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Media Statement, 23rd December 2005
GOAL’s €10 million project to build 63 schools along
Sri Lanka’s Ampara coastline kicks off this week, with a New
Years Eve 2006 completion deadline.
One year after the tsunami, GOAL is focussing its energy on a programme
that will ensure 30,000 children can continue with their education.
In a statement, GOAL’s CEO, John O’Shea said:
“This is a massively important initiative as it gives these
children an education, and means they now have hope for the future.”
GOAL’s innovative cash-for-work schemes played a useful role
in enabling people, including women, who lost their livelihoods,
to find temporary employment. Over the past year, the agency has
provided over €60,000 cash for work workers through employment
in constructing shelters and rebuilding infrastructure.
“The average days work for these local people included such
activities as clearing houses, drainage and lagoon cleaning, as
well as waste removal.”
“The speedy construction of some 1,400 GOAL shelters was in
no small part due to the enthusiasm of our cash-for-work initiative,
which also saw the repair of secondary roads, paddy fields and irrigation
canals - testament to the success of the scheme.”
The tsunami contaminated most of the wells it reached with salt
water and debris. To ensure local people had access to clean and
safe drinking water, GOAL prioritised cleaning 1740 water wells,
installing and maintaining thousands of water tanks and water connections,
as well as training the local water board.
To help affected families rebuild their lives, GOAL assisted with
cement block-making, and distributing coconut tree seeds for planting,
as well as repairing thousands of canoes and boats.
“Many thousands of survivors of the tsunami have been able
to redevelop their fishing livelihoods, and their lives are slowly
returning to normality once again after the most traumatic year
of their lives.”
The agency’s emergency operations included clearing water
sources, building temporary shelters for 1,400 families, distributing
mosquito nets and family hygiene kits, school uniforms and fishing
nets, as well as repairing hundreds of fishing boats.
This intense programme was followed by relief activities which included
the distribution of food and essential non food items to those most
affected by this disaster, providing assistance to approximately
180,000 tsunami victims in the three districts of Sri Lanka –
Ampara on the east coast, and Hambantota and Matara on the south
coast.
GOAL believes in keeping its cost base as low as possible, and is
proud to have kept administration costs at an average of 5% over
a 28 year period.
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