Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka's Moratuwa Affiliate

Moratuwa and Its People

• Moratuwa is an incorporated city of 186,000 on the west coast of Sri Lanka.   It is considered a suburb of the capital, Colombo, which is 25 km. to the north.    It is made up of 19 villages and is bordered on one side by the Indian Ocean and on the other side by the Kaluganga River. 
• Moratuwa is the lumber-processing and carpentry center of the island.  The road on which timber is transported runs very near the coastline, so many carpenters lived on or near the beach. 
• The people of Moratuwa are mostly urban laborers, commuting into Colombo for blue-collar jobs or working as carpenters or in the fishing industry in Moratuwa.
• Moratuwans are famous for being hard-working and for looking for opportunities to move up in the world by starting small businesses and taking advantage of education and work opportunities the nearby city offers.  
• Land is scarce here, and neighborhoods are denser than in the Sri Lankan villages but still have a “local” feel when compared to Colombo’s urban areas. 
• The University of Moratuwa, famous for its school of architecture, is also the home of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Science and Modern Technology.  Mr. Clarke--the famous science fiction writer, inventor and Sri Lanka’s most famous expat resident--holds lectures on peace-building through technology at the university, which attracts Sri Lanka’s brightest science students (and lots of wacky inventors!).
• A higher percentage of women work for pay here than in rural areas of Sri Lanka, often as seamstresses or home workers. 

Habitat History in Moratuwa

• Habitat Moratuwa was established in April 1994.  The first house was dedicated in March 1995
• Their 100th house dedication took place in July 1998. Habitat founders Millard and Linda Fuller attended, and this event is remembered very warmly by the affiliate staff and homeowners.   
• They had built 218 houses with families in Moratuwa as of April 2006, using the standard Habitat model. 
• HFH Moratuwa switched to the Save & Build program in 2004 and had a slow time starting up.  The staff underwent intensive training in Save & Build methodology in April 2006 in order to introduce the program and form savings groups.   
• The affiliate’s construction supervisor is Mr. Nelson Perera, an 11-year employee of Habitat Sri Lanka.  Mr. Sextus Mendis joined as affiliate coordinator in July 2005 after retiring from a 26-year career with World Vision. 

Tsunami Statistics for Greater Colombo
Although the tsunami hit the east coast of Sri Lanka head on and caused the most damage there, the coastal areas around Colombo also suffered serious losses.  The loss of livelihood was particularly acute, since fishermen and carpenters worked on the beach. 

• 9,647 affected families/houses destroyed or severely damaged
• 36,060 displaced persons
• 72 deaths
• 26 temporary camps set up

Habitat’s Tsunami Response in Moratuwa

• HFH Moratuwa has built 30 houses with tsunami-affected families.  The houses are built on homeowner-owned land and are core houses of 250 sq. ft. 
• Homeowners can add on to the two-room houses later through the Save and Build program or on their own.
• Each house has taken 2-3 weeks to build. 
• The affiliate has applications from 40 qualified families pending but requires funding to build their houses. 
• Sweat equity, donations of almost all lumber, near 100% donation of carpentry work by the families and neighbors, building of core houses only, and not having to purchase land make the house cost in Moratuwa ½ to ¼ the cost of building houses at larger tsunami-program sites. 

Challenges for Moratuwa Affiliate

• Global Village and other volunteer groups have been attracted to the resort areas (which also got lots of press coverage) in the South and not to this urban affiliate.  They have hosted only one tsunami-response team. 
• The affiliate spends a relatively high amount on block because they cannot afford a block-making machine and because of rising material prices since the tsunami. 
• The rising cost of hiring masons, and competition among NGOs for skilled labor, has driven the house price up for Moratuwa and also slowed construction.
• Donors have designated money for the high-profile projects in the southern resort regions and the conflict areas on the east coast.  Many supporters don’t realize that minutes from the capital, deserving families are still living in temporary shelters. 

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