Christian Aid Tsunami Report Two Years On

International relief agency Christian Aid has so far built more than 20,000 new permanent homes and helped more than 185,000 people back to work since the devastating Asian tsunami two years ago.

Altogether Christian Aid helped 290,000 people in 2006 and since the tsunami has spent more than £29m in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka on water, food, medicines, housing and training. Another £13m will be spent by the end of 2007.

In addition, nearly 8,400 fishing boats have been repaired, while 53,000 people have received trauma counselling.

Many of the houses funded by Christian Aid were built by tsunami survivors themselves. For example in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu grants were given to 5,646 families in 51 villages to rebuild their houses.

The money was given in instalments so that at each stage of construction inspectors could check homeowners were building to disaster-resistant standards. When people are involved in building their own homes in this way it helps to ensure the houses are built to the highest standards.

In addition, Christian Aid concentrated on making sure the poorest and most vulnerable communities got the help they needed with the money raised through the generosity of the public in Britain and Ireland.