SOS Children's Villages India handed over 100 completed houses to their new owners in Akkampettai on 10 February. This means that people are now living in all of the family houses that were built by SOS Children's Villages in India following the tsunami disaster.

The fact that SOS Children's Villages India has now officially handed over 100 houses in the village of Akkampettai in Pondicherry to their new owners means that the organisation has successfully completed another significant phase of its tsunami reconstruction aid. SOS Children's Villages India has built a total of 503 family houses; the houses in Puthupettai and Murtypudukuppam were handed over at the end of 2006.

SOS Children's Villages India is building multi-purpose community centres in all three locations, which will accommodate day care, medical, advice and vocational training centres. The construction work is due to be completed soon. The centres will then be handed over to the local communities so that they can manage them.

SOS Children's Villages worked actively in all three locations immediately after the tsunami disaster at the end of 2004. Relief packages were distributed, start-up money was given, emergency shelters were set up, 248 fishing boats were provided and trauma therapy specifically targeting children was offered. A playground and a day care centre were also set up in Akkampettai.

As well as rebuilding the villages, the child care organisation is building three new SOS Children's Villages (one of which is on the remote Andaman Islands), an SOS Social Centre and a vocational training centre in India.