Habitat World Online

'I was very lucky: I was in the church. Now I am lucky again: We are safe and people are helping us rebuild.'
--Renuka, tsunami survivor

Affiliate Struggles to Keep Up its Regular Program

Images from Sri Lanka

Habitat homeowners rebuild in Sri Lanka
There's a beautiful lagoon behind the house where Renuka and her father, Seevaretnam, live near Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. But on the day the tsunami struck, the peaceful lagoon was overpowered by violent ocean waves. One whole wall of their house collapsed.

They had built their house with the help of the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. By mid January, volunteers, including a group of youth, had removed damaged roof tiles, braced the roof and cleaned blocks that could be recycled. Within two days a mason and his helper were rebuilding the wall and installing a window that had been salvaged.

They will finish the house with new blocks made at Habitat's Building and Training Center in Batticaloa.

"I was very lucky; I was in the church," said Renuka of the tsunami. "Now I am lucky again--we are safe and people are helping us to rebuild."

Making blocks helps Habitat affiliate increase house building
Habitat for Humanity volunteers and staff often work three shifts a day at the organization's Building and Training Center in Batticoloa, Sri Lanka, to meet the need for concrete blocks in the tsunami reconstruction effort. As of mid-January, 10,000 blocks had been delivered to Habitat homeowners and another 20,000 blocks were ready to be used. In three shifts, the facility can produce 3,600 blocks.

Habitat for Humanity Batticaloa coordinator Justice Gregory said the main aims of the 5-year-old Building and Training Center are to ensure that Habitat builds high-quality houses and to reduce costs. In addition to making blocks, T. Sakthirajan, who has worked at the center since it opened, trains others in mixing materials and forming blocks. Building supply companies donate materials to use for making blocks.

"Our home partners can make blocks as part of their 'sweat-equity' construction requirement," said Gregory, "and we have started an income-producing program for Habitat homeowners who lost wage-earning family members during the tsunami." He also said the organization sells the blocks it makes to raise funds to build more houses with families in need.
Gregory said the Building and Training Center will soon start production for fence posts, beams and pillars, as well as frames for windows and doors. "It is a much better thing for the environment that we not harvest so much wood for building products," he said.


	A woman in need of housing applies for a partnership with Habitat for Humanity in Sri Lanka.

Tsunami survivors secure permanent shelter
Ramanapala, Samathi and their three children had lived in their new Habitat for Humanity home for only two days when the Dec. 26 tsunami knocked it down. The sturdy block walls could not withstand the force of the water on that day. With the help of volunteers and skilled masons, their house will soon be rebuilt.

"We will not be rebuilding the full-size house at this time," said affiliate coordinator Justice Gregory. "We will build one room and a bath with a small veranda. That way we can help more of the tsunami victims achieve permanent shelter."

|Gregory said this illustrated Habitat's "core house" concept. After the initial 250-square-foot house is completed, the homeowner can choose to join a Habitat savings group to finance further construction.

Multinational team erects tents
Habitat homeowners who were not affected by the tsunami joined Italian and American volunteers to erect tents to be used as temporary shelter by families who lost their homes. The three Americans, survival instructors who work in the Middle East, heard about Habitat's work in the affected area from a friend who had been on a Global Village house-building trip to Galle. Joining them and helping with translation was a Sri Lankan co-worker. Fifty tents were donated by the Italian government; 600 more were requested.

Local leaders active in rebuilding
H.D. Hewalatha is a community-minded woman, a volunteer in Galle who wants to help her neighbors have a better life. Habitat for Humanity is her passion. She has organized savings groups so that together 12 families can save and build their houses over two years. Now her volunteer work is on a fast track. She surveys group members wherever she can find them, and she assesses what has been lost and what can be salvaged and rebuilt.

Homeowner rebuilds from the rubble
Darmasena Liyanage, a Habitat homeowner, is anxious to do what he can to move his family out of the temporary shelter that has been erected on his property and back into a home of their own. He lives with his wife and three sons on land that has belonged to his family for generations. The same is true of his three neighbors.

The land is far enough away from the beach in Galle that there is no obstacle to rebuilding, except time and money. Livanage puts most of his time now into helping a skilled mason, but he hopes to be employed once more as a lobster fisherman. His 12-year-old son Krishan does what he can to supplement the family diet by fishing. He stays home now because his school was destroyed by the tsunami.

Shelters meet only basic needs
In the simplest surroundings, families find pride of place. Walk past a one-room, thatch-roofed dwelling early in the morning and notice the shoes placed neatly by the door, the grandmother bent double, brushing leaves into a pile to clean the dirt dooryard.

Since the tsunami, many families in Batticaloa are placing their rubber sandals outside a tent or at the door to a classroom.

Residents at government schools say that they've been told that families will have to leave so that students can return. The rumored date has come and gone twice, with no action taken, but some say the uncertainty is unnerving.

"We will not turn these families away, as long as they have need," said Bro. A. James Peiris, principal of St. Michael's College, which is not one of the government schools. He hands out a card with the current count of persons sheltered at the school listed by age and gender. There are 243 families, a total of 935 persons, including "eight pregnant mothers, 17 feeding mothers and 33 injured."

In the school assembly hall, families who lost their homes have lined up children's chairs to outline their space. They've stacked their few belongings and hung the washing on the backs of chairs and on the windowsills.

"In the morning, we have school for the children; it helps them focus on continuing their lives, but it's not enough," said Peiris. "They need to return to a home where they can begin to really heal and grow."