Volunteer Diary

Sunday 9th January - Noel C.

We have all arrived and are starting into work. Mostly purchasing materials for shipment to Ampara. Ordered wood toady for delivery to Ampara. We have been allocated a site in Karativu for construction of two 100ft long shelters with separate shared kitchen facilities and separate toilets. In this town alone they may need 40 such shelters. We have also purchased kitchen equipment for 100 families for delivery when the shelter is complete. Ari is going to try and involve the people in the construction process of the shelters, to encourage recovery from trauma. Full report available but problems with e-mail and laptop mean I cant send it at the moment. I have been asked to work in the hospital training staff and working with children suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They have also asked if there are any more psychologists available to work in the hospital. I will assess the needs and see what we can put together.

Colombo seams to function as normal with only the stories from people telling of the great tragedy. There is a lot of discussion of lack of co-ordination in the relief efforts and therefore wastage of resources. We are trying to keep in contact with as many people as we can without losing our focus and time schedule. Ari is doing great work in arranging for resources to be at our disposal to make a difference. I will get a more detailed report through soon.

Noel

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Monday 10th Jan - From Noel C.

Batticaloa seems to be ok for medicines just now. Some controversy about imported medicines needing to be approved before use by doctors is causing confusion. So need to be careful. I will be meeting the Medics in Ampara the day after tomorrow. Will know more then. Chlorine tablets (Milton) seems to be the most popular item so far - apart from sexy women’s underwear! Will try out teddies (comfort for the children) tomorrow also.

Noel

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Tuesday 11th January - From Noel C.

Hi All.

This will be brief as it’s very late and busy days behind and before us. I am in Batticaloa staying in a house that only 2 weeks ago was in 7-8 feet of rushing water. Many people in the neighborhood died that but there is little visible evidence of that except the building rubble all round. People are working very hard to make everything look normal … also working very hard to help those who have suffered even more than them.

Ari and Vincent were in Colombo today and have stocked up 4 lorries with wood, galvanized sheeting, tools and other building equipment. They have pulled together toys and sports equipment also. Ari described it as the busiest day of his life. Anyone who knows Ari will realise that this is very busy indeed. They will travel through the night to Karativu where we have been allocated a site to build our first shelter - now 10ft long and 15 ft wide (!) to house 20-40 families of 5 people. I will join them tomorrow.

I am in Batticaloa and have allocated €1000 to ‘Suriya Women's Development Group’ for emergency relief supplies particularly aimed at women in the camps. Underwear and sanitary towels seam to be the most pressing need today, but they have flexibility to decide on the spot how to allocate the money. They also realise that there is more to come.

I also allocated €3000 to Siva in the Batticaloa Red Cross society. They needed 40 water pumps to be used in the villages to pump out water from 48,000 wells. Each well has to be emptied once a week and chlorinated.

More tomorrow. Ari and Vincent are the real hard workers today I will have to do more to catch up.

Nollaig

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Wee hours of Wednesday 12th January 2005 - From Noel C.

1. Underclothes transported to Batticaloa by van hired by Siva. Clothes passed onto Suriya Women's Development. The women had great fun with some of the rather racy women's underwear. Nice to see lots of laughter.

2. Noel at last minute decided to travel with him (Siva). Left 1pm arrived 8 pm to cover 300 Km. Road is washed away in some places but already it has been temporarily filled with rubble and sand to even out the surface. In all only about 3-5 miles are badly damaged. The town has watermarks. Mostly in garden walls that were knocked over by the wave. Most of the buildings in the town remain standing as they were solidly built of concrete and about 1-2 km from the sea. Many people died however because they were on the beach, traveling by van or tried to return home to rescue friends and family. Many sad and tragic stories. Statistics show 1400 people died in Batticaloa town area (Mamunai north). Also some heartening stories of poor communities using what they had to distribute food and clothing to people affected by the 'wave'.

3. We gave €1,000 to Suriya to: "issuing sanitary wear, clothing, and women's and children's needs; motivating the women in the camps to participate in small collective activities such as cooking, cleaning, teaching children to draw them come out from their trauma; to create dialogue with refugees for preventing mental disturbance, because according this situation some women and men attempt suicide." They have sent a funding proposal to many organisations but have not yet received any support. We intend to follow up this with money as necessary until such support becomes available. Good women.

4. Noel also talked in length with Siva in the Batticaloa Branch of the Red Cross about needs in the district. He requested that we part-fund water pumps needed to empty wells. There are 48,000 wells in the district and they need to be drained and chlorinated every week for the next month. Siva himself will pay for the fuel. They agreed to also carry out this work in the Ampara district. €3,000 will pay for 20 pumps and fittings. They need 40 in total. Money was sent directly into the Red Cross A/C from Ireland. We hope that it will not be too delayed.

