tsunami
|
FEBRUARY 2005
Five weeks after the cataclysmic tsunami struck, devastating over ¾ of Sri
Lanka’s coast,
costing 40,000 lives, and displacing over
2,000,000 people, Sri Lanka has begun – slowly
but surely – to recover from the cruel blow dealt
by nature. The massive damage to
infrastructure, housing, business and livelihood prompted an immediate
response from national and international sources to rebuild the nation.
OUR RESPONSE
The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), and our
Relief and Development Commission, Alliance
Development Trust (ADT) responded immediately
to the needs in the affected areas in partnership
with our member churches and
organizations.
Emergency Relief Supplies
Our
first response was a massive relief effort;
dispatching essential food, water, clothing
and medical care to those affected. The first
relief trucks were sent out on the 26th
evening itself, reaching their destinations within
24 hours of the tragedy.
Over 85 trucks (lorry loads) of emergency relief supplies have reached the
Tsunami affected people in 7 Districts – Galle, Matara, Ampara, Batticaloa,
Trincomalee,
Mullaitivu and Jaffna.
Re-Entry
packs
- contained basic essentials that will help families living in camps to
re-establish and resume normal life. We
plan to reach 20,000 families and 5,000 packs have already been distributed
Contents of each Re-Entry pack:
1. Kerosene stove
2. Hurricane lantern
3. Cooking pots/pans – 3 pieces
4. Plates, cups, saucers
5. Spoons – 2
6. Kitchen knife – 1
7. Towels – 2
8. Bed sheets – 2
9. Sleeping mats - 2
The Family Pack was designed to provide basic dry rations for a
family of four, for one
week.
Number of families
to be reached
20,000.
The Children’s Nutrition Pack was especially put together to address
the nutritional
needs of young children under the age of 5 years,
after discovering that food (particularly
breakfast) provided in camps was too spicy for
young children. Number of children reached
– 6,000.
Total cost of relief aid distributed to–date
-
Rs. 89 million (approx. US$89,000).
Volunteers
During the early crucial weeks, our staff and volunteers put in thousands of
volunteer
hours, working in shifts, round the clock in the
packing center in Colombo and in regional
centers ensuring that relief supplies reached those in need.
Teams of volunteers along with our staff served in some of the worst
affected areas in
Batticaloa, helping to recover and bury the dead.
Medical Teams
5 volunteer medical teams served in Vakarai in Batticaloa, Galle/Matara,
Kalmunai in
Ampara, Thalaiadi & Point Pedro in Jaffna.
Medical Supplies
We responded to urgent requests for medicines from
hospitals & medical clinics in Kallar,
Thalaiadi, Vallachchenai and Mullaitivu.
Trauma Counseling
Recognizing the great need for dealing with psycho-social needs of survivors,
the training of
local counselors in trauma counseling was undertaken. 15 training seminars
and a National Trauma Counseling
Training Program were conducted in Colombo, Galle,
Matara, Gampaha, Hambantota, Vavuniya, Batticaloa
and Jaffna.
Programs were organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Education.
Counselors
trained at our training seminars are serving in
Galle, Matara, Kallar, Batticaloa and
Mullaitivu.
Water & Sanitation
Water Purification systems have been installed in Kallar (Batticaloa) and
Mullaitivu.
The plant in Kallar provides clean water to the
hospital. The purifying unit capacity is
1,000 liters per day. We have identified 20 more locations which require
water purification systems.
Over 750 wells have been desalinated, cleaned and treated in Thiriyayi
(Trincomalee
District).
2nd & 3rd Stage
relief
involvements
Specific needs of children; integrating them in to schools with school
supplies, children’s
recreation play packs and the starting of
children’s clubs.
School Packs – 50,000 packs
Each pack will contain a specially made school bag
and school supplies including exercise
books, pens, pencils, and an eraser.
We, produced a specially designed exercise book with a message and a story
of hope, illustrated in color cartoon on the back cover.
Temporary Shelters
Transitional shelters are being constructed to resettle displaced families.
Already 3,000 are
being constructed, which would serve 5,000
families.
Ampara 1,000
Kallar 500
Jaffna 200
Mullaitivu 400
Galle / Matara 600
Livelihood
We are planning to impact 5,000 families who have lost
their
livelihoods. 250 fiber glass boats will be
provided to fishing families in Point Pedro, and
another 500 families will be assisted
in various other
livelihood projects (boats, fishing
nets, farming, poultry, bicycles for vendors etc.)
Job training & employment
A
number of young men will be provided with
employment in a boat building plant at
Point Pedro. We will also train young men
in cement block
making (for building houses), and provide them with 6 block
machines.
We are looking in to the possibility of setting up an ice factory in
Mullaitivu, and a
vocational training centre in Batticaloa, which
will include a resource centre. These would provide more employment
opportunities once the projects are in place.
Permanent Housing
We plan to build permanent houses in the following areas –
Ampara
1000
Batticaloa 500
Mullaitivu 1000
Jaffna/Thalaiadi 500
Hambantota / Galle 1,000
The number of houses may increase according to the
housing needs. We hope to impact approx.
15,000 families. |
