Federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh

Six-year-old Zach Pollard is among the many Canadians, besides the government, who are busy collecting money in their own little ways for tsunami victims in Asia.

Pollard has collected $340 for hot chocolate he is selling to raise funds for victims, with some customers shelling out as much as $50 for a cup of the brew, according to one news report.

Not only has the federal government pledged $40 million –– Canada’s population is about 30 million –– keepingthe possibility of raising the threshold, but individuals including young students in neighborhoods and schools, as well as churches, temples and the various ethnic communities are raising money to send over.

Typical of Canada’s hands-on approach to disasters and peacekeeping operations, the country has been low-key but very active in mustering resources to aid tsunami-hit countries of South and Southeast Asia where over 150,000 people have died.

Even as Canadian relief teams and ministers tour the tsunami-hit regions of South and Southeast Asia, many Canadian families are awaiting news of their loved ones who were either living in the devastating tsunami’s path or went there on vacation.

Athavan Guna-Nathan, a volunteer with the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that people are relying on word of mouth.

“Phone lines to the north and east (Sri Lanka) aren’t available. People call Colombo and from there they try to send messages through people traveling to the north. That’s the only method of communication right now,” he said.

The process could take several days. Even his own wife found out only four days after the Dec. 26 disaster that two of her relatives had died.

For 19-year-old Pria Paramosothy’s family, the anxious wait to confirm what happened to scores of relatives they hear are missing in Sri Lanka continues.

Being perhaps the most multicultural nation in the world, Canada is home to several hundred thousand Sri Lankans, mainly Tamils, as well as hundreds of thousands of Indians, and people belonging to other countries hit by the deadly earthquake and tsunami.

Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh left for Sri Lanka and India and verbalized this country’s understated approach. He told reporters at the Vancouver International Airport he wanted to make this a “very low-key visit,” emphasizing he does not want to get in the way of people doing the actual work on the ground.

Noting that it could take a decade for people to resume their lives and recover from the devastation, he said Canada was committed to doing what it could. He also announced that the country’s pharmaceutical industry is ready to send in badly needed drugs to prevent epidemic outbreaks or deal with diseases.

Nongovernmental organizations like the South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund based in Toronto have contended the $40 million in aid promised by Prime Minister Paul Martin is too little.

Ontario and British Columbia are home to very large concentrations of Indo-Canadians, Sri Lankan Canadians, and Canadians from the worst hit areas in Southeast Asia and a number of ethnic associations have mobilized fund drives to send money and goods to the region.

Just three days after the disaster hit, a team of Canadian defense, foreign affairs and health experts departed for Sri Lanka to assess what more Canadian aid can be sent to devastated regions. The group that left early on included 11 members of the Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team, foreign affairs officials and forensic experts from the Canadian Health Agency.

The country’s beleaguered airline, Air Canada, is teaming up with World Vision and other Canadian charities, to start delivering relief. The first of two Air Canada relief flights has left Toronto for Jakarta. Operating with volunteer crewmembers, the aircraft are carrying more than £90,000 ($168,421) of World Vision relief supplies to Indonesia, to be distributed in Aceh province by World Vision.