The emergency relief and reconstruction efforts which have been, are being and will be carried out by SOS Children's Villages in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand after the sea surge on 26 December 2004, are the child care organisation's largest undertaking since it came into being. Cedric de Silva, director of SOS Children's Villages Sri Lanka, is still astonished about how well things have worked out as regards the assistance being offered considering the difficult conditions: "We never thought that we could reach this many people so quickly."
Logistics, local exceptions, authorities, regulations and the extent of the destruction still cause difficulties, but reconstruction is progressing step by step. SOS Children's Villages also has the advantage that the associations are well established locally, which means that they have years of experience with local conditions and almost exclusively local staff to fall back on.
It is too early to speak of normality in the affected regions, however. Like the mental and emotional effects, which are not necessarily visible, the complete "external" reconstruction will take years. Thousands of people still live in provisional shelters, and in many places, construction work is progressing at a sluggish pace. "What does 'normal' mean in this context? If it means having all houses repaired and no more traces of the sea surge, then it will take years", states Cedric de Silva, cautiously expressing his appraisal of the situation in general.
All of SOS Children's Villages' tsunami reconstruction projects and social programmes have as their goal to create a protective environment for affected children where they can grow up with their mental, emotional and physical health safeguarded. This is achieved mainly through offering support to their families, who are again able to secure their own livelihoods independently and are backed up by various social networks.
The sea surge has left its mark on all the families which are being helped by SOS Children's Villages, whether it be the case that the mother or father perished, or that children and one parent are missing until today, or that their entire belongings were washed away together with the boat with which they earned their living.
SOS Children's Village employees tell of the courage the people have gathered, what incredible life force they have activated, and how they manage to develop a positive outlook on life: "The people are trying to come to terms with the situation and they find ways and means to begin anew, however humble their attempts may be," says Shubha Murthi, regional director of SOS Children's Villages for South Asia.
Bringing villages back to life
Rejendren from the India village Akkampettai is a fisher by trade. His home village was, so to speak, "adopted" by SOS Children's Villages. It is one of 15 communities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand where SOS Children's Villages is building family houses. A total of 2,195 houses are being built for 11,500 people. Alone in Komari in Sri Lanka, 750 houses are being built.
Rejendren will be able to move into a modest, but solid and functional new house made of prefabricated parts, with his wife and three small children. "I lost my home, all household goods, clothing, my catamaran, fishing nets and the school books of the children. On this day I owned nothing", explained Rejendren.
Today, he shares a new catamaran driven by an outboard engine, nets and cool boxes, provided by SOS Children's Villages, with other families. "I am managing to support my family independently again", says Rejendren. In the four countries, SOS Children's Villages has provided a total of 343 fishing boats with all necessary fishing utensils, which are being shared by 1,120 families, who need these boats to survive.
Additional support for families is offered at the day-care centres, eleven in total, which are there to relieve the parents and provide loving care to the children. They are in the process of ceasing operations, and multi purpose community centres will house kindergartens and facilities for other services. 18 such centres are planned to be ready by the end of 2006.
The centres will offer child care, medical services, training and family support. These are being built in such a way that they can serve as safe shelters in case of another flood. Once these are completed and in operation, the administration of the centres will be handed over to the communities.
One can see the laughter returning
Arthi and Saranya were very introverted at first. The sisters did not want to speak to or play with the other children. Today they are doing much better: they can laugh again, and they participate in a singing and dancing group made up by children in the temporary SOS Children's Village in Pondicherry, India. The small sisters lost their mother and sister and the father could no longer provide for them. They have found a new home together with 24 other children, and they will all be able to move into the completed SOS Children's Village by the end of 2006.
In India, two SOS Children's Villages are planned for, in Sri Lanka, one, and in Indonesia, three. In the meantime, a convenient location has been found for almost all new facilities, and the first cornerstone-laying ceremony will take place in December 2005, in Indonesia. Precise, sound figures for how many children have become fully orphaned by tsunami or cannot be cared for by their relatives, do not exist until today. In Indonesia, the estimate is 4,000, according to Gregor Nitihardjo, director of SOS Children's Villages in the country.
Many children, especially in Indonesia, are living in tents or have been accommodated in orphanages. SOS Children's Village employees were already visiting the refugee camps during the first weeks after the disaster in the Aceh province, in order to speak to the children and play with them, to provide them with what they needed most, to hear them out and to show them they are not alone. The six new SOS Children's Villages, which should be finished by the end of 2007 can house some 770 children. In addition, four SOS Social Centres will be set up, two each in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
In the first weeks and months after 26 December 2004, SOS Children's Villages has assisted a total of 23,000 people in all ways possible: with start-up grants, relief packages, clothing, school materials, cooking equipment, vegetables, bicycles, etc. Temporary shelters were set up and crisis intervention was offered. The goal for the next few months and years is to arrive at a tangible outlook for the future, brick by brick.