Doctors and plumbers rush to offer their services

Plumbers, builders and doctors have been overwhelming charity lines, offering to travel to areas devastated by the tsunami. In the past week, Britons, and particularly those with origins in the 12 countries struck by the disaster, have offered help.

Plumbers, builders and doctors have been overwhelming charity lines, offering to travel to areas devastated by the tsunami. In the past week, Britons, and particularly those with origins in the 12 countries struck by the disaster, have offered help.

People have also continued to give, with the total raised so far at £60m, and £50m more promised by the Government. In a further boost, Independent News & Media, publishers of The Independent, has announced contributions of more than £110,000 to emergency relief for the victims of the tsunami.

Sir Anthony O'Reilly, the chief executive officer of Independent News & Media, said: "A disaster of this magnitude leaves us all feeling somewhat helpless. The enormity of it is almost incomprehensible. The agony of it is evident from our screens and our newspapers, and in many cases is becoming increasingly personal to our readers around the world.

"Our thoughts and our prayers are with the victims and those who have been left destitute by its impact. However, we also need to offer practical and immediate aid."

Charities said they had also been inundated by people offering to help rebuild the stricken areas. But the charities said taking on people unused to disaster zones would be too difficult or too dangerous and appealed to them to help with other projects.

"We have had loads of calls from people to be flown outs but we are sending only vetted people, water engineers, logisticians and nutritionists," Claire Lewis, of Oxfam, said. "Teachers, plumbers, ex-soldiers, builders have all been phoning but that is not what we do. We try to recruit locally as much as possible because it puts money back into the economy."

Instead Oxfam has appealed for 10,000 volunteers to man shops around the country in an effort to cope with the enormous number of donations.

Martyn Broughton of Medécins Sans Frontières, said: "In a hot, messy situation like this it can burn new volunteers. They may not be ready. Our general policy is that we will not take people off the street and send them to an emergency. We send only experienced volunteers."

The group has doctors, nurses and engineers in Sri Lanka and Indonesia but is asking those calling in to consider applying to work on other, long-term regional projects.

Annie Macklow-Smith, of the emergency humanitarian health care organisation Merlin said:."A lot of Sri Lankan doctors and nurses living outside the country have gone back.We have had an enormous amount of calls from people offering to help. We are looking specifically for people with a public health background, people who can deal with infectious diseases and immunisation campaigns, people who have experience working overseas in this kind of area and in disasters."

Many tourists in the affected areas are already helping to recover bodies. Yvonne Wetham, in Takua Pa, north of Khao Lak in Thailand, said: "We did it because we were there and there was no one else to do it. I'm going to volunteer [again] because otherwise there's no one to do it, and they stay and they rot and they don't get a proper burial."

'I felt so helpless watching TV, but this is my skill and I can help'

Kanchana Rajarathna, 24, will visit the area where her mother was born next week, not for a celebratory homecoming but in an attempt to save lives.

Qualified just four months, the British-born doctor has volunteered to travel to a remote part of Sri Lanka to offer medical aid to survivors.

Her mother, Kirthie, 61, a computer analyst, and father, Bandula, 62, an engineer, will cook and distribute food in a shelter in Valana, near Panadura.

The junior doctor at Milton Keynes General Hospital will spend her annual leave helping the relief effort. "I felt so helpless. There is little you can do watching television, but this is my skill and I can do that," she said.

Since Boxing Day, she and her family have been helping to collate aid packages at the London Buddhist Vihara temple in Chiswick. Several other doctors from the temple have volunteered to return home but more doctors were needed, she said.