We are Moving.......

Thank you for visiting the Rotary Club of Colombo Regency Tsunami web log.

You can visit the Blog Archives ( please see links on right column) to read about our daily relief activities from the time the devastating tsunami hit Sri Lanka, who our generous donors are and their thoughts, and our long term projects and plans. However given that we have now fully embarked on the Long Term Project Phase of Tsunami relief we will be posting our future project reports, slide shows, finance reports and bi-weekly updates on our official club web site www.rotarycregency.org .

Please visit our club web site www.rotarycregency.org to read about our Tsunami related and other rotary service activities.

Thank you for continuing to visit this site and making it a beacon of hope.

Batticaloa School - an Artists Impression

An artists impression of the School - Onthachchimadam Sri Vinyagar Vidyalaya, Batticaloa.

- Drawn by Rtn. Shanaka of RCCR

Regency Honoured at Rotary District Assembly

District Governor Lucky Pieris presented a special award at the recently held Rotary District Assembly for creating this Web Log ( Blog site) and helping to create worldwide awareness and support for Tsunami victims

The plaque reads as follows -

"In recognition of outstanding efforts in the establishment of a Website towards worldwide awareness, information and assistance in the aftermath of the Tsunami and its impact and success, this award is presented to the Rotary Club of Colombo Regency for their dedication and commitment." - "Lucky Pieris, District Governor 2004/ 05"

Finance Report as at 30th April 2005

1. Income & Expense Summary as at 30th April 2005


Total Donations received as at 30th April 2005 Rs. 43,353,763.43

Expenses
1. Dry Rations ------ Rs. 2,139,103.39
2. Medicine ---------Rs. 812,440.40
3. Household Effects ( eg. Pillows, sheets, pots & pans) ----Rs. 2,230,139.50
4. Personal Effects ( eg. Underwear, baby bottles, sarongs etc) ---Rs. 786,967.75
5. Livelihood Projects ( eg. Outboat motors etc) ----Rs. 400,000.00
6. Mobile Toilets ------Rs. 900,000.00
7. Rotary Club of Kandy Metropolitan ----Rs. 48,462.00

Total Expenses on Tsunami Relief-------------Rs. 7,317,113.04

Tsunami Relief Fund Balance ----------------- Rs. 36,036,650.39

Point 5 in the last report was shown as Rs. 900,000. Of this Rs. 500,000 was for Mobile toilets, which has now been shown as a separate expense item. During April a further Rs. 400,000 worth of toilets were ordered.

Point 7 above relates to a donation of US $ 500 made by credit card, that had been accidentally sent to our club, when the donor intended it to be sent to the Rotary Club of Kandy Metropolitan.


2. Administration Income & Expenses

Administration & logistics related expenses have been recovered against interest income earned by placing the available funds in overnight government treasury bills ( securities)

Total Interest Income Earned -----Rs. 561,071.83

Less :Admin, Transport & Logistic Expenses ------- Rs. 108,710.00

Balance Available -------Rs. 452,361.83


**** We promised to give you information regarding how the balance funds for projects would be allocated among our 3 main project areas. At this point we are waiting for estimates of costs on each of the projects. Hopefully we should have this information ( mainly housing and schools) within the next 2 weeks, at which point we can indicate how our existing funds will be allocated and what our funding shortfall is. *****

School Project - Developments...Do Read!

Just to clarify for donor information - the architects that we had been working with thus far were introduced to us through a Rotarian who is a senior member of the Sri Lanka architects association. They were introduced to us on the grounds that their services would be free of charge.

As you would have noted in the letter ( posted below)- the architects quote that their services were free up to the point of the 'preliminary estimates' which were submitted to us on 15th of March.....2 months afterwards they start talking fees.....hmmmm! Why not bring this up in March....one wonders!

Today we just had a meeting with the Rotary District APEX committee for school projects headed by PDG Ravindran ( a real Rotary stalwart) - and told them our predicament. The answer was plain and simple ...... firstly that it was very unprofessional on the part of the architects to hold us to ransom at the last moment, and secondly that Rotary should and will manage this project by getting architects and other professionals who wish to donate their time towards rebuilding this country. Its not a commercial venture for anyone. Of course we will spend on actual costs incurred in consumable items and transport etc but man hours should be a donation.

Luckily for us the Rotarian from the institute of architects was also present at this meeting, and though he argued that architects should charge and no clubs will find free services like the APEX committee expects - it was proven that 23 of the 25 schools have got free services ( funnily enough it was the two clubs that went through the SLIA that got served fees last week......). We understand that to charge is a professional's right, but we are looking for professionals who can afford to donate time and effort.

