©InfoThe British Red Cross built thousands of homes for survivors of the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia and the Maldives.
Our tsunami recovery programme in Indonesia finished mid 2008 with the completion of 2,200 earthquake-resistant houses.
People were offered a choice of three house types: a traditional timber frame, a concrete frame with concrete block walls and a composite concrete block and timber frame. In areas prone to seasonal flooding the housing designs were modified to include concrete stilts to raise the house above flood water levels. Most people chose the concrete block house.
In the Maldives recovery programme, which finished in May 2009, we built 216 houses across four islands. On a fifth island, Vilufushi, which was completely flattened by the tsunami, we built a further 250 homes, complete with power and sewerage system, as well as a secondary school.
We took a holistic approach to rebuilding homes, including preparing for future disasters through activities like planning emergency evacuation routes and providing training in the principles of safe construction, and helping survivors get land titles.
These are stories about the new homes.