Sri Lanka Foundation

When talking to people on the ground in Sri Lanka who work as part of the relief effort, you are confronted by a wide diversity of opinions on how best to help. Some say build houses, some say buy affected families necessities, some say do no more than employ victims since anything else creates a culture of dependence.

Subsistence and sustainable redevelopment is a recurring theme but different groups and different individuals have strongly differing opinions on how to get there. There is consensus on one point for the most part. Individuals and organizations MUST do what they can, with the time and resources at their disposal, and it must be done with thoughtfulness and a sensitivity to donors and to the beneficiary community.

With all this in mind, we approached our first day of work as follows. We had one day in small town on the outskirts of Peraliya. We visited a Buddhist Temple that we had heard was aiding a community of displaced people right outside the temple parameters. As we arrived we noticed signs indicating a World Vision permanent housing project in the works and confirmed from the head monk that the families on the fringe of the temple were the beneficiaries.

The monk whom we visited with for 45 minutes seemed to have an even keel approach and responded to various questions about locals’ perception of tsunami relief work. His impression, as is that of most people we have talked to is that the lions share of good work that is being done for the people of Sri Lanka is being done through foreign and local NGOS, individuals and private companies. Notably absent is our Government’s participation in the uplifting of its own people.

We then started to talk about the various scams that were being run by locals trying to get their hand on easy money, and how that ended up affecting the relief workers psyche and the potential good that may come to the truly destitute. We asked where there were communities that were falling through the cracks. He said that near by there was a primarily Tamil community of Municipality Workers… workers who sweep the streets, clean toilets etc… His assessment was that they were not getting much help. So on his suggestion, we sought out this community.

We first visited this community while their kids were at school. The statistics: A very tightly knit group of 21 families with 18 tsunami deaths among them. Only one body was ever found. The 21 families lived in 17 temporary shelters (basically wood panel boxes). They had a common toilet facility outside. They lived in shanties before the tsunami, offering them no protection whatsoever against the waves. The wood panel boxes they were now living in seemed to be an improvement over what they had. The average household income for a family ranged between 40 and 60 US dollars a month.

There were about 10 orphans in this community, some from the Tsunami and some from prior. Several parents in this community were spared but had lost multiple children and in one particularly heartbreaking case - all three children were lost in one family. The youngest had turned 1 years old on the very day of the Tsunami.

We approached this community as we had discussed we would. We went in to find out facts, with no promise or indication of aid. We came with cameras and equipment in tow as to give the impression of journalists – hoping to ward off some of the rumored scams and give us the time to investigate and do due diligence in a community.

I was immediately struck by several aspects of this community. This was a tightly knit community and very matriarchal. You could feel the various roles that were being played…care giver, cook, counselor…. They were their own support system. They were being honest. There did not seem to be any embellishment of the stories… there was really no need for it. They were however very eager to tell their stories. Several individuals chimed in and corrected each others facts and lent forgotten details. Never once did anyone ask for a hand out or any other form of assistance…they wanted the story known and it to be remembered truthfully.

I was talking to the mother of three who had lost all of her children. I asked her whether there had been any NGO assistance. She said that a few foreigners had come through and personally given her money when they heard her story. She acknowledged the more needy families with multiple kids around her that needed assistance more than she did.

So we took down the stories, we regrouped and we considered all the relevant issues we could think of before we went back. Was it fair to assist a single mother raising a child whose father had died in the tsunami and not the single mother whose husband had died a month prior in a car accident? Was it right to provide the same amount of assistance to family of a caretaker and one child versus a caretaker with 3 children? Was it right to assist those families who had living children and not provide assistance to those where all the children had died? Mothers who had lost their children were taking care of children who had lost their mothers. By necessity, this community was working together to help each other the best they could. We needed to be sensitive to this dynamic.

Our goal was to provide assistance to families and initiatives supporting the most vulnerable victims of the Tsunami-orphans. Our goal was to uplift those supporting children who have the death of a parent or both parents as well the other effects of the tsunami to contend with. We considered these 21 families an extended support system and therefore provided assistance to each family. In a few notable cases the number of orphaned children in one family unit warranted increasing the amount. We also handed out school supplies to all school aged children in the community, about half of whom were orphans.

At the end of the day, we felt we had done the best we could with the resources we had and the time (one day) we had in Peraliya. We have a lot to think about moving forward as we proceed to Kirinda, a fishing and agro-community that was particularly hard hit by the tsunami and has since been given little attention or assistance from the government.