Rebuilding after the tsunami. Christian Aid s report one year on

Transcription

1 Rebuilding after the tsunami Christian Aid s report one year on

2 Tim A Hetherington/Panos Pictures The day On the morning of 26 December 2004 when children were playing on the beach and mothers were cooking Sunday lunch at home one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history ripped open the ocean floor off the coast of Indonesia. Lasting up to ten minutes, it sent huge waves travelling as fast as an aeroplane smashing into the countries of the Indian Ocean. In Indonesia, where waves as high as 30 feet hit first, 200,000 people died in minutes. Boats and cars were washed kilometres inland; tens of thousands of homes were swept away; bridges and roads collapsed. Less than two hours later, the waves struck the coasts of Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, killing tens of thousands more people, and leaving millions homeless. A third of those who died were children the lightest and most easily washed away. Since that day, we and our local partner organisations in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have helped people pick up the pieces from the first hours, when rescue teams set out to pull people from the water, to today, when our partners are building homes strong enough to withstand the disasters of the future. Thank you Your help has made this happen.the UK and Irish public gave a record-breaking 400 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee, of which, as a member, we will receive approximately 30 million. We also received just under 10 million directly through our own appeal. Such unprecedented generosity has made it possible for hundreds of thousands of people across the countries of the Indian Ocean to start to rebuild even after one of the world s worst disasters. Banda Aceh in Indonesia, where 200,000 people died within minutes. In a sea of destruction, only the strongest buildings still stand In my mind is the memory of that moment and of the wave as high as the palm trees. I lived in that house for 42 years and now there is nothing left. Seetha, 42 Nagore, southern India Around the world, people sat glued to their televisions as news bulletins ran amateur video clips of the giant waves. We will never know the final figures, but it seems that up to 250,000 people died in the 13 countries of the Indian Ocean. Millions were left homeless. About 1.5 million lost their livelihoods. Cover image Kajendrhri, 28, from Palhayar, southern India, was swept from her home and found unconscious several kilometres away. Women are being helped to deal with their trauma and to start earning a living again through groups such as the Tamil Nadu Women s Collective

3 What we ve achieved Our partners responded to the devastation wrought by the tsunami within hours. Some, such as Social Need, Education and Human Awareness (Sneha), already worked in the villages that were hardest hit. Their roots in the communities meant they immediately knew what to do. By the evening of 26 December, the Church s Auxiliary for Social Action in India had set up feeding centres along the coast. Sri Lankan group Thadaham mobilised volunteers to feed 2,000 people in one camp. The Tamil Nadu Voluntary Health Association and the Sustainable Environmental and Ecological Development Group (SEEDS), both longstanding Christian Aid partners in India, sent teams to the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands within a few days the first aid agencies on the spot. Our partners in Indonesia provided thousands of people with emergency relief, including villagers not reached by any other agency even days after the tsunami. Within the first weeks and months, our partner organisations housed hundreds of thousands of people in temporary shelters that adhere to international standards, providing food, medicine and care, and burying the dead. Rebuilding But the real work begins after the first relief effort when the issue is no longer how to feed people day to day but enabling them to start earning a living again and rebuild, literally from the ground up. All together, our 33 local partners in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka have helped 500,000 people this year to start to rebuild their lives. With your support, thousands of people have built new homes. Fishermen are now going out to sea with new boats and fishing nets. Children are starting to live normal lives, recovering from the loss of their parents, sisters, brothers or friends. These are not the quick-fix projects that distribute aid by the sackful, or the largescale building projects that cost millions. They are about ensuring that people benefit now and in the future. Almost every family in the south Indian village of Palhayar has rebuilt their home with the help of our partner Sneha. The South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS) has helped 50,000 fishermen with new boats, nets, loans and housing. The Yakkum Emergency Unit provided 7,000 people in Banda Aceh with trauma counselling. The Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation gave 15,500 Sri Lankan children school bags, school kits and uniforms. The Women s Collective has helped women in south India come together to demand compensation for their loss of income. Sivaranjini Ponnaiya Sinna Karuppan, 9, is part of a group run by the Active Theatre Movement, which uses drama to help children overcome their trauma and learn to play again I never found my parents or my sisters or brother, although I kept looking for them. Regilka Washington, 13 Manatkadu, Sri Lanka

