SOS for tsunami rebuilding efforts

SOS Children's Villages of Sri Lanka, best known for taking care of orphaned and abandoned children over the past 25 years were among the many NGOs that offered assistance and relief to those affected by the December 2004 tsunami. Virtually from day one after the disaster, co-workers from the Children's Villages were involved in providing food, clothing, medical supplies and shelter to the victims from Kalutara to Ghandara in the south, and from Kayankerni (north of Batticaloa) to Komari (near Arugambay) in the south-east.

SOS was also one of the very first NGOs to sign MOUs with the government, to reconstruct and repair 750 houses in Komari, 274 houses in Kayankerni and 129 houses in Iraalodai (close to Kayankerni). SOS also undertook to construct social centres/tsunami shelters (consisting of kindergartens and training centres) at Peraliya and Ghandara in the south and at Panama, Ulle, Komari (2), Periyar Kallar, Batticaloa, Kurukkalmadam and Kayankerni (2) in the east. The Al Misbah School in Kalmunai (1,758 students) was also to be reconstructed.
SOS also established partnerships with other NGOs as part of their policy of initiating and sustaining relationships with like-minded organizations, sharing good-practice information and working in cooperation for the benefit of those in need.

Among the organizations that SOS partnered for tsunami-related work were 'Alliance Development' (building transitional shelters in Kayankerni), Give2Asia (repair and reconstruction of the Medical Centre and Doctor's residence in Komari), 'Rebuilding Komari - Sunshine Coast Queensland' donations through Errol and Rohina Johnston (solar-power for 50 houses), CFDR (well cleaning, garbage disposal and rubble disposal in Komari), Seva Vanitha Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Social Centre/Tsunami Shelter in Komari) and Brandix (provision of tents for a refugee camp in Komari).

SOS will be maintaining its presence in the east even after the ongoing tsunami-related work is finished, as the Social Centres and kindergartens they have established for the many communities will be conducted with the assistance of the communities themselves.

SOS is also in the process of establishing a SOS Children's Village in Komari so that the children in the east who have been deprived of their parents and homes due to the war and the tsunami will have the security and love of SOS mothers and brothers and sisters in SOS families.