5. Ari and Vincent stocked up (calculated, bought, and transported) three lorries of materials in Colombo.

a. 1st lorry contains wood, galvanized sheet metal, toilet basins, 10 (PVC) water tanks, plywood and tools.

b. 2nd lorry is entirely filled with wood (coconut tree).

c. 3rd contains cooking and kitchen equipment, children's toys, crayons, pens and notebooks and cricket bats for the kids in the Ampara camps.

d. Ari and Vincent are traveling by van over-night with the lorries. They intend to travel direct to the site in Karativu, Ampara. They are due to arrive there about noon today (11th)). The third lorry will unload in Ampara. This delivery will cost approximately €10,000 and a lot of sweat.

e. Ari's uncle (the famous singer) and his brother-in-law (accountant) are remaining in Colombo to load up later lorries when we contact them from Karativu. They are working very, very hard.

f. Noel attended a training of 18-20 volunteers who are going to visit camps in the Batticaloa district. Fr. Paul (Professional Psychological Counseling Centre, Batticaloa) facilitated. These are people with very basic counseling skills who intend to make contact with people and listen in a non-intrusive way. Noel imputed issues of traumatized mothers and the effects on their children and the need for peer supervision.

g. If the storm damage in Galway is very bad we can arrange relief supplies from here… we know where you can get a good deal on roofing!… Irish weather forecast is on the news here today. Is it really that wild? Also people report that the media is reporting that Irish government is being very generous.

h. We will be meeting with contacts in the next two days and compile a lists of medicines and other goods in short supply locally.

i. It is 3 am I must get some sleep. First meeting for me (Noel) is at 10 am. It is a planning and co-ordination meeting for psycho-social services in the Batticaloa district.

Regards Noel

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Thursday 13 January 2005 –From Noel C

It is 11.30 pm again. I never seem to get these summaries done until later at night. This one will be brief.

Ari and Vincent duly arrived yesterday after their overnight trip across Sri Lanka. A French volunteer – Fredrick, who has been living in Sri Lanka for the last 10 months, joined them. They got little sleep but kept going from Ari’s family home across to the town of Karativu on the east coast. Statistics show that in Karativu 899 people have died in the Tsunami, 91 are still missing. 13,380 people are labeled disaster-victims and are living in 5 camps.

After much uncertainty Ari and Vincent managed to be allocated a site to construct two ‘multi family shelters’. The process was complicated by local political influence and one or two unenthusiastic officials. Even the DS (sort of government appointed area administrator) acknowledged that they have problems communicating with people who want to undertake relief work in this area.

The site belongs to the Ramakrishna Mission (a Hindu Charity that runs lots of schools). It has a large burnt out house in it and fronts on to the main road that runs along the east coast. There is a large school run by the Ramakrishna Mission in the next field. This school is now home to 300 displaced families. It is some of these families that will take up as a temporary- residence in our new shelters.

Ari and Vincent report that they seem to be not short of basics of food, water, clothes or medicines. The school buildings are large but with a number of families in each classroom they have little privacy.

I (Noel) attended a meeting of 20 NGO’s and government officials aimed to co-ordinate provision of Psycho-social support to the survivors of the Tsunami. They are aiming to form a kind of co-ordinating secretariat and specialist treatment centre for the region. Lots of discussion on strategy and priorities. With hundreds of thousands of people affected it will not be an easy task.

I then moved south from Batticaloa to Karativu, traveling through some of the worst affected areas. In one place Kalar the main road has been completely washed away and no traffic could cross a broad lagoon. The causeway was been repaired but I had to walk across the rushing water on rocks, drainage pipes and felled telephone poles. People were really friendly and talkative. I took a three-wheeled trishaw from there to Karativu, the trishaw driver had lost both his small daughters in the floods.

Building started immediately with the arrival of a bulldozer. Things don’t normally happen so fast in Sri Lanka but Ari’s persistence, determination and local insight made this happen. We contracted 6 carpenters and 6 laborers for work the following day. Then an engineer turned up and volunteered his services.

Foundations were laid out. Postholes dug and concrete filled in. This sounds easy but is the combined efforts of 16 people on a long day’s work (only our second day on the ground in Ampara.) A team is starting to build up. We are now thinking we are ready for more volunteers. It is really possible for motivated and determined people to get work done. Details and planning are essential and the needs are endless. It will just take planning and commitment.

