Projects
P2P Rescue projects are funded in whole or in part by you though generous donations or by purchasing products in our store.
Please take a moment to review our programs. To donate to a specific project, click the button on the right and simply let us know which project you’d like to fund in your donation notes. And of course, if you’d like to make a donation and receive a gift in return, please visit our shop and make a purchase.
Currently In Progress…
- Tsunami Birdhouses
- These are the results of our first original ground-up project, created for the benefit of Sri Lankan communities in need (and birds of course), following the 2004 tsunami. Each birdhouse is handmade by Sri Lankans entirely from items we personally salvaged in the country immediately following the disaster. Proceeds from the sale of our birdhouses are tax-deductible and go toward our continued work in the country.
- Each birdhouse is an intentionally rustic original. Our goal was not to create prefab perfection, but rather to use whatever we could find and least alter in order to give its new owner a real sense of the personal loss during the tragedy and a proud feeling of contribution toward recovery.
- This effort provided tools and training to more than a dozen jobless Sri Lankans who had never even heard of a birdhouse before. We are proud of their work and the creativity they showed when dealing with materials that would have otherwise been burned.
- More…
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- Girls Helping Girls
- The Girls Helping Girls “Empower-a-Girl” program is a grassroots sister-team initiative that partners girls in the United States with girls in schools and community organizations in developing countries to work together toward the achievement of our four global goals, which together distill and reflect the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. The only initiative of its kind run by girls, for girls, Empower-a-Girl’s unique and engaging program encompasses four main aspects: cultural exchange, a global education, social change projects, and investment in girls’ development.
- Each sister-team pair selects the same global goal to study and communicate about for the entire year. During the second half of the program year, the two sister teams work together to plan and implement a social change project that helps accomplish their chosen global goal, thus transmuting their knowledge and united passion into enduring action.
- While GHG has created a sophisticated model for delivering education, awareness, and action to girls worldwide, P2P Rescue has developed relationships in the U.S. and Sri Lanka that will be critical for identifying and creating youth teams in both countries. Together we will work to raise funds, send books and other supplies to Sri Lanka, and ensure the 2008-2009 programs run smoothly and effectively.
- More…(300K PDF)
- Shows 4 Shelters
- Mangofriends are the best kind of friends one can have in Sri Lanka. The puppet society named for them presents marionette plays and workshops to communities of children and families that continue to suffer in post-tsunami transitional housing.
- The plays serve as a “relief tool” for all generations, especially for children in tsunami-devastated areas. The peaceful togetherness through puppet play in temporary accommodation engenders a new spirit of community. Because of this community, members are able to acknowledge the trauma they have suffered and face the future positively.
- More…
- Human/Elephant Conflict
- Elephants and humans are waging their own war in “ecotone” areas in Sri Lanka, where human homes and elephant territory overlap. Many humans and elephants die each year as a result of the conflict of land resources.
- P2P Rescue is supporting partner Maximus’s natural renewal efforts and elephant-related programs through the sale of the organization’s incredible elephant-dung paper. It’s a truly incredible effort.
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- Paavima Aqua Projects
- P2P Rescue is supporting a team of scuba diving experts that has been working off the southern coast of Polhena/Madiha since October 2005.
- Called Paavima (which means “buoyancy in Sinhala”), the team is working to help restore reef damaged during the tsunami, to train locals to become dive masters (so they themselves can begin developing a local scuba-related tourist income), and to build an underwater shrine in memory of the lives lost during the tragedy. Donations to P2P Rescue on Paavima’s behalf will go directly toward the team’s ambitious efforts.
- More…
On Hold…
- Home Rebuilding and Repair
- Renewed civil war, human rights abuses, corruption, and heavily inflated building prices have given us cause to temporarily shelve our efforts to rebuild or repair 309 homes on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka (between Ahungalle and Hikkaduwa). Although the tsunami of 2004 happened years ago, much remains to be accomplished. We are following the situation carefully.
- To get an idea of earlier progress on the post-tsunami development front, download a comprehensive housing Project Brief with photos and data here:
- Project Brief/Situation Reports (3MB, PDF)