TSUNAMI RESPONSE FACT SHEET

January 6, 2005

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) has an active presence in six of the countries affected by the December 26th Indian Ocean tsunami. The initial response plan calls for transitional and permanent housing projects in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. Immediately following the disaster, the organization began working with the local Habitat offices and international partner organizations to assess and respond to needs. Habitat for Humanity is now working on plans to house up to 25,000 families in a first-phase effort and tens of thousands of families in need in the long term.

Phase I

The immediate priority is to help families move out of the overcrowded, diseased and crime-infested camps and other temporary shelters and into transitional housing.  The transitional houses will consist of a permanent one-room structure with a veranda and sanitary facilities. The preference is to build these structures on land sites already owned by the families. The timeline for the building of transitional housing will differ in each country, depending on the circumstances. The groundbreaking for the first house in Sri Lanka could begin as soon as mid-January.

Phase II

Over time, HFHI will begin working with families in transitional housing to build more permanent structures with additional rooms. HFHI's existing Save and Build program will be one initiative used in this effort.  With Save and Build, up to one dozen families save together until there is enough money for one house to get built or expanded.  The savings cycle continues until every family has a permanent home. This enables families with the smallest of incomes to pay for the construction of their own home and it builds community cohesion and support.

Disaster Response Technical Centers

Supplementing these building initiatives, HFH will develop Disaster Response Technical Centers in the countries affected. These centers will provide technical expertise and assistance to families, Habitat affiliates and partners in the first stages of construction. Eventually, the centers could become permanent training centers to teach people how to make their own homes and how to make and use affordable building materials such as earth blocks, roofing tiles, and doors, windows and frames.

Funding

Habitat for Humanity estimates it will cost approximately US$25 million to provide the 25,000 transitional houses over 2 years. To satisfy this urgent need, HFHI headquarters is coordinating a global resource development plan among its national organizations worldwide. US donations submitted through the organization's website total $1.4 million to date. Corporate and other donors within Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand have pledged more than US$1.9 million in cash and gifts in-kind. Matching funds from Habitat for Humanity International and other donations could provide more homeless families secure accommodations.

Country Details

SRI LANKA

Nearly one million people have been displaced in Sri Lanka, including several Habitat homeowners. HFH Sri Lanka is part of C-Net, an alliance of 10 Christian organizations working to provide transitional shelter. The first houses could begin to be constructed as soon as mid-January. The alliance aims to build 20,000 transitional houses initially, 10,000 of which will be supported directly by Habitat. The long-term goal is to provide transitional housing for 100,000 families currently without homes. HFH Sri Lanka is the largest homebuilder in the country, after the government, and could be responsible for half that total.

The transitional house plan is a 250 square foot, single-room structure with a room and a verandah or covered living/work space. It would include minimum sanitary facilities. A second room could be added later to enlarge the home as funds become available.  Each basic shelter is expected to cost up to US$500.

While much construction will be new, many homes damaged by the tsunami still have solid foundations, which will be able to serve as foundations for the rebuilt homes.  In addition, a great deal of used materials can be recycled to keep costs low while providing for permanent shelter. HFH Sri Lanka typically builds masonry homes with wooden or metal roof structures and corrugated iron sheets, ceramic tile or fiber-cement tiles which it often produces itself. Even under normal construction circumstances, HFH Sri Lanka programs are adept at making use of recycled and otherwise available natural resources such as gravel, stone and timber.

Homeowners will be selected regardless of ethnicity, religion and political affiliation, and consistent with local demographics. The C-Net project will prioritize families living below the poverty line, those who have lost primary wage earners, and those with women as head of households.

To provide for longer-term sustainability, HFH Sri Lanka plans to create disaster response technical centers in four locations. The organization has previous experience with a regular, affiliate-based, building and training center that focuses on production and marketing of building material components to HFH homeowners. HFH Sri Lanka also works with a corporate supporter that provides the infrastructure to allow HFH Sri Lanka to train master masons and others.

HFHI has worked in Sri Lanka since 1994 and has built 3,835 houses, including more than 1,100 in the past year alone.

INDIA

HFH India is set to focus on hard-hit coastal areas of Tamil Nadu state, south of the state capital Chennai, where an estimated 10,000 people were killed by the tsunami. HFH India is working with the Discipleship Center, an established partner, which has a substantial relief effort under way based out of the Chennai area.

In an initial response, the Discipleship Center is distributing "family kits" of food, clothing and tents to families as part of a state government plan to encourage people to return home. The work is focusing on Pondicherry, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Kenyakumari, four areas that have received less help than some areas. There are 82 camps in Nagapattinam and 59 in Kenyakumari. The government has ambitious plans to close camps within a few weeks.

Habitat affiliates staff and volunteers are working on behalf of Discipleship Center in Nagapattinam by assessing applications and distributing the kits to up to 4,000 families.

HFH India plans to provide transitional housing for up to 6,000 families in the first building phase. Disaster response technical centers will be located in Pondicherry, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Kenyakumari, possibly based out of current Discipleship Center distribution centers. Each center would support approximately 1,000 families or more as they build new homes. The transitional core houses, about half the size of a normal HFH India unit, would cost approximately US$400-500 each.

HFHI has been working in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for over 20 years and has built 10,286 houses in India since 1983.

INDONESIA

In Indonesia, the hardest hit country, Habitat's national office plans to work in Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra island, and on Nias, an island to the west of Sumatra.

Initial plans are in development to use materials donated or sold at discount by a major Indonesian steel group to erect transitional steel housing for displaced families. The housing would include a series of 24 square meter units which would be dismantled for reuse once the families return to their own land. The initial plan is to house up to 250 families in Aceh and an additional 200 in Nias.

HFH Indonesia will establish three disaster response technical centers on Sumatra. As in India, these would be designed to support hundreds and later thousands of families with expertise and assistance as they build new homes.

HFHI has been working in Indonesia since 1991 and has built 315 houses there. 

THAILAND

Although HFH Thailand does not have activities in the tsunami-affected south, it is joining the national reconstruction effort. Plans under development include disaster response technical centers and a target of 1,000 transitional homes costing approximately US$750 each.