Description of project

This intervention is made up of 4 communities (spread out between the districts of Galle and Kalutara) where the Spanish Red Cross had already implemented projects of permanent accommodation for populations displaced by the tsunami. The direct beneficiaries (those that receive aid) are 500 families. The number of indirect beneficiaries rises to about 2,700 families.

The project began in January 2007 and is set to end in June 2009.

The general objective of this intervention is to reduce vulnerability and strengthen the capacity of the people and communities affected directly or indirectly by the tsunami. The specific objective is to ease the process of economic and social integration of the population displaced by the tsunami to their host communities. At first, these host communities disapproved of the arrival of these new families to their communities. They were competing for resources and the existing infrastructure in the community and had very different traditions and habits.

The project aims to ease the process of social and economic integration by use of various components. One component was the integration of resettled populations in already existing community organizations. To do this, actions had been anticipated to strengthen these Community Base Organizations (CBOs).