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of the tsunami debris emerge beautiful bird houses, the sale of
which will help rebuild homes of a devastated community The project trains young men in Venamulla (about two km south of Ambalangoda) to build bird houses made of tsunami debris for export to the USA. The symbolism of the project is very clear. “You make a house to give a house,” said Mr. Kelly. “Also through this project we want to show that what nature destroyed, can help rebuild.” Having had the ideals of giving and helping people in need inculcated in him by his mother, Sean Kelly, a technology-cum-business journalist, said, he wanted to get a hands-on feel of doing something meaningful for others. The tsunami seemed the perfect opportunity. The idea for building bird houses came from the work of the Berkeley Rustic Birdhouses founder, Michael Parayno (or the “Bird Man” as he is fondly called by his students) from the US, who constructs trendy bird houses to attract younger audiences. Inspired by all the floating debris he saw in television images which would go to waste, Kelly thought of a way he could fuse both ideas and help rebuild the village in the short run while providing the community with a sustainable means of employment, in the long run. Twelve hours after he arrived in Sri Lanka in October last year, he had a help team and workstation in place but, he had first to dispel a certain misconception held by the villagers about the difference between a bird cage and a bird house. “A bird cage is basically a wire jail, where birds are kept in captivity whereas, a bird house in complete contrast is more of a man-made nest (generally constructed outdoors) where birds can come and go at will and treat as their home,” he elaborated. At first the community was opposed to the idea of building ‘bird cages’, but once they fully understood the difference, they warmed to the idea, he added. Mr. Parayno, followed three weeks after him to start the training workshop. By the end of the first afternoon, the two instructors were pleasantly surprised when their class of ten young men between the ages of 20 and 26 made a bird house all on their own. At nine the next morning, they were even more overwhelmed by their students’ enthusiasm, as their class had been up and at work from one hour before and were already half-way through constructing their own individual bird houses. “From then on, they just kept getting better and better. They were becoming architectural masters in their own right and were each developing an individual style or specialisation of their own,” he added. All of the houses are constructed purely of tsunami debris (recovered pieces of door panels, window frames, boat decks, school desks etc.), therefore, no two houses are alike, he explained. “The wood is not painted or refined in any way, only sawed according to the specific design of the house,” said Kelly. Each house is signed by the builder. The
students had been thrilled when their first bird house was presented
to the Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, who was visiting the area
at the time. More than 200 of the 320 bird houses were shipped to the U.S last November, all built in just nine days. This time around, Kelly hopes to diversify the product a bit so that the “Bird Boys of Venamulla’ can sustain the business even in his absence and branch out into other forms of carving and building. The proceeds will be channelled to local charity, the Colombo Friend-In-Need Society (CFINS), which will utilise most of the funds for the Tsunami Housing Project in Venamulla and the balance for the Jaipur Foot Programme, one of their ongoing projects. Proceeds from the sales of about 46 bird houses will make up the cost of rebuilding one house and donating two prosthetic limbs. The CFINS Housing Project hopes to build 140 homes for the people of Venamulla, 35 of which were already completed and awaiting furnishing at the time Kelly arrived in Sri Lanka. A diver
as well, he’s also involved with a group of scuba dive masters
who are helping a group of Sri Lankan divers in Madiha to attain
professional PADI Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI)
certification. In keeping with the theme of his aid agency, People
2 People, which means that all people are equal, irrespective of
wealth status, race, religion or background, Sean Kelly says, “I
learnt a lot about family and friendships and I also found it so
amazing that circumstances as devastating as the tsunami and the
civil war had not managed to break their spirit.” |
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