Many of the survivors of the tsunami are still homeless, two years after the mammoth waves of the natural disaster ravaged countries along the rim of the Indian Ocean, said Muslim Aid's tsunami coordinator at a press conference yesterday (Monday December 18).

"But so much more needs to be done," said Hamid Azad, head of overseas programmes at Muslim Aid. "At least 70,000 people are still living in temporary barracks, and 25,000 poor and landless families in Aceh have yet to be re-housed, even though the tsunami was so long ago."

On December 26, 2004, the most powerful earthquake in 40 years erupted under the Indian Ocean near Sumatra, causing giant, deadly waves to crash ashore in nearly a dozen countries, killing more than 290,000 people in the southern hemisphere, and injured hundreds of thousands more. Hamid Azad pointed out that in Sri Lanka at least half of the survivors were still waiting for houses.

"This earthquake caused so much devastation that it will take many years to recover from it," said Hamid Azad, who has recently returned from a visit to Banda Aceh. "Our work does not end after emergency rehabilitation programmes."

Muslim Aid responded by spending about £18 million to help rebuild the lives of those affected in Banda Aceh, Sri Lanka, India and Somalia. Most of the work has been done in Banda Aceh, where more than 100,000 survivors have benefited from assistance from Muslim Aid.

Muslim Aid has built 236 permanent houses in Banda Aceh, and is scheduled to complete another 310. In January, Muslim Aid will be building another 656 houses in the devastated Indonesian state.

In addition to building a hostel for orphans and a kindergarten for children, Muslim Aid is also constructing a flood mitigation system, and providing skills enhancement training for residents of Banda Aceh. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, Muslim Aid also assembled more than 2,300 temporary shelters in Banda Aceh.

In Sri Lanka, Muslim Aid has build 100 permanent houses, and trucked water to communities whose wells were destroyed. An irrigation project was started in Nilaveli, as well as handloom and entrepreneurship programmes.

Muslim Aid built another 100 houses in India, and 60 houses in Somalia, for tsunami survivors.

"In Somalia, 600 people were made homeless as a result of the tsunami," Hamid Azad observed. "We have only been able to address 10 per cent of the needs in this country, which is the forgotten victim of this terrible natural disaster."

(ENDS)

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