Nonprofit to Launch Innovative Tsunami-Reconstruction Program

Portland, OR, August 30, 2005 --(PR.com)-- Leaders of Portland-based Rebuilding Community International (RCI) will introduce a pioneering sustainable-redevelopment program next week in Sri Lanka. 

“Our projects will have a lasting impact not only through reconstruction of communities, but through rehabilitation of livelihoods” said RCI Board member and native Sri Lankan Sadna Samaranayake. “We’re not just restoring structures, we’re creating economic strength, resilience, and hope within communities." 

RCI will provide devastated communities with volunteer building professionals to help restore structures, build self-sufficiency, and create an improving quality of life. RCI’s unique holistic approach integrates: collaboration to find solutions that promote social and economic growth and ecological balance; cash-for-work and training programs to accelerate recovery and give hope to those who’ve lost livelihoods; sustainable planning that safeguards natural resources; mitigation to produce disaster resilience; eco-friendly green building; and new sustainable-business facilities to strengthen local economies and foster self-reliance. 

Given considerable criticism of conventional disaster relief and the enormity of destruction in South Asia, UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery Bill Clinton has appealed to relief agencies to innovate and “build back better.” RCI’s innovative sustainable-redevelopment approach could be the model for the future that the international community envisions.

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