Two years after the seaquake/Malteser International: Aid for more than 500,000 tsunami victims
Source: Malteser International - Germany
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Cologne. Since the devastating seaquake on 26 December 2004, Malteser International has been supporting more than half a million tsunami victims. 'Our rehabilitation programs focus on health care and psycho-social care, water and sanitation, infrastructure and income generating measures. Partly, the projects could already be handed over to the population and local authorities' Roland Hansen, Head of Asia Desk of Malteser International, explains: 'While our projects at the beginning mainly focused on the reconstruction of houses and social infrastructure, we will now put increased emphasis on supporting new income generating measures.'
Malteser International carried out rehabilitation programs with a total volume of about EUR 17 million on the affected coasts of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. 'All projects in the affected areas run smoothly; there are only repeating interruptions in the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka due to the arising civil war', Hansen declares.
Altogether, Malteser International has built up or renovated more than 1,000 houses. Moreover, more than 200 fishing boats have been distributed, 18 schools, five homes for children, five clinics, four community halls, one home for disabled people, one vocational training centre and a mosque have newly been built or renovated. By means of trainings and small loans the organisation has helped over 2,000 extremely disadvantaged families to establish a new income. Water supply has been secured for more than 1,000 people and a computer-based health information system has been set up for more than 80 health centres. Further programs with a volume of another EUR 13 million have already been started or are in preparation. For example, 2,300 rain water harvesting tanks will be built and several pilot projects for the construction of decentralized sewage plants will be carried out.
'For us, even more important than the extent of our help is the fact that the people plan their villages themselves and also take responsibility. Independent evaluators confirm that the cooperation with our partner organisations works very well', Hansen states: 'But we also learn from suggestions for improvement and in the future we will put increased emphasis on the training of some of our local partners in project administration and documentation.'
Attention editorial offices! Roland Hansen, Head of Asia Desk of Malteser International, as well as our project and country coordinators in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia are available for interviews. Please contact +49 (0) 160/70 77 689.
For more Information please contact:
Dr. Claudia Kaminski, Press Officer,
Phone: +49-221-9822-125, Fax +49-221/9822-119;
presse@maltanet.de; www.malteser-international.org
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