Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Emergency Tsunami Appeal. Your donations will be used to support our relief efforts in the short- and long-term. Melanie Scaife reports.

Time has moved on but the tragedy remains. The Indian Ocean tsunami has presented us with a catastrophe beyond imagining: more than 270,000 estimated to be dead, tens of thousands missing, entire communities literally swept away.

This has also presented aid agencies with a colossal challenge. Since the tsunami struck on 26 December 2004, Oxfam has responded swiftly to deliver aid and assistance to more than 300,000 people in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka - the countries most affected by the disaster.

Your generous support has made this possible: the Australian public has donated more than $20 million to Oxfam's Emergency Tsunami Appeal, an unprecedented response and one that has enabled us to save and sustain the lives of thousands of men, women and children.

"Australians can be proud of their generous and compassionate response to their neighbours in need," says Oxfam Community Aid Abroad Executive Director Andrew Hewett. "We believe that the Australian people will stand by the countries devastated by this tsunami and stand by all developing countries in the long term to help alleviate poverty."

In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, our focus was to provide food, water and sanitation, as well as shelter for the homeless. We are also committed to assisting communities in the long-term, for many years to come. We will assist with rehabilitation of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, schools, houses and water systems, as well as supporting communities to rebuild their livelihoods.

Sri Lanka is one of the worst affected countries. According to estimates, more than 30,000 people have been killed and up to half a million people have been left homeless. Flood waters have contaminated wells and clean water is scarce. Shelter is also a major issue with thousands of homes completely destroyed.

Oxfam is working together with eight community-based partners to help more than 150,000 men, women and children in the Sri Lankan provinces of Hambantota, Matara, Batticoloa, Amparai, Kilinochchi,Trincomalee and Vavuniya.

We have been providing sanitation and life-saving clean water as well as hygiene packs containing essential items such as soap, sanitary towels, candles and matches. We have prepared cooked food and distributed food packs of rice, flour, dhal, fish, sugar and cereal. Plastic sheeting and sleeping mats have also been provided to serve as temporary shelter for thousands of families.

"We are delivering food, cooking utensils and other supplies every day," says P.B. Gowthaman, Oxfam's Country Representative in Sri Lanka. "In some places we are delivering in row-boats because there is no other way to get them to the people most in need."

Over the next two years, we aim to help communities to return to their homes and rebuild their lives in the north, east and south of the country, starting with assistance for at least 50,000 families in the next six months.

The tsunami devastated more than 700 kilometres of coastline in India. An estimated 10,000 people have been killed, more than 100,000 have been displaced from their homes and thousands remain missing.

Augustine Ullatil, an Oxfam field worker for many years, says he has never seen such devastation in the region. "I have seen many disasters but the tsunami surpasses them all in terms of loss of life, livelihoods and assets. Oxfam's field office and local partners are doing their best to alleviate suffering and trauma."

Oxfam is working with six local partners in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Pondicherry to provide more than 140,000 people with essential items such as clothing, cooking utensils, hygiene kits, latrines, generators, water tanks and temporary shelter. We are also providing primary health care and medicines and running a health promotion campaign to train community members in hygiene awareness so they can support further hygiene and sanitation programs.

Oxfam is similarly responding to community needs in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in conjunction with local partners.

In the coming months, Oxfam is planning to fund work on fishing boat repairs, agriculture and reforestation and provide cash for work and small grants to help people restore their livelihoods.

"Nothing can prepare you for the scale of this disaster," says Oxfam's Shaista Aziz who is working in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Travelling along the west coast she saw the remains of villages that had once been full of life. "Now all that remains is rubble and debris and the odd clue that people once lived here: a child's shoe, a mangled bicycle, a blanket covered in mud, and smashed cars submerged in water."

According to estimates, more than 100,000 people have died in Aceh, more than 120,000 remain missing and more than 400,000 people have been displaced.

Oxfam's work is saving lives. We are providing some 85,000 people across Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar and Aceh Jaya with food, medicines, blankets and plastic sheeting for shelter. We are building latrines and delivering clean water to tens of thousands of people. Our public health teams are working in partnership with local groups to ensure the prevention of epidemics in settlements where affected communities are seeking refuge.

Over the coming months we will increasingly focus on developing a range of sustainable solutions to assist displaced people over the longer term and work through local organisations, whose knowledge of the area and their community will complement our technical expertise.

Beyond the immediate threats to life, the tsunami disaster may reduce nearly two million people to poverty unless the massive reconstruction effort of the next few months and years specifically aims to reduce poverty. The humanitarian crisis of the tsunami is not over yet. The 'poverty crisis' of the tsunami may have only just begun.

Hundreds and thousands of people have lost their livelihoods as a result of the tsunami and their economic survival will rely heavily on support from local community groups backed by Oxfam.

"We will continue to assist, direct public funds, listen to and support the communities who are the hardest hit by the Tsunami for many years," says Andrew Hewett. "These people have the toughest struggle to survive even in less tragic times. We will stand by them for years to come."