Girls learning sewing, SC Nagapattinam - Tsunami India…

Girls learning sewing, SC Nagapattinam - Tsunami India

The Social Center Nagapattinam, together with the Medical Center, is the base facility for the Family Strenghtening Programme. At the Center activities like tailoring, handicraft, computer, boat motor mechanism, music and dance classes are being conducted for the beneficiaries.

Tsunami - three years on

Looking back and ahead into the future Two years after the Tsunami

Two years after the calamitous 26th of December, when, in the coastal regions of South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea and even East Africa, over 200,000 people lost their lives and wide swathes of land were devastated, SOS Children's Villages takes stock of the largest reconstruction project in the history of the child aid organisation.

Masriya now lives in Meulaboh, on the south coast of the Indonesian province of Aceh, the region which was hit the hardest by the Tsunami in South Asia. Before the tidal wave disaster, this area was in a civil war-like state. Masriya's husband, a policeman, lost his life in this conflict. The Tsunami had a positive effect on the political situation in Aceh, in contrast to the effect it had in Sri Lanka, where peace seems to have been disturbed by the natural disaster.

In the weeks and months after 26 December 2004, Aceh and the province's capital, Banda Aceh, were the most trying areas for aid organisations. The infrastructure was entirely destroyed or was lacking to begin with, and for a long time, aid could only be provided by plane. This makes the fact that precisely the SOS Children's Villages reconstruction projects in Indonesia have been or are about to be partly completed, even more astounding. The end of this year sees the completion and handing over of all 521 family houses to families in Gampong Cot, Suak Raya and Lambada Lhok. The three multi-purpose centres for the communities, which will house kindergartens, schools, adult training, family strengthening programmes and medical services are ready to start at the end of 2006. In a study of the reconstruction efforts in Indonesia commissioned by UN-HABITAT, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the SOS Children's Villages projects are ranked among the best as regards quality of construction as well as provision to and participation of beneficiaries.

Three new SOS Children's Villages are also being built, and these should be ready by mid or late 2007. In Banda Aceh, Meulaboh and Medan, some 100 children are now living in provisional shelters and being cared for by 35 women who are completing their training as SOS mothers. One of them is Masriya. She spent nine months in a refugee camp with her 5 year-old daughter Uca after the disaster: "I was distraught and did not know if I could withstand this tragedy." Today Masriya is a prospective SOS mother and she lovingly cares for her new family. And Uca has siblings now: brothers and sisters who are not biologically related to her, but that does not matter when they play, laugh and eat together under one roof.

In addition to the three new Indonesian SOS Children's Villages, there will also be three more in India, and one each in Sri Lanka and Thailand. The village in Phuket, Thailand, is a symbol for international solidarity. There, where many locals, together with hundreds of tourists, lost their lives to the tidal wave, a new home is being created for 120 children thanks to donations from Sweden, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg*. Another special location is on the Andaman Islands, where a small SOS Children's Village and a training centre for youths was made possible in Port Blair through the help of local donations. Before the Tsunami, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were partly autochthonous, as they are politically and economically separated from the Indian mainland, and their inhabitants suffered greatly due to the tidal wave. SOS Children's Villages is one of the very few NGOs who are active on the archipelago.

At the moment, 167 Tsunami orphans are under the care of SOS Children's Villages in India and Indonesia, and as soon as the eight SOS Children's Villages are ready, a total of up to 1,000 children can be admitted.

Construction works on the east coast of Sri Lanka are still hopelessly halted due to political unrest. Co-workers on the ground have large hurdles to contend with. Due to bloody encounters, which now occur almost daily, construction companies quit, there are delays with the transport of building materials, and there are land disputes. The reconstruction of the village of Komari is the largest project in Sri Lanka; over 600 family houses are being built, and the majority of the beneficiaries have already been able to move into their new homes. In Kayankerni, 264 houses should be ready by March 2007, a bit later than planned due to precarious security conditions. Rasamma is at home in Kayankerni. The Tsunami took her husband and her three children's father. Nothing was left but the clothes they were wearing that day. Rasamma has in the meantime not only been able to move into her new house, but she can now send her three children to school thanks to the SOS Children's Villages family strengthening programme, something which had been impossible due to her very low income. "It was the dream of my late husband to offer the children a good education. I prayed day and night for a miracle, and it happened."

This family strengthening programme in Kaynankerni is one of many being carried out by SOS Children's Villages in the Tsunami-hit regions. A total of 17 multi-purpose centres are being built to provide kindergartens, schools, family counselling, health services and adult training. The buildings are intentionally being built to serve as safe community shelters in the case of new flood disasters. These multi-purpose centres are to be handed to and administered by the local authorities within three to five years. This is not the case for the seven SOS Social Centres which will continue to be run by SOS Children's Villages, and which offer child care, family support and medical services.

One of the cities which were hardest hit by the Tsunami in India is Nagapattinam. SOS Children's Villages is running the largest support programme for children there. Various branches in the city reach out to some 1,500 children from the surrounding areas. Numerous activities are being offered, ranging from games, computer courses, crafts classes, and dancing lessons to AIDS awareness campaigns. Through the years, several thousand children and their families will benefit from the social services offered at these centres.

Tamilselvi's children visit the centre in Nagapattinam regularly. Tamilselvi is only 28 years old and is already a widow, since her husband died of the heavy injuries he suffered on 26 December 2004. In the meantime she has already completed a one year sewing course and plans to start her own small business soon. Tamilselvi's family is one of thousands whose lives changed drastically during the past two years. For them, the Tsunami marks the beginning of a new period in time. The loss of fathers, mothers, children, homes and belongings spelled mourning and trauma. Everything was different before. However, when one looks at photographs from one year ago of these people and compares the look on their faces then to the way they look today, the change is visible. There are fewer traces of pain and more of openness. People in many places have started to build new lives and to have faith in the future. "It is beautiful to see my children playing and hear their laughter again", says Tamilselvi, and her eyes shine with joy.

This would not be possible without reliable, long-term commitment. Many today are still waiting to receive the house they have been promised, to be provided with running water, to go to a new school. In Sri Lanka, SOS Children's Villages has recently "adopted" a small village which had not received any help until now. The 15 families in Kumana still live in palm leaf huts, they are ostracised as civil war refugees and belong to a "lower" cast. Within the next few months they will be moving into real houses and their children will be able to attend the school in Panama.

*Donations mainly came from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Finland, France, Canada, USA, but many donations were also made locally, especially in India. The entire volume of SOS Children's Villages' investment amounted to some 59.5 million USD.