"We'd never even heard of a tsunami before. Now it's changed our lives forever", a villager in Tamil Nadu, India, told me during my recent visit.

The unimaginable destruction wrought by the Boxing Day tsunami has indeed changed the lives of millions forever. We responded to the crisis from the very first day. In India and Sri Lanka our staff and partners helped retrieve, identify and dispose of bodies. They then helped with the essentials of life - water, sanitation, shelter and food. In Indonesia we've supported the Oxfam International response, which is being managed by Oxfam Great Britain. Clean water and effective sanitation are the priorities for the Oxfam response there.

Quite rapidly this focus on keeping people alive has been joined by a determined effort to help rebuild people's lives, their communities and livelihoods. The tragedy has been accompanied by an extraordinary outpouring of support for the work of non-government development agencies like Oxfam Community Aid Abroad. Money has flowed as have offers of voluntary labour. Literally hundreds of thousands of people who've never donated to an overseas aid agency before have done so.

Building upon this outpouring of support to develop a broad based constituency of support for international development and global social justice is the real opportunity we now have. As well as helping the people and communities affected by the Boxing Day tragedy, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad will be doing all in our power this year to help Make Poverty History (find out more on pages 16 and 17).

Andrew Hewett
Executive Director