Maltese NGO active in Sri Lanka: Tsunami Relief Project

During the past two years the Maltese NGO Koperattiva Kummerc Gust (KKG) has been working on the Tsunami Relief Project which it embarked on early in 2005. Two days after the disaster a campaign was launched on national television to raise money for those effected by the disaster. Money collected from the event was then passed on to the government to distribute it amongst organizations and individuals who wanted to help the effected.

The cooperative, through Fair Trade contacts it has in Sri Lanka, managed to secure Lm31,950 (around 75,000 EUR) to help one Fair Trade organization in Sri Lanka re-build the lives of those effected by the disaster. Many lost their livelihood after the disaster and creating secure and sustainable jobs was a top priority for the country. With co-funding from Malta the cooperative Kummerc Gust was able to help create a textile factory which has so far employed 40 people in Fair Trade conditions who were effected by the tsunami. The factory (run in Fair Trade standards) was launched in 2006 and is continuously expanding its sales and workforce. The team managing the factory aims that they will have 100 tsunami effected full time employees working by the end of the year 2007 .

In August-September 2007, Lana Turner and Celia Attard (two volunteers from KKG) visited the factory in Sri Lanka to inspect and ensure that the project has been setup as described in the project application and that the factory is as fruitful and as described on paper. Below is a short excerpt from Lana and Celia's report of their trip.

"We visited three Fair Trade production centers whilst we were there. First we visited Gospel House Woodbrix – a production plant which produces toys and other wooden artifacts. The employees work under Fair Trade conditions and we were impressed by the safety measures taken at this plant to protect their members from certain health hazards. Next organization we visited was the Siyath Foundation, another production center which produces twine, rope and carpets. Unlike Gospel House most of the workers here were women and though the work seemed tough to do they all seemed to enjoy doing it and with such skill. Siyath Foundation also engages in political lobbying, for example organizing manifestations against domestic violence and lobby for the materialization of the 8 Millenium Development Goals.

As part of this project with Gospel House, apart from the sewing room and cutting room they were opening a training centre. They said that another 200 women, all tsunami victims, were willing to enroll to undergo training which would enable them to find work. Also on the same factory grounds they built a Montessori kindergarten school. The intention initially had been to keep the workers children close by but as most of the employees were young women with no children yet they were thinking of opening the school for women within the community."

For more info about this KKG project, please visit http://www.l-arka.org/node/82

Information provided by Lana Turner and Celia Attard