Concern in final stages of rehabilitation work in Sri Lanka
Wednesday, 20 December 2006
The destruction caused by the Asian tsunami on 26th December 2004 is hard to forget. The impact on Sri Lanka is even harder to believe. According to the Government of Sri Lanka 35,322 people died, and 516,150 people lost their homes.
The loss of life, and the destruction of property and household belongings left many families homeless, jobless and traumatised.
Concern Worldwide has been working to help those affected rebuild their lives, livelihoods and homes, and is now in the final stages of completing its two-year tsunami rehabilitation programme in Sri Lanka.
Over the last two years Concern and its Sri Lankan partners have built 5490 temporary houses, replaced almost 10,000 legal documents and provided thousands of people with small business loans and training.
How we work
In recognition of the resources and expertise available in Sri Lanka, Concern decided to work in partnership with local organisations.
We provided funding, technical expertise and support to supplement the local knowledge of our partners, who have offices in the affected areas, employ local people and are more familiar with government systems, the community, customs, traditions and language.
Concern worked with four Sri Lankan partners: Sewa Lanka Foundation (SLF), Rural Development Foundation (RDF), Women’s Development Federation (WDF) and Project Galle 2005.
Housing
After the initial emergency phase was over it was important to build temporary houses for families as soon as possible.
These houses are an intermediate step from living under canvas before moving to a permanent house.
Concern built 5,490 temporary houses across 5 districts; Colombo, Kalutara, Hambantota, Galle and Matara.
We also provided these temporary housing sites with clean water, electricity, toilets and bathing facilities.
In August 2005 Concern was recognised by the President of Sri Lanka for its contribution to post tsunami recovery. Concern had built approx 10% of the total national requirement for temporary houses
Legal Documents
Concern supported a group of local lawyers to replace legal documents.
These documents were necessary for people to prove their identity, to access their entitlements and claim the compensation due to them.
The lawyers' group was led by Mr Suraweera, who came out of retirement after the tsunami to set up the project.
The programme replaced 9443 birth certificates, 330 marriage certificates, 194 land deeds and 2 death certificates.
Livelihoods
Concern provided training and small loans to enable people who lost their livelihoods in the tsunami to re-start income generating activities, and ultimately return to a self sufficient lifestyle.
Particular attention was paid to ensuring that women were accessing the training and loans provided. More than 60% of the beneficiaries for these programmes were women.
Basic training was provided in how to start your own business, managing finances, accessing markets and basic book keeping.
People applying for small loans were asked to formulate simple business plans with Concern's help.
Once these business plans were deemed to be realistic, viable and sustainable, loans or assets were distributed.
Concern assisted the set-up of a wide range of businesses, from small scale individual businesses such as rope making, tailoring, and retail, to medium scale businesses which generated further employment opportunities.
In addition tradesmen were assisted to take advantage of the rebuilding boom that followed the tsunami by the provision of construction tools and training.
Concern took a very considered approach to assisting fishermen as we wanted to protect marine resources and were concerned about the over supply of fishing boats.
Existing boats and engines were repaired rather than purchasing new ones in southern areas.
