Tsunami help, Forensic experts needed

Please help me spread the words.

Forensic experts in race against time, call for help.

Dr.Pornthip Rojanasuand and a team of Forensic experts from the Central Forensic Institute in Bangkok are racing against time in collecting DNA/hair samples of unidentified bodies before burial or cremation. She has vowed to not let a single body be cremated or buried without proper DNA collection for further identification.

The sheer number of bodies in various states of decay have made their task all but impossible. The team has issued calls for help to forensic specialists from outside the country. So far, a team of specialists from the United Kingdom has answered the call for help.

Please let me know if you are a forensic specialist and would like to offer help.
edited 1/12/05: Thank you so much for the overwhelming response to this plea for help. The Thai government has just decided to forward the rest of the forensic identification work to the Interpol, please contact them if you would like to volunteer your expertise. Thank you again for all the offers to help. I am forever grateful.

Comments

[Juliette Rossant]

Pim,

The ultra-warriors you need are from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and I recommended them as the best aid agency to donate to in my blog article entitled "2004 Tsunami: How Foodies Can Help" -- long lists of aid agencies, links to lists of agencies; direct, online donations; news overview and news update sites. (I've been a foreign correspondent for over a decade and have covered wars and war refugees, not just food, so I have some first-hand inkling about what you've been going through and what you're up against.)

If I may, I recommend that you link to it, to allow people to access information quickly. I will be updating over the next few days -- and definitely referring to your blog and those you are supporting, as one aspect I have not touched on yet is families of victims.

If you can, try to crank out at least one summary piece at the end of your day (and the beginning of the day in the States) with as much information as possible that we fellow Foodies can link to. I'm going to be sending out something before noon EST.

I believe our efforts are already working. Three blogs have already told me that they have linked to mine, and from my visits I could see people leaving directly from my article on the Tsunami, by which I read that they left directly to make donations.

Best - Juliette

[pim]

Juliette,

Thank you for the comment, I've been raising money for MSF for a while now. The Spare us a grain of rice campaign (top left sidebar) is for them.

Also, there is a group blog called Tsunami Help blog, which I've been volunteering my time. (I wrote about it in a previous post.) They are a very dedicated group of bloggers, many of whom are local to the affected areas. I suggest you link to them. We have people on watch rotation 24 hours a day, from all over the world, updating news, call for assistance, donations, etc.

I already have quite a few emails from forensic pathologists from all over the world. I have direct contact with the team working in Phuket at the moment so I could actually send those volunteers directly there.

best,
Pim