Deal Signed to Build Houses for Tsunami Survivors

RIYADH, 21 January 2007 — The Kingdom signed an agreement yesterday with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for the construction of a housing in Sri Lanka at a cost of SR38.74 million to accommodate the survivors of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami.

The accord was inked by Saeed Al-Harithy, chairman of the Saudi Charity Campaign (SCC), and Brunson McKinley, director general of International Organization For Migration (IOM), in the presence of Sri Lankan Ambassador A.M.J. Sadiq. Others present included Abdul Aziz Arrukban, special international ambassador of World Food Program (WFP), Esmael El-Azhari Ibrahim, head of the Gulf Area Office of UNICEF, and World Health Organization Resident Representative Awad Mukhtar. The housing project will be named after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.

Al-Harithy said the project includes 500 housing units, two schools (one for boys and the other for girls), a hospital, a mosque, a playground, a bus terminal and a shopping mall.

Al-Harithy said the SCC was founded two years ago and is being run directly under the supervision of Interior Minister Prince Naif.

The project will be built in the district of Ampara, approximately 300 kilometers from Colombo, on land donated by the Lankan Ministry of Housing and Construction.

Al-Harithy said the construction would be carried out by local contractors and is expected to be completed in two years.

McKinley said his organization has been engaged in humanitarian relief programs in Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the North Africa countries.

“The project in Sri Lanka would not only give shelter to the survivors but also provide employment opportunities for the affected men and women,” said McKinley.

Sadiq said the project is going to help the people who lost out on post-tsunami assistance provided by various countries and non-governmental organizations. The beneficiaries of this project are currently living in temporary shelters.

“Tsunami waves took away the lives of 35,000 Sri Lankans and rendered 500,000 people internally displaced,” said Sadiq. “The Muslim population which had a large concentration on the eastern part of the island, lost one percent of its population.”