Habitat for Humanity CEO Paul Leonard has overseen a swift response to the tsunami disaster that killed thousands and displaced millions more. In January, Habitat broke ground on the first of at least 35,000 houses planned throughout the region over the next two years.

Habitat Responds to Tsunami, Rebuilds Lives

by Paul Leonard

On the day after Christmas--when many of us in the West were thinking only about our endless blessings, our family and friends, our refrigerator shelves stacked high with holiday leftovers--on the other side of the world, a natural disaster was loosing a rampage of destruction we can barely comprehend. The death and devastation that struck the countries and island nations of the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004, are of historic proportions, and so must be our response.

Within days after the disaster, we asked Kim MacDonald, Habitat's photo services manager, Kathryn Reid, our editorial manager, and Maria Chomyszak, from our Disaster Response Office, to travel to Asia, joining Mikel Flamm--a Habitat photojournalist in the Asia/Pacific office--and other colleagues to assess and report on the damage. Their efforts have made this special report possible.

The stories and images are tragic, compelling, uplifting and heart-breaking. Each story, each image, on its own, is hard for us to imagine, particularly in realizing that the brief stories told here are like grains of sand on a beach--repeated over and over throughout the region. Too many to count. Too many to imagine.

For these families to ever recover, the assistance must be long-term and sustained.

Many organizations responded in the wake of this tragedy. Many have brought the immediate relief that was so vital in the first days and weeks after the tsunami struck, ending or altering the lives of millions of people throughout the impacted areas. But for these people, these families, to ever recover, the assistance must be long-term and sustained. That is where Habitat for Humanity is playing a vital role.

In January, we launched an unprecedented effort to raise an extra $25 million to help at least 35,000 families whose homes were destroyed by the tsunami. I am pleased to report that donors have generously contributed more than $40 million and that rebuilding has begun in earnest. The blocks for our first house were laid in Sri Lanka weeks ago and a new Habitat family is now living under the roof they helped build. Your support will sustain this work and the work to follow over the next two years.

On behalf of families in tsunami-affected areas of Asia, and other families around the world desperately in need of housing and hope, we thank you for caring and for sharing.

--Paul Leonard