Tsunami Relief update presentation to Grand Lodge on 8 June 2005 by Laura Chapman, Chief Executive, The Grand Charity

Pro Grand Master, President, Gentlemen. I am very pleased to be able to speak to you today about the Grand Charity's proposals for supporting the victims of the tsunami disaster.

The Craft has been overwhelmingly generous in donating to the Relief Chest set up by the Grand Charity. This has grown to virtually three-quarters of a million pounds, which is a huge sum and, thereby, has placed on us a most significant responsibility to ensure that that money is used to the best of purposes.

As I reported in April at the Grand Charity's AGM, over the winter we have met here in London with a number of international charities who are involved in the relief efforts and who have a particular focus on support for children. We have been trying to gain an understanding of where the needs actually are and which charities are best placed to deliver. The Council has decided to spread its support across the region hit by the tsunami and intends to fund projects in four of the countries affected: India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand.

Of the charities that we met, we consider Plan to be the best suited to be our partner, to manage projects at the local level. It is an international charity, active in 45 developing countries, whose mission is to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of deprived children. We had been very impressed by our meetings in London with Plan, with their approach to sustainable community redevelopment, their safeguards to prevent corruption and mismanagement at local level and their sophisticated approach for evaluating the impacts of their projects.

It became clear to me, however, that an essential part of our due diligence process must be to see the delivery capability of the charity on the ground and to meet those personnel who would actually be managing the project we supported. With that as our objective, I set off to southern India and to Thailand, accompanied by my chaperones from the Council, Michael Turnbull, Chairman of the Appeals and Donations Committee and Bakul Vyas, to meet with Plan India. We also wanted to visit the Light of Siam Lodge in Phuket who had approached the Grand Charity for support for a project that they had developed.

In India we went to see the work of Plan India, who has had an office in Chennai for a number of years, and who was on the spot within hours of the tsunami disaster to help with the very first relief efforts. In the subsequent months, it has been working with local charities to build temporary housing, provide food and clothing for survivors and ensure basic sanitation and medical facilities are available. It is one of the international charities that has been allocated villages by the Indian government and will be responsible for managing the redevelopment of all aspects of housing, social and economic life in each village.

In southern India, the evidence of the devastation of the tsunami, even four months after the tidal wave engulfed the coast, was still overwhelming. The chaotic debris that has been left in its immediate aftermath had been tidied, but we didn't need to look very far for evidence of the disaster. The once green, productive fields are now barren, brown soil, covered by a layer of sand. All that remained of the cashew nut crop, the mainstay of the farming community's livelihood, were a few tangled tree trunks. Acres of farmland, inundated by salt-water, remain unusable until the salt and the sand can be removed. Damaged boats still littered the coastline and once busy ports were deserted, awaiting the return of the fishermen.

Most of the houses hit by the water have been destroyed and the few that are left are so badly damaged, they are uninhabitable. Although temporary accommodation has been built, these are far from satisfactory-constructed from corrugated tin sheeting over timber frames, one 10' by 10' room for the entire family. With daytime temperatures of 37 or 38 degrees celsius, the temperatures inside the shelters are unbearable. The rebuilding of the housing has been delayed, whilst the government debates crucial decisions on the allocation of land. In the meantime, families are left to swelter as the summer approaches.

Homes and livelihoods will, in time, be repaired. But the impact on the minds and spirits of those who lost loved ones, especially for the children who lost parents, will never be erased. Plan is providing counselling for children, as well as adults, to help them come to terms with their grief. This support is beginning to help many, like Chandru, a boy of eight who lost his mother in the disaster, and who did not speak for days thereafter.

When the Council of the Grand Charity initially decided to direct its funding for projects for children affected by the tsunami, it had assumed that that would mean support for an orphanage or for schools. In Southeast Asia, however, children who have lost their parents are usually taken in by their extended family. Hence, in that culture, it is difficult to target the support specifically on the children and, in fact, the best way of helping the children is to help the entire family-by providing housing, livelihood support, general community rebuilding and counselling, especially for women and for the children themselves.

As a result, the Grand Charity intends, subject to confirming a few final issues in its due diligence review, to support an initial project with Plan India in the order of £300,000 to help families living in ten fishing villages in the area of Villapuram, Tamil Nadu. This project will provide livelihood support-boats and nets for fishermen, income-generating projects for women-it will establish child-care and healthcare centres and offer counselling for women and children. The funding would be given over a three-year period, with each instalment paid only on satisfactory completion of the prior phase of work.

The Grand Charity group also visited Phuket, Thailand to meet with the Light of Siam Lodge. The men from this Lodge, who are residents of Phuket and very much part of the local community, were there on the day of the disaster, helping to pull survivors from the rubble and providing shelter in their own homes for those made homeless. It is with the deepest sense of conviction and commitment that they seek to help those who have suffered in the disaster. They have created a project to help the most vulnerable-the children of the poor. Working with ChildWatch, a local Thai charity, their goal is to house fifty orphans and to provide support for an additional 200 children in a daycare centre.

Although the scale of destruction in Phuket is less than in other areas, help is still needed. The presence and commitment of the Lodge members ensure on the spot monitoring and good governance for the project, as well as access to the considerable professional skills of Lodge members. The project also offers a unique opportunity for Craft awareness and involvement. The Lodge is seeking funding for the on-going running costs of the centre and the Grand Charity intends to offer support of approximately £100,000 over an initial three-year period, subject to satisfactory completion of the construction phase.

The Grand Charity also intends to support two other countries that were devastated by the tsunami: Sri Lanka and Indonesia and we are continuing discussions to identify suitable projects. Given the political and social difficulties in Indonesia and the press reports emphasizing corruption and mismanagement in the allocation of relief funding, we recognise that great care must be taken and we are, therefore, not in any hurry to despatch funds without ensuring proper safeguards.

The Grand Charity remains committed to ensuring that the trust that the Craft has placed in us to decide how the money in the Tsunami Relief Chest will be used is not misplaced. Our task will not end with the initial decisions on support, but will continue with the monitoring of the projects to ensure that milestones are achieved before second or third instalments of the grants are released.

Based on our first-hand evidence, the need for relief and longer-term redevelopment funding is undeniable. We are working with Plan to identify the specific projects in the countries that we have targeted. Plan and the local charities who are delivering the projects for them and Childwatch, for the Light of Siam Lodge, are well established, experienced and professional in their work. We have every confidence that your generous donations will make a real difference to the lives of children whose world was shattered on 26th December last.

Thank you.