So the APEX committee came to the rescue - we were immediatley given an architect ( A Rotarian from Millenium City). She has already done one school and is willing to take ours and complete the documents up to tender stage in two weeks ( wow....why didn't we meet her before...!). So as it is we will be meeting with the current architect on Monday and asking the minimum fee to get the site plan released ( we have a copy already - but its only right that we pay basic amounts and sever this relationship properly) and then we get cracking - all this on Monday! So there is a silver lining after all!

Keep your fingers crossed guys....leave the rest up to us!

The Latest BUZZ on the School Project - An expensive BUZZ!!

The architects have thrown us a real whammy!! It looks like the feeling of love and concern for all is on the down ward trend. Our architects have now come back to us with a ..... bill, before they can release any of the docs relating to the school. Its unfortunate that they maintained humm about it this long, and thereby lead us to believe that there were no costs for their services.

Having said that - a little birdy told me that the architects association have apprently advised all architects working for Tsunami related projects to charge a minimum amount ( which is still pretty high since its a % of the total project cost), and therefore we have got the following letter sent to us ( read below). At this stage we are in a bit of a fix, since we cant start from scratch again.....so we are taking a decision on how we will spend on this at the club meeting today. Anyone have any comments? Post them!

This is the letter from our architects......

"CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR THE PROPOSED SCHOOL BUILDINGS AT BT/ ONTHACHCHIMADAM SRI VINAYAGAR VIDYALAYA

This has reference to the conversation we had with you, and pleased to
forward you the schedule of services and distribution of fees for each
stage.

As decided by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects Layout and other drawings
related to the schematic design proposal and preliminary cost estimates were
done on a honorary basis for tsunami projects.

Consultancy services beyond schematic design, will be charged as listed
below. SLIA recommended fee scale for consortium consultancy services
is usually between 8.6 – 8.4 % of the total project cost for projects between
40-60 Million. Our proposed fee scale for this project will be 3% of the
of the total cost. As per the preliminary estimate total building cost is
around 50 Million.

Work stage Fees Rs:
*Architectural designs All plans,Elevations,sections
and drawings. Permit drawings, Setting out
Plans, Detail layout drawings,
Schedule of finishes, Detail
schedule of Doors and windows,
Detailed specifications of Materials
And finishes. ------ Rs. 600,000.00

*Structural engineers
designs and drawings. -------- Rs. 400,000.00

*Electrical Engineers
designs and drawings. ---------- Rs. 100,000.00

*Services drawings for
plumbing. ------- Rs. 50,000.00

*Preparing of Bill of quantities,. ------------Rs. 250,000.00

*Checking of Bills.-------------- Rs.100,000.00

TOTAL ------------------------Rs. 1,500,000.00


Periodic Inspection of works at site @ Rs.10,000/- per visit.(Excluding Transport)


Hoping to receive from you favorably at your earliest."

School Project - Another Update

The architects have experienced a minor set back since their structural plans were not completed, which resulted in the BOQ not being made available to us yesterday as anticipated. We are in constant contact with the team of architects ( who by the way is providing their services free of charge) to get these documents released asap! We are looking at getting the BOQ somehow sometime next week.........we will keep you posted!

More Mobile Toilets from Regency for Tsunami Survivor Camps

The Intermediate relief committee have had a number of requests for more mobile toilets, which are an essential requirement at any camp.

We have already ordered 100 of which 70 have been despatched ( you may have read previous posts on this subject) and 30 are still in production. Due to the demand we have now placed an order for an additional50 toilets which we hope to produce and despatch to camps as soon as possible

The School Rebuilding Project - Update

Our architects are now finalising the BOQ for the school - once we get this in to our hands tomorrow we will be handing it over to 2 contractors who will give us a bid for the reconstruction. The most reasonable of the two will be selected as our contractor. But this has to be further ratified by the District School Committee. Our target is to be able to start rebuilding by 15th May.

The Latest from the HOUSING Project

In our earlier blog postings for housing reconstruction (available under the Housing Project link), we stated that we were working with a community called Dutch Bar in Batticaloa to build 100 houses. The Market Research Firm AC Nielsen did a needs assessment study of this community and we also registered with the Urban Development Authority (UDA) to obtain Government land to build the houses. Land was identified in the Thiraimadu area and the Dutch Bar community was happy to move there since it was close to Batticaloa town.

Although an assurance was given by the UDA that the land for constructing 100 houses at Thiraimadu was reserved for our Club we were later informed that the identified land had been given to another NGO.

As a result, we have had to fall back to our plan “B”, which is to construct houses on a privately owned land in a place called Kathankudy donated by a businessman of the area. This business man is well known to a member of our club, and he is donating this land for this recontruction project. Therefore there is no cost in acquiring this land.

Kathankudy is also in the Batticaloa district, but around 6km away from the main town. However, the big disappointment to our club is that we will now not be able to build houses for the Dutch Bar community as they do not wish to move such a distance from their original location.

The land survey done in Kathankudy has revealed that 72 houses could be constructed on that land. We will be able to give more details on this project in our next update.