already."

Higgins is no stranger to such tragedies. He has spent devastating winters in Mongolia, struggled with cyclones in the Pacific and war in the former Yugoslavia.

"In many cases, in order to get assistance to come in, you're struggling to hold the world's attention," he said. "In this case, we're shrinking under its attention because it's so heavy."

Other Volunteers

David Ambridge, another volunteer, works for the international airport at Dubai in the Persian Gulf. This week, he moved 400 tons of aid every day.

"We're trying our best to make sure aid gets to them, and we're confident that it is," he said.

Ira Lippke, a photographer from California, was surfing with his brother in Bali when the tsunamis struck.

"We just looked at each other and we just said, 'We need to go.' We put all of our money together and we bought about $500 worth of medicine and filled up two big duffel bags full of medicine, and we bought plane tickets," he said.

Lippke, who has no medical training, showed up at a hospital that was overwhelmed and spent the week caring for patients.

"We were actually doing stuff," he said. "I don't know if we did it exactly right, but if we wouldn't have done it, I'm sure they would have died."

Pia Willgerodt of Germany was vacationing with her husband in Sri Lanka. They got a van, filled it with food and bottled water, and set off to offer help.

"We can't stay and do nothing," she said. "We must do something."

In every country affected, the first to act, of course, were fellow countrymen -- Indians helping Indians, Indonesians helping Indonesians and Thais helping Thais.

Krishna Rodney works for a Sri Lankan relief organization. The tsunami left a million Sri Lankans homeless.

"Whenever there is something to be sent to villages or any other place, they go through us because they know we do the right job," she said.

In Banda Aceh, Charlie Higgins and other volunteers struggle all day long. They are making progress and hope to catch up on their sleep next month.

"You never quite know if you do enough," said Higgins. "At a certain point, you run out of hours in a day. You run out of people to call upon, and you run out of other kinds of resources too. But it isn't enough because the needs are just immense."

Peter Jennings filed this report for "World News Tonight."