The two were in three areas of India a year ago to assess needs following the devastating December 2004 tsunami that wreaked havoc in that part of the world, including the total destruction of the community of Lankevani Dibba. They also will visit Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands to view work in progress there. To read a stoory published earlier this year, please see Covenant Tsunami Relief.
“A key strategy of Covenant World Relief is finding competent and effective partners in delivering assistance to the people in need,” Sundholm says, noting, “IREF has been such a partner.” Sundholm also affirmed his earlier prediction that the enormity of the tsunami damage will require a multi-year commitment to the rebuilding effort.
One of the project elements is planned construction of concrete homes to replace those of wood that were destroyed – “a more permanent form of relief, one that will provide strong structures that can withstand the typically fierce cyclones and storms impacting villages off the coast of the Bay of Bengal,” the IREF reports in its October newsletter.
The first phase of that project will build 28 houses, with another 100 to be built in subsequent phases, IREF reports, adding that churches in coastal areas of India “are now being constructed with concrete.”
“The difference they (IREF) is making in the lives of residents in these coastal fishing communities is remarkable,” Sundholm says.
