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Tsunami three years on: building to last

Parents learn with their children how to reduce the risks of future disasters. Photo: Ria Sitohang/Tearfund
Parents learn with their children how to reduce the risks of future disasters. Photo: Ria Sitohang/Tearfund

"Only in our dreams did we ever think of having such a house.  The only thing we can say is thank you – in our lives we will never forget what you have done.”

Boxing Day - 2004. When a massive tsunami struck the south Asian coastline following the second largest earthquake in recorded history, almost 300,000 people were killed and two million people left homeless.

Recovering from such devastation was never going to be an easy task, but your support for those affected was overwhelming. Thanks to your generosity Tearfund partners have been able to help more than 800,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Somalia:

Put to good use - the figures

Your money has made the following happen:

 
Change for the better - a low-caste community in India 

The villagers of MGR Nagar are used to being marginalised;  the majority of them belong to the Irular (low caste) tribe.

Before the tsunami the men would hire themselves out as daily labourers (coolies) on fishing boats. They lived in thatched huts which, along with their limited belongings, were wiped out in the tsunami of 2004.  Although they were used to rebuilding their thatched huts each year after annual monsoons, this time they faced a huge uphill struggle. The fishing community no longer wanted to associate with them, having also lost fishing boats and nets, and were unable to provide the Irular community with any employment opportunities. When the fishing communities  chased them out of their village, refusing to share any tsunami support a local organisation provided the Irular tribe with land, and Tearfund partner agency, Discipleship Centre, are now building 92 permanent concrete homes for the community.

 

The Irular residents added:

“Previously when it rained, the old huts used to leak and water came through; now we have houses we won’t have to fix every year, and when it rains it won’t leak!  Children used to fall sick because of the damp. We’re also happy to be living in a clean environment; before we used cow dung for the flooring; rats used to come in and eat things and bite people; now we won’t have that nuisance.  Only in our dreams did we ever think of having such a house.  The only thing we can say is thank you – in our lives we will never forget what you have done.”

New growth: a study in rehabilitation in Aceh 
Read how land thought unusable has been rehabilitated and livelihoods restored in Aceh, Indonesia here.

This page was last updated on 02 January 2008

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