| The Triple Gem Society tsunami housing project has successfully
completed 70 family units in five different locations. We
are delighted to inform you that we now have a Triple Gem
Camp No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These camps are actually large
buildings, composed of up to 20 individual one-room family
units. As you might understand to accomplish such task is
challenging and require lot of coordinating efforts and
hard work. We have to working with my monk colleagues and
government officials and contractors . The problems that
we run into are nany. To accomplish this project quickly
and efficiently, we hired 3 different contractors simultaneously.
In this way we were able to complete these five large buildings
during past two months.
There are still thousands of homeless families waiting
for temporary shelter. In some areas it will likely take
a minimum of one year before permanent housing is available
for them. These poor people who have already lost so much
are getting tired of living in crowded holes or at times
in leaky tents without proper facilities for basic hygiene.
Our main priority was to get as many homeless as possible
out of the constant misery of the crowded refugee camps
which offer no privacy or personal space. It is always difficult
to decide which families to select among the hundreds, because
every person deserves a clean private place to call their
own. Even so, we had to choose only a few. We gave priority
to single mothers with young children and pregnant women.
Most of these people come from good families and had stable
jobs before tsunami. They have had their predictable lives
shattered in a single unexpected moment, As we try to help
them I constantly witness their devastation and sorrow.
I often notice how my happiness in helping them gets pinched
by the experience of the pain they hold in their hearts.
For example when we give a room in our new camp to a homeless
father who lost his children and wife I know that our small
deed does not solve his enormous problems. At times I have
had bad dreams caused by this paradox of happiness and sadness.
Currently 25 more units are being built and we hope to
welcome in the new families by the 10th of April. We will
continue our efforts to help.
Once again I would like to thank you for your kindness.
We can accomplish these things with a small team of monks
and friends because of your generous support of the TGS
work. I would like to encourage your continued support of
our post-tsunami efforts. Please take the time to look at
our photo gallery on the web page.
|
