Tuesday, March 8, 2005
BY MARK ARSENAULT
Journal Staff Writer
In just one district in southern Sri Lanka, the tsunami last December left more than 32,000 people displaced, some 5,000 houses damaged and destroyed, and the local economy in tatters.
Plan USA, a Warwick-based relief agency, has raised $214,000 from people in Rhode Island for relief in Hambantota, a district in southern Sri Lanka, said Sam Worthington, national executive director and CEO of Plan USA. Plan has raised some $24 million globally, he said.
"We've sort of moved from meeting emergency requirements . . . to taking responsibilities for the reconstruction of 11 townships, 1,500 houses, water systems, roads, multipurpose centers, six schools," Worthington said. "We've been training youth in manufacturing cement bricks for this reconstruction and [providing] the vocational training of women and young people as well."
Plan, a nonprofit organization operating in 60 countries, was founded under another name in 1937. The group normally focuses on helping children and their families with immunizations, health care, education, clean water, sanitation and other services. Plan is also known for its child-sponsorship program.
After the earthquake-driven waves destroyed much of the coast of Sri Lanka, Plan urged Rhode Islanders to concentrate local tsunami relief in the Hambantota district. Donations to Plan USA for tsunami relief will be spent on programs on that stretch of coastline, Worthington has said.
"We're aiming to spend about $6.7 million this year and we have a total identified budget that we've agreed to with the Sri Lankan government of about $11.1 million," he said. The reconstruction could take as long as five years, he said.
As Plan has moved from providing refugees water, latrines, medicine and generators for camps, to the next phase of reconstructing townships, the group has encountered a new set of problems. "You can imagine if you had to reconstruct the town of Wickford and all of a sudden, everything had to be 300 feet farther away from the sea," said Worthington. "What would that do to land-title issues and all of those headaches?"
Another problem is keeping people who lost everything hopeful and busy. The solution, he said, is to make them workers in their own recovery.
"People are too afraid to go out fishing on their boats, or their livelihoods have been destroyed," he said. "So one of the first things we've done is get basic carpentry and masonry tools, and then vocational training in carpentry and masonry, as well as the manufacture of bricks.
"The reconstruction itself does two things: one, it gives people who lost their livelihood something to do and a way to earn money; and, two, by being busy it allows them to have some sense of pride, some sense of purpose and some sense of hope that they can change things -- rather than idly sitting around, looking at this destruction."
Donations for disaster relief in Sri Lanka may be made through Plan's Web site, www.planusa.org.