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.