The Tsunami that devastated Sri Lanka and other countries on the 26th December 2004 left the country with a huge challenge. In Sri Lanka alone around 40,000 people died and over 100,000 houses were fully or partly damaged leaving thousands of people homeless.

Disaster relief and humanitarian aid were the immediate first steps, then the reconstruction began.

NFPO started its Tsunami relief activities immediately after the waves hit the coastal areas of the island and now is carrying out a Relief and Rehabilitation programmes in the following areas:

• Tangalle, Hambantota District, in partnership with Action Aid International (March 2005 – December 2007)

• Pottuvil, Ampara District, in partnership with JICA (June 2005 to April 2006)

• Iqbal Nagar, Trincomalee District, in partnership with JICA (June 2005 to April 2006) in partnership with Action Aid International in Tangalle in the Hambantota District.

• Moratuwa, Greater Colombo: (December 05 to September 06) house construction and livelihood restoration for 100 Tsunami affected low income families in partnership with UNDP, UNHABITAT and the LEI &CDP project.

Partner

The coastal town of Tangalle was badly hit by the Tsunami.

Immediate interventions in 2005 included:

1. Attending to Immediate Humanitarian Needs     :: Read More

2. Community Based Psychosocial Care     :: Read More

3. Livelihood Restoration      :: Read More

4. Construction of Temporary Shelter     :: Read More

5. Back to School Program     :: Read More

The extended Relief Programme (2006 and 2007) now focuses on :

1. Attending to Immediate Humanitarian Needs

2. Community Based Psychosocial Care

3. Livelihood Support

4. Peace & Justice

5. Capacity Building

6. Governance
   
   

Attending to Immediate Humanitarian Needs
The first immediate action taken by NFPO was to clean and wash damaged houses and make them habitable. After that we provided relief packages based on the needs of the affected families during the first few months, e.g. kitchen utensils, clothing, medicines, dry rations and supported the needs for water and sanitation facilities such as health clinics to children and mothers.

Community Based Psychosocial Care
In 2005 NFPO conducted a Training of Trainers on psychosocial counseling for 160 school teachers. The workshops were facilitated by experts on psychosocial care from Tata Institute, Mumbai, India. These trained teachers conduct psychosocial counseling for children and parents. Regular follow up meetings are done to provide adequate support to the teachers. Special attention is given to the most vulnerable groups, women, children, people with disability and elderly.The trained teachers have conducted 14 workshops for children during the first few months. In addition a special program for children titled “HAPPY DAY” was conducted by Janodaya Sajeewana Kendraya, an NFPO Network organisation.

Livelihood Restoration
Targeting 742 families who have lost their main income sources or breadwinner, NFPO is carrying out this program to restore their income sources. Initial activities included financial support to replace lost tools and machinery e.g for fishing, sewing, carpentry; and workshops and training on income generating activities for families who have lost their breadwinners.

NFPO supported, Individuals who lost their micro businesses. These people are street vendors selling fast food and beverages.

Small-scale family businesses – 75 families who are engaged in coir products.

Livelihood Programmes are now well advanced doing more small enterprises such as animal husbandry, household food processing, growing ornamental plants etc.

In April 2007 a Trade Fair and Exhibition took place, to show and support the income generation activities of the Tsunami affected people and to celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil new Year.

 

Construction of Temporary & Permanent Shelter
The temporary shelter program was implemented for affected vulnerable families in Tangalle Division targeting 150 families. NFPO has started building permanent shelters 21 houses of Rs. 550 000 each.

Back to School Program
The Get back to School Campaign was to ensure all affected children go back to school and the program was focused on meeting the needs of children in restarting their education and learning. Help included exercise books and stationery, special help for students sitting exams, school uniforms, fees for hostels and coupons for travel on public transport. Nowadays we do promote a School Development Board with the support of the parents in 15 Grama Niladari Divisions (GNDs)

Capacity Building Programmes
Strengthening the capacity 5 CBOs specially targeting widows on leadership, community mobilisation, team work by empowering them.

Governance
Some of the programmes include

• Making the local government aware of community budget tackling

• Conducting legal campaigns to resolve legal matters with the support of human rights commission, Hambantota

• Conducting Shramadana campaigns to restore the village lake by the villagers themselves.

Peace and Justice
NFPO is conducting workshops on human rights specially women's rights, using different methodologies such as street drama, videos and awareness campaigns.

Contact us:
NFPO-AAI Tsunami Response Programme
No. 48, Sea Street,
Tangalle.
Sri Lanka.
Tel +94 (0)47 2242095
Fax +94 (0)47 2242095

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In June 2005 NFPO started two projects in the North East of Sir Lanka (Trincomalee and Ampara Districts) funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA - www.jica.go.jp/english).

Preparing for resettlement
440 families are being relocated to 2 newly built Japan Sri Lanka Friendship Villages. NFPO prepared a detailed family profiling report and conducted needs assessments with the help of PALTRA consultants to determine desired livelihood activities for the target groups.

Community Empowerment and Training
Lives and communities that have been disrupted by the Tsunami, require empowerment. In this case, the focus of empowerment was training on income generation as well as supporting local organisations (CBOs). This includes: establishing and registering CBOs, assisting livelihood improvement, providing business training, supplying housing construction materials and know-how transfer between communities.

Empowerment and support for Fishermen and Agriculture
Fishery and Agriculture are the primary occupations in the coastal area. To support these, NFPO selected the Fisheries Cooperative Societies and Farmer Organisations for an empowerment programme. This included setting up a Management Unit for the FCS, providing capacity building training for a sound FCS and monitoring and supervising the activities of the FCS. Farmers were supported by helping them to establish and register Farmers Organisation (FO), enhancing their management skills and enabling farmers to manage and coordinate the agriculture inputs supplied by the JICA project team.

This project has also given us the opportunity for joint working with Rural Development Foundation (RDF) a network partner and STRENGTHS member.

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:: MTRHCI & LRDP Moratuwa Tsunami Reconstruction Housing Community Initiative & Livelihood Restoration and Development Programme

When many low income families were displaced and lost their houses in the 2004 Tsunami, some major resettlement work was already going on in the wider areas as part of the Lunawa project. For the Tsunami affected families a fast and participatory approach to rehousing and livelihood restoration was sought. The project kicked off on December 26th, 2005, and the first houses were completed in April 2006. The second stage of housing construction has now started with the strong participation of the affected families. A total of 100 houses will be build with the active participation of the beneficiaries.

Project activities include:

• Beneficiary selection

• Social Mobilisation including training target at all members of the community

• Formation of group and linking with Banks

• Technical and financial assistance – set up of revolving loan scheme

• Participatory progress monitoring

• Link to the youth skill building scheme Istharam (read more)

The project is funded by UNDP and carried out in cooperation with UNHABITAT and LEI & CDP.

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:: Women Empowerment Program - NFPO / Cifa Onlus

Main project components are – Instant support to start traditional economic activities, Training Program to develop skills and Business development training. Total number of beneficiaries of this project is 100 women.

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:: Prevention of child abandonment Program - NFPO / Cifa Onlus

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