By Peter Høvring, ACT International
Kaluthavalai, February 8, 2006 -- More than a year after the December 2004 tsunami completely washed away the primary school in the village of Kaluthavalai, as well as many houses in this small community on the eastern shore of Sri Lanka, residents still face serious challenges.
The villagers are dependent on the income they receive from their house gardens, which are not as productive as before the tsunami due to the salinization of the soil. They therefore do not have the means to rebuild their entire village on their own.
Immediately after the tsunami, the villagers received relief supplies from the neighboring communities that were not affected, The Rev. Selvarejah from the local Methodist Church says. With Christians as a tiny minority in this country, Rev. Selvarejah's church was able to contribute to the assistance that was provided in this predominantly Hindu area with its own funds and with support from the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.
"For a quick response, we borrowed money from the Sunday collection," Rev. Selvarejah says. Soon money started coming in for bigger purchases of relief items - sleeping mats, kitchen utensils, powdered milk and water. "We even cooked food in the church and in the temple during some weeks," he says.
Eventually the survivors were placed in temporary shelters. As the months passed, plans for new homes were made, and reconstruction was set to begin.
But real problems stood in the way. The availability of empty land to build upon, how to purchase it, and how wide the so-called buffer zone -- the distance of new houses from the shore -- should be -- all influenced the plans. Many issues needed to be resolved before anybody could proceed with the rebuilding.
In the meantime, most of the temporary shelters, which were meant to last only a few months, had to be renovated if people were to live in them longer. A temporary shelter serving as the school that 70 children were attending was too small.
As time wore on, each set of actors in the situation -- the villagers, the national government and the local government -- were waiting for one of the others to act to move the process forward. Nearly a year after the tsunami, the villagers had lost confidence in the promises that had been made and realized if anything was going to happen, they had to do something themselves.
They approached the local Hindu temple and the Methodist Church and asked them for assistance so they could purchase some suitable land to build a new school, Rev. Selvarejah says. One acre of land was identified -- at a suitable distance from the sea -- and after some bargaining, was purchased for 475,000 rupees (USD 4,750), paid for equally by the temple and the church, and given to the villagers.
It was this seed money that got the process moving again. The government started planning, and UNICEF was approached and offered to fund a building and equipment for the school.
Now, the foundation has been laid, and a fence and a gate have been put up. All that needed to happen was for the rainy season to pass so that construction could begin.
The challenges facing communities such as the one of Kaluthavalai are huge. But their experiences are showing that when survivors work together, often across religious lines, and empower themselves, the process of rebuilding a community can move forward in a positive way.
Peter Høvring is a journalist for DanChurchAid, a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.