Project title: Family follow-up for Tsunami victims in the Arayampathy region, Sri Lanka.

Problem setting: The East coast of Sri Lanka was severely hit by the Tsunami of 26 December 2004. The official toll in the country is of 31000 casualties and 15 000 injured. This disaster shattered and displaced thousands of families. These populations will need time to reconstruct their lives after this trauma.

In the Batticaloa province, populated by a majority of Tamils, the health and education conditions were already particularly dire before the Tsunami. Civil servants of the Health and Education ministries often refused to work in these zones. In order to fill this gap, certain NGOs had to build preschools and primary schools.

These underprivileged populations were all the more affected by the deathly wave that devastated the Sri Lankan coast. Women suffered most because in areas where fishing is the main source of revenue, means of production are essentially linked to men. Today, in the Arayampathy region, there are 1141 "tsunami widows" who will have to face difficulties alone with their children. Beyond mourning, these women will have to deal with the reality of the loss of their livelihood. This is why E&D decided to set up a family follow-up project in Sri Lanka for families affected by the tsunami.

Main objective: To give families affected by the tsunami the means to look to the future and design future prospects.

This project is composed of two sub-sections:
- The socio-economical rehabilitation of widows to give them the means to overcome the trauma psychologically, socially and economically.
- An educational aspect, to allow children of the tsunami affected zones to have access to preschool education and to children's clubs.

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