4 I tried to commit suicide many times... then I met the Thadaham counsellors and realised that there are people who listen. I feel very close to Thadaham. Each and every day they help me. Puspavathi Gunerseekaram, who lost her two daughters, aged four and 19, and her husband 4/ 3/ 5/ 6/ Spending by sector* % 1/ Livelihoods / Education 4.4 3/ Shelter and infrastructure / Health and sanitation 8.7 5/ Emergency relief 4.7 6/ Policy % *Projected figures at the time of going to press 1/ 2/ 3/ 2/ Spending by country* m % 1/ India / Sri Lanka / Indonesia Total 14 million 1/ How we ve spent your donations The British and Irish public gave with overwhelming generosity to the tsunami relief effort. Thanks to you, the on-theground response was swift and effective. By the end of 2005, we will have sent our local partners 14 million, mainly for shelter, livelihoods, health and sanitation. Housing By the end of 2005, our partners will have spent approximately 9 million rebuilding homes and providing temporary shelter for around 11,000 families. Our partners work with local communities to build the houses they request and need. In November, the whole of Nayakkarkuppam village in India came together to rebuild 269 damaged homes with grants from Sneha. Men, women and children helped carry bricks, dig piles of sand and mix cement. Livelihoods One and a half million people lost their livelihoods in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka mainly fishermen, but also women fish sellers, farmers and others. Thousands of people have been forced to rely on aid. This year our partners have spent around 3 million providing tools, training and cash-for-work programmes, helping 50,000 people get back to work. In one Indian village alone, Kovalam, the Women s Collective has helped 650 women fish sellers restart their businesses with interest-free loans. Trauma counselling Helping to heal the emotional scars, especially in communities where so many died, is perhaps the biggest challenge of all. In Indonesia, some villages we visited lost up to three-quarters of their children. Our partners have provided counselling in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, helping 25,000 people to overcome the trauma of seeing their homes destroyed and their loved ones washed away. Getting it right After a disaster people need immediate help, but they also need the right kind of help. Assessing who should receive what is a time-consuming process. Some of our partners have years of expertise in emergencies, but others do not. And in all cases, the scale of this disaster has posed huge challenges. Partly for these reasons, we have spent less than anticipated. Government restrictions on construction have also meant that the task of rebuilding homes has been delayed. The future Reconstruction will take up to five years to complete. Over the next two years, our partners plan to spend at least a further 27 million, bringing our total expenditure over three years to more than 40 million. Of this, 30 million comes from the Disasters Emergency Committee and just under 10 million directly from our supporters. The generosity of the British and Irish public has meant that we haven t had to divert resources from other emergencies or our long-term development work.

5 Learning the lessons The tsunami wrought unprecedented destruction. Rebuilding India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka alone will cost an estimated US$7.2 billion, according to the World Bank. The task of building houses is the equivalent of rehousing the entire city of Birmingham. Like all aid agencies, we have had to work in different ways, setting up new offices in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia and finding new partners. In an emergency this complex and devastating, there is no instant solution. We are proud that our partners have accomplished so much, so quickly. Compared to other major emergencies, we have seen reconstruction on an enormous scale. In Sri Lanka and India, people are returning to something approaching normality. Almost everyone is now in either temporary or permanent housing. Children are back at school. People are starting to earn a living and no longer depend on handouts. But in Indonesia, which suffered the most damage, tens of thousands of people remain in temporary shelters a year after the tsunami, their lives largely on hold. Many people still lack jobs, homes and a sense of certainty about their future. Coordinating aid Many aid agencies failed to coordinate in the early days, leaving some villages with nothing and others with agencies competing to hand out aid. Our partners SIFFS and Sneha pioneered coordination in southern India. Our offices in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and London work closely with the UN, governments and other major aid agencies. But we recognise that this is an area in which we must improve. Aid for all In Sri Lanka, thousands of people were already homeless before the tsunami, displaced during the country s decadeslong conflict. In India, women and dalits often receive the least aid and support. We are constantly challenging this. In Tamil Nadu, India, dalit fishermen who received no official aid have been given boats, equipment and financial help by our partner New Entities for Social Action. The Women s Collective, in India, has provided women fish vendors with interest-free loans and helped women to lobby government. Land Government efforts to restrict building near the shore created uncertainty and slowed the process of reconstruction. In Sri Lanka these restrictions have now been removed, but elsewhere there remains a lack of clarity about who is entitled to build, and where. The squeeze on land and the increased cost of building supplies have slowed reconstruction and our partners response. Many are lobbying governments. For some of our partners this has been a new and challenging area of work. The tsunami has thrown up three main lessons the need to: ensure stronger coordination for all organisations develop our partner expertise on shelter for tsunami reconstruction build our programme of helping to prevent the worst effects of disasters. SIFFS has built 80 boats a month at its main boatyard 75 more than it did before the tsunami It s about bringing life back to our coasts. South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies

