Cyprus Doctors of the World to hand over projects in Sri Lanka

The Cyprus division of Doctors of the World will be handing over to the Sri Lankan authorities next week a series of projects that have already improved the standard of living of locals, especially after the December 2004 tsunami and its consequences.

President of the Doctors of the World (Cyprus) Elias Papadopoulos has told CNA that so far 45 volunteers of the organisation have visited Sri Lanka and that a Cypriot mission was the first to reach the area that was affected the most by the tsunami.

Papadopoulos explained that these volunteers medically helped thousands of homeless, who were taken to temporary shelters.

He added that the people of Cyprus have contributed generously and so the organisation decided to extend its aid to infrastructure projects, which mainly concern providing potable water to six schools, constructing lavatories in housing settlements, staffing and restoring two hospitals in affected areas and one in another area of the country, and feeding 1,200 children at a school for over a year.

Papadopoulos said another project, carried out in cooperation with the Church of Cyprus, concerned equipping the most central hospital of the area, with a total cost of around one million US dollars.

The next mission will arrive in Sri Lanka on August 26 ''in order to close this cycle of work, with the official handing over of all these projects to the government and the local authorities, so that they can take over their maintenance,'' Papadopoulos added.

Meanwhile, another mission of the Doctors of the World (Cyprus) is currently in Nyeri, Kenya, where a project to restore and equip an orphanage, hosting 80 children, is being finished.

Furthermore, a shipment of clothes, medicine and food has been sent to Kurdistan.