Press Release

Final homes for tsunami survivors in Indonesia

13 December 2007

An official ceremony to mark the completion of more than 2,200 houses in Indonesia, built by the British Red Cross and Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), is taking place in Aceh Jaya province on 14 December.

The ceremony marks the culmination of three years of intensive work to build homes for people who lost everything in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. The year 2007 kicked off with the handover of 268 houses to people on the Indonesian island of Pulau Aceh. This has been followed by the completion of groups of houses in Aceh province throughout the year.

British Red Cross chief executive, Sir Nicholas Young has flown to Indonesia for the presentation of the keys of the final completed houses to tsunami survivors in 12 villages in Teunom, a sub-district of Aceh Jaya.

Dave Mather, British Red Cross head of programmes in Indonesia, said: “This is a major milestone in the recovery of the survivors of the tsunami in Teunom and for the Indonesian Red Cross and the British Red Cross in their tsunami recovery programme. A large scale and ambitious project such as this is not without its challenges, but we are delighted to be able to hand over the keys of these high quality new homes to so many families.”

The British Red Cross has provided cash grants to more than 9,000 families, allowing them to re-establish their livelihoods. It has also supported disaster preparedness and risk reduction activities, such as a project to train people to build safer homes. In total, £33.9 million was allocated to Indonesia from the British Red Cross.

Co-ordination

Before building could begin a lot of work had to be done to affirm land rights as many people had lost their land titles, which were washed away in the disaster. People were then consulted on the house design and the types of construction materials to be used.

In the Maldives, the British Red Cross is continuing to help 8,000 tsunami survivors through new houses, cash grants or disaster preparedness work. The organisation is also working in Sri Lanka where it has spent nearly £9 million to date on livelihoods work and assisting people affected by the conflict.