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Hope is where home is
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi and Renuka Sadanandan
It was the scene that haunted every Sri Lankan: the grim images of the train tragedy at Telwatte where on December 26, 2004, more than 800 people lost their lives in the tsunami.

Three of the railway carriages are still there, visited by curious passers-by, stopping to photograph the grisly reminder of the country’s worst natural disaster. Vanloads of Sri Lankans drive up, children clamour for ice-creams from the nearby vendor and foreign tourists video the scene.

But even here, six months after, as in other stretches of the once battered coastline, hope and life are returning. The tents are gone or few and far between. Amidst the temporary plank homes, there is a glimpse of what is to come, a few brightly painted permanent brick houses.

”We will be moving in this week, on the 29th,” says K. Somasiri, a retired CTB employee who had lost his son to the tsunami. “We are now living in temporary houses but the government has built a few new houses here and another 100 are being constructed at Galagoda, about four km inland.”

Somasiri is upbeat about finally stepping into his own purple home – a two-roomed house with hall, verandah, kitchen and toilet, which sits cheek by jowl with the rail-track next to where the carriages still stand.

Unlike some others in the area who complain that they are not willing to move inland, Somasiri feels that the Telwatte community has received adequate help since the tsunami. “We receive the dry rations – weekly food stamps worth Rs. 175 for each member of the family from which we collect rice, flour, dhal, sugar and oil from the co-operative store. We also get Rs. 200 to purchase any other things we need. Both the government and the NGOs have helped the people of Telwatte,” he said.

Not so happy with her lot, however, is M.H. Susilawathie, who is determined not to move from the area. Her husband was given a trishaw to replace the one they lost in the tsunami. “We are among 270 families who were living within the 100-metre zone. We have been allocated new plots at Galagoda but we don’t want to leave here.”

Away from the Galle Road and the sea, in Galagoda, in a lush green and fertile landscape, the foundations for several new houses have been laid by different organizations with prominent boards proclaiming the donors and institutions that will be constructing them.

In Dadella, on a hilly incline overlooking the sea where people had rushed to safety from the tsunami, a blue tent city is gradually being dismantled as residents move into plank homes built adjacent.

J.V. Iresha, a pretty 21-year-old escorts us to her temporary home, where her father is feeding a fluffy Pomeranian dog. “We were living in a tent soon after the tsunami but we’re comfortable now in this wooden house,” says the retired municipal worker J.V. Somipala who made a living as a sweep seller before the tsunami struck.

Their home is spotlessly clean and well-maintained. “There are some difficulties; when it rains there are lots of mosquitoes and flies, but we have water and one toilet is shared by three families,” Somipala says. The community gets its essential water from large tanks each fitted with six taps for convenient access.

“We know we’re here only temporarily. We have already filled out forms and indicated our choice from the four different places we were offered. Hopefully in about one year, we can be in our own home,” adds Iresha. For them, the uncertainty is whether they will be moving into flats or individual houses.

Six months after, in the coastal towns from Colombo to Galle, there are tangible signs that life is slowly picking up again. Shops are open, the rubble has to a large extent been cleared and partially damaged homes cleaned and repaired. But until that all important basic need of a permanent roof over their heads is provided, life can never quite return to normal.

Boossa: Agony of abandonment
While most families affected by the tsunami have now been moved to temporary homes, there are little pockets of people who have slipped out of the state safety net.

Like the tsunami, Rashmi Geeth Madhubhashana is six months old, but his parents who lost their home are today unable to provide the environment that this chubby infant needs.

They, like nearly 60 other families have been ‘abandoned’ or so they feel at the Boossa Economic Centre, a row of shops in three huge warehouses by the Galle Road.

The environment is dismal. Garbage uncollected for weeks on end is piled up at the entrance. Flies are everywhere. Though water is supplied by bowser, it is used only for drinking and cooking; they have to walk miles to wash their clothes. Just five latrines have to serve the needs of more than 300 men, women and children. There are no lights and each family makes do with kerosene lamps.

This mixed community of labourers, fisherfolk and others from Rathgama, Boossa, Pitiwela and Madampe were brought here from the different temples and schools where they had been housed since the tsunami.
“If only we know where we can build our permanent home, we would have something to look forward to,” says Anura Jinasena, father of baby Geeth.
It’s inexplicable how these people came to be here because this is not suitable accommodation for anyone, Hikkaduwa Divisional Secretary Kusum Piyaratna says. Her understanding was that these people had been in temporary shelters as in other tsunami affected areas.

As they belong to nine different Grama Sevaka areas, Ms Piyaratna has got down five of the nine Grama Sevakas to find them temporary homes in their own areas with the ultimate objective of getting them a permanent roof over their heads. “There is clear procedure set out by the government in providing homes for the tsunami affected,” she adds.

Just a wire mesh and polythene sheets separate one family from the other. These little rooms hold all their worldly goods…..a chair, a battered suitcase, a dirty pink mosquito net. But what is hardest to bear is not the physical hardships, but the overwhelming feeling that they have been forgotten while others are on their way to a permanent home. Hope is a scarce commodity here; anxiety and uncertainty are written on every face.

Thank you
The moment the appeal hit the newspapers on December 29, 2004, the money poured in. Children dipped into their tills, counted out the rupees and made their own little contribution, men and women kept aside their expense money, made a few sacrifices and sent it across and companies passed around a piece of paper all in the name of the Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. Tsunami Relief Fund. Not only was money channelled to the Fund from the far corners of Sri Lanka but also from all over the world.

Six months after the tsunami, we take a tally and the Fund, which was closed on April 4, 2005, has hit Rs. 3.5 million, with Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. itself contributing Rs. 1 million.

Now in a call deposit (No. 103280183-6) at the DFCC Vardhana Bank, Colombo 2, part of the interest accrued, Rs. 500,000, has already been utilized to buy two refrigerators and weighing machines for the Health Ministry. As medical aid flowed in from foreign countries, with the shocking images of the disaster going round the world, the ministry was in urgent need of fridges to store them and also machines to count out the tablets and capsules before distribution to the tsunami affected areas.

The two main projects, each estimated to cost Rs. 1.5 million, targeted by Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. from the Fund are the awarding of scholarships to 10 children affected by the tsunami and the construction of a library for a tsunami-hit school.

Wijeya Newspapers Ltd., has already identified the 10 children, four from the northeast and six from the south, from the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) database, for the provision of scholarships. Each child will receive Rs. 2,500 monthly for his/her educational needs until he/she is 18 years old. The details of the disbursement of the scholarship money to these children, who are in the 8-15 year age group, are being worked out with the NCPA. Five of these children have lost both their parents to the tsunami, while three have lost their mothers and the other two their fathers.

Meanwhile, Rohana Maha Vidyalaya in Ahangama which was damaged by the tsunami will get a brand new library stocked with books, courtesy of Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. and the generous donors who sent their contributions to the Tsunami Relief Fund.

And the simple but heartfelt message from Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. to all those who chipped in to make the Fund a success is: Thank you.

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