6 Rebuilding For many people killed by the tsunami, safety was only a15-minute walk away. In most places, the waves reached just a kilometre inland close enough to allow the majority of people to escape in time, especially in India and Sri Lanka, where they could have had up to two hours warning. But there was no system to alert them to the danger. In Japan, a major earthquake is reported on television screens within 60 seconds. In Hawaii, the aim is to warn people of possible tsunamis within 90 seconds. But in the Indian Ocean, where the last tsunami happened more than a century ago, hardly anyone knew what these killer waves were. Governments and scientists are now talking about building an Indian Ocean tsunami warning centre. But satellites and ocean sensors are only half the solution. If there is no one to call, no system to alert coastal communities from children on the beach to mothers in the kitchen lives will still be lost. In 2006, our partners will be incorporating disaster risk reduction into their programmes. In India, SEEDS is building homes which flex with the tremors of an earthquake rather than shatter. Its specialist masons have flown from earthquake-prone Gujarat to the Andaman islands to help people build safe homes. In Indonesia and Sri Lanka, Habitat for Humanity is constructing houses made of light materials which are less likely to crush people if they collapse. It s both cheap and effective to strengthen communities. 20 pays for a wind-up radio to give people warning. 1,300 pays for 25 people in south India to be trained in emergency planning, rapid response and first aid. 23,000 pays for a strong shelter that can protect 1,000 people from cyclones, storms and floods. If we had had a warning system, said Sheelu Frances of the Tamil Nadu Women s Collective, we would not have saved people s houses. But we would have saved lives. What we need now is not a warning system costing scores of rupees. But something that local people can handle, so they can pass the message on quickly. In south Asia, the world s most disasterprone region, the lessons of the tsunami apply whether it s cyclones, floods, earthquakes or tsunamis. We now live in a world of disasters. Climate change and the vulnerability created by poverty means that catastrophes are growing in intensity and number. We don t want merely to respond to disasters. We want to minimise their impact. We know that lives can be saved. We have asked for homes that are disaster proof, that will survive another tsunami or other disaster, one woman in south India told us. We don t want this to happen again. Dayananda Lankageeganage, 68, was handed the keys to his new home in Madiha East, Sri Lanka, on 16 July. It was built with the support of our partner Practical Action. The homes we helped build this year are earthquake- and disaster-resistant The foundations are strong. Dayananda Lankageeganage, 68 Madiha East, Sri Lanka

7 26 December 2004, GMT: one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded ripped open the ocean floor off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, triggering waves as high as 30 feet. In coastal villages across the Indian Ocean, up to 250,000 people were swept to their deaths. Millions lost their homes. This booklet looks at how with your generous donations Christian Aid and its 33 partners in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka helped people to rebuild their lives in the year after the tsunami. To find out more visit or call Family portraits in the aftermath in Banda Aceh, Indonesia Christian Aid December 2005 Christian Aid London: PO Box 100, SE1 7RT Belfast: PO Box 150, BT9 6AE Cardiff: PO Box 6055, CF15 5AA Edinburgh: PO Box 11, EH1 1EL Dublin: 17 Clanwilliam Terrace, Dublin 2 Websites: UK charity number Company number Republic of Ireland charity number CHY6998 F1168