Cologne. On Ash Wednesday, 6 February, Malteser International starts its Lent Campaign 2008: „40 Euros for Sri Lanka". Until Easter, the water and sanitation en-gineer Suzanna Lipscombe will report on a weekly basis from Sri Lanka on her pro-jects, the people she is working with and the situation in the South-Asian country. Since 2005, Malteser International has been supporting the reconstruction and reha-bilitation after the tsunami in Sri Lanka. Next to the reconstruction of villages, the work of the organisation mainly focuses on water supply, wastewater treatment and hygiene education.

„Most people here don't have access to clean drinking water and know little about hygiene. Therefore we are not only providing water but we are also training the peo-ple on how to make best use of it by showing them how they can prevent diseases," Suzanna Lipscombe reports. "For example, we build rain water harvesting tanks to-gether with the families. These tanks can catch between 5,000 and 8,000 litres of drinking water," the British expert for water resource engineering explains. "Until now, we were able to supply such tanks for almost 2,000 families - about 10,000 people. And our goal is to reach 3,500 families."

Therefore, Malteser International calls for putting aside one Euro a day during Lent season. This way, 40 Euros can be saved up until Easter. With these 40 Euros, the organisation can procure cement or sand for a 5,000 litres' water tank made of con-crete or pay the wage for a mason to build two 5,000 litres' water tanks.

Donation Account 120 120 120 Bank für Sozialwirtschaft, Wörthstr. 15 - 17, D-50668 Köln Sort Code : 370 205 00 IBAN : DE49 3702 0500 0001 0258 01 BIC: BFSWDE33XXX Reference : "Malteser International Lent Campaign 2008"