Making a House, or a Cattle Shed, a Home
When 29-year-old Vanitha got married, parents from both sides were not very happy about it. When they didn’t have a place to live, she and her husband were given a cattle shed for their home.
Continue Reading ›Building Playhouses to Emphasize the Importance of Play for Children
Inigodawela’s Child Survival Program staff suggested that its members build playhouses for their little ones. The Child Survival Program provided toys for the children as part of this effort to promote the importance of play and family togetherness.
Continue Reading ›Tsunami Disaster Relief in Indonesia
Four years ago, on December 26, 2004, one of the deadliest natural disasters in history hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. More than 225,000 people were killed in 11 countries.
Banda Aceh was one of those communities devastated by the tsunami. We had no active program in Banda Aceh before the tsunami, and in fact, none of the areas where we worked in Indonesia before the tsunami were affected.
But when the tsunami hit, we initiated temporary relief work under the name ‘ARIEF’ or Aceh Relief for the tsunami victims. This local name was chosen in order to allow a local ministry to take over the relief and do follow-up work for the beneficiaries of the programs after our initial relief work ended. Our relief work was initially planned for one year. (more…)
