Refurbished schools boost education opportunities for tsunami survivors in Aceh and Sri Lanka
Source: World Vision International
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Refurbished schools in Aceh and Sri Lanka will provide new education opportunities to more than 1500 people.
In Lamno, north-western Aceh, a renovated primary school, junior high school and high school will benefit more than 900 students and teachers.
The schools were partly destroyed by the 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami. The disaster killed at least 125 students and teachers from the three schools. One schoolyard was a temporary displacement camp sheltering more than 2,000 displaced people for about three months post-tsunami.
World Vision has constructed new classrooms, teachers' rooms, modern toilet facilities, a library and a laboratory.
World Vision has made a significant contribution to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the education sector in Aceh. Currently World Vision is building and rehabilitating 16 schools in a number of its project areas. In addition to constructing schools, World Vision has also provided more than 25,000 Acehnese children with stationery, furniture, uniforms, textbooks, and sports equipment for 167 schools in Lamno, Meulaboh and Banda Aceh/Aceh Besar.
More than 500 teachers have also been trained as part of the "Creating Learning Communities for Children" education program. This program seeks to actively engage communities in their children's education and trains teachers to provide more active and joyful classes that motivate the students.
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In Sri Lanka, World Vision recently completed a school for 600 children in Kalutara, a tsunami-affected district in southern Sri Lanka.
St Mary's College is more than one hundred and fifty years old, and many sections of the school needed to be demolished and rebuilt following the tsunami. The school provided shelter to hundreds of internally displaced people fleeing conflict and later offered safety and protection to hundreds displaced by the December 26, 2004 disaster.
In Sri Lanka, World Vision is in the process of completing 56 schools in tsunami-affected districts benefiting thousands of children across the nation.
kristy _allen-shirley@wvi.org
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