India

Mathi Kanniyappan finds the house she lives in now--one of 93 new homes built in her village since the December 2004 tsunami--more solid, secure, and livable than the damaged home she and her family had to vacate. She particularly praises the new home's flat, concrete roof--an improvement over the thatched roof that afforded little shelter in case of rain.

"It's a very good house," she says. "We can feel the breeze."

Nearby is the village's new community center and shelter, a structure that is being used most days for festivals, nursery school, family reunions, etc.

Down the road, the 53 new houses in a neighboring village are taking on individual character, with fencing, decoration, planted hedges, and new trees. Its young people have formed a disaster preparedness task force and are demonstrating newly acquired rescue and mapping skills.

The post-tsunami reconstruction and recovery efforts of CWS partner Church's Auxiliary for Social Action includes the construction of 4,000 permanent homes in southern India.

Indonesia

Some 18,000 families lost their homes in the Sept. 12 quake that hit the southwest coast of Sumatra. Also lost were about 2,000 schools and 620 medical facilities. An estimated 88,000 homes were damaged.

Church World Service is currently working in partnership to distribute 1,506 shelter kits for displaced families and medical equipment for 14 local health centers. CWS is also working with partners to provide disaster preparedness programs and psychosocial support. In the early days following the quake, CWS provided emergency relief of plastic mats, ropes, and tarpaulins to 1,891 quake-affected people in nine villages.

Contributions are urgently needed to assist these emergency relief efforts in Indonesia.