One-day visit to post-tsunami restoration and development projects, which have been organised by the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of long-time partners of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Thailand.

Accompanied by the PDA staff, Mr Prahat Tafong, Centre Director, and Mr Phong-ratana Aroonwattanaporn, Project Coordinator, Dr Lars Peter Schmidt, KAS-Rpresentative to Thailand, visited three villages in Krabi, which were affected by the tsunami in December 2004: Tha Maprao Village, Lam Kruad Village and Talingchan Village. Though there was no loss of lives, the villagers have suffered massive loss of livelihood in the tsunami. The PDA's post-tsunami projects, starting since January 2005, therefore focus on sustainable social, economic and environmental reconstruction and development. According to PDA's philosophy throughout the past active 30 years, the projects aim to empower people in the community and encourage public participation in the development.

The post-tsunami projects of the PDA can be divided into ten categories: school lunches and farms, educational support programmes, youth government, village bank, tree planting and coastal zone protection, boat bank, women’s economic empowerment, village waterpipe system, water catchment jars and latrines and water vending machines.

Since the projects have been running for almost a year, the villagers have not only regained their livelihood back, but also started to participate in the community actively, which would lead to sustainable development of the villages.