Red Cross launches $653 mln 5-yr tsunami aid plan
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The global Red Cross and Red Crescent body on Monday launched a $653 million five-year plan to help 10 Asian and African nations around the Indian Ocean to rebuild after last December’s devastating tsunami.
The wide-ranging project, covering 2005-2010, is the biggest and longest ever mounted by the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which links organisations in more than 181 countries.
The cost will be covered by funds already raised by its member bodies.
Spokeswoman Sian Bowen said the relief agency, the world’s largest, normally responded to disasters with a one- or two-year programme. “But given the scale of this disaster it was obvious that we had to look much further ahead,” she said.
Giant waves caused by an undersea earthquake swept across the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, leaving more than 200,000 dead or missing and destroying homes and livelihoods of an estimated 5 million people.
The countries hit, and which are covered by the IFRC’s project, were Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Seychelles and Somalia.
The IFRC said the plan had been drawn up in cooperation with national governments, U.N. agencies and the affected communities.
The programme, which will help more than 1 million people by the end of this year alone, includes rebuilding or improving homes, hospitals and clinics, water and sanitation systems and providing social support to victims.
Over the longer term, it will include training for community-based volunteers and putting structures in place that would provide effective and lasting preparation for coping with future disasters, the IFRC said.
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