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Sunday, 16 January 2005 – From Noel C.

I seem to have lost my summary of last few days. Well here it goes again.

Delivered medicines to hospital. Hospital seems fine, had 927 admissions due to Tsunami plus 92 outpatients per day for 4 days following Tsunami. Also serves as the distribution centre for medicines in the region. They will provide a receipt and list of requirements for us in next few days. Discussed ICU requirements and plans for expansion.

I (Noel) taught a introductory session in counseling for 18 nurses/ medical staff in Hospital’s mental health unit. Have three follow up sessions with them on PTSD, Depression and Anxiety and Suicide. Same format has been arranged for Batticaloa for Monday and Friday next week.

Vincent is struggling a bit with the design of the building and the materials we have available to build them. Set back one or two days. Team is working well - 6 carpenters, 6 laborers and 1 foreman. Have offers of volunteers from Ireland, UK, Austria, Germany and UK. We are thinking of taking them on board to help us achieve our construction goals.

Fredrick leaves us tomorrow. He has been a great help. Has set out 4 foundations! In a week.

Made contact with Kumari in Akkraipattu. She has been working in Camps since 29th December. Tired and feeling isolated. According to her instructions we delivered a small load of: slippers, nappies, bra’s, saris, dresses, punjabies, long underskirts, mosquito nets, panties for kids, towels, soap, toothpaste, bed sheets, baby clothes, buckets, children’s dresses, men’s razors, and flasks. Enough for about 50 people but there are thousands of people in 5 camps (3 Tamil, 2 Muslim). Will follow this up again and again as necessary with items she specifies. Also keep in touch to encourage and support. Gave her about € 200 to buy locally relief items needed.

Kumari introduced us to a group of Muslim volunteers willing to help reconstruct homes. We will come up with some ideas in next weeks.

Jeyanthy (Dip in Development Studies, Kimmage Manor, Dublin.) joins Ari today to begin consultation in Karativu Refugee Camps. Also to build more contacts with local NGOs working in area.

Met with MahaShackti who carrys out saving and loans schemes (credit unions) and now are distributing relief supplies.

Three Wheeler Union making public announcement thanking us for our donation to help repair three-wheelers damaged in Tsunami.

Visited Ramakrisna School Camp in Akkraipattu. 1000+ people living in three story building. Children playing everywhere. LTTE (Tamill Forces) present as where government police forces. Very congested and poor sanitary conditions. Ari keen to support the fishermen in net repairs, which they were carrying out in camp.

Ari due to visit Lahugala and Thirukovil tomorrow.

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Tuesday, 18 January 2005 – From Noel.

1. Ramakrishna School Camp, Karativu. We are starting to spend more time in our local camp. It is located just over the wall from where we are building our first shelters. Today there are 130 families registered in the camp. 4 or 5 of the families have only one surviving member from the Tsunami. Some families in this camp have lost 8 to 10 close relatives. 52 families have had all their possessions completely destroyed. Also two small shops have been destroyed. Even the foundations of these 52 family’s houses have been up-rooted.

Most stay in the school buildings permanently although some go at night to stay with friends or family and return in the morning for registration. If they are not registered in the camps they are afraid they will not be entitled to food rations or any other kind of support.

Conditions are not too bad in the camp compared to some others we have visited as it is less crowded. There are 3- 4 families in each classroom. The toilets and sanitation are just about adequate to cope with this many people. Cooking seams to be the main problem on a daily basis. 3-4 volunteers are required to cook daily; sometimes people are too disillusioned and despondent to motivate themselves to take on this activity. The police or the LTTE who are present in the camp sometimes have to assign people to the task.

Ari, Vincent and Jeyanthy went with two women from the camp to see the site of their homes. One woman in her 60’s was the only person out of 6 family members to survive, having lost her daughter, son and grandchildren. Another had lost two children and her shop. She survived by hanging on a Palmyra Tree. It was the first time they had visited their homes since the disaster and was a very difficult and emotional experience. They met a third woman who had lost her only daughter and was looking for some of her daughters’ clothes in the rubble to keep as a reminder. The entire village, which was situated between the sea and a lagoon, was gone. The fishermen expect to find the remains of their lives and homes caught up in their nets when they go out fishing again.

2. The Karativu Divisional Sectariate (DS) Division is located mid way along the East Coast of Ampara in the South East of Sri Lanka. It is divided into a number (over 100) of Grama Sevaka (GS) divisions. There is a very large Muslim Town called Kalmunai to the directly North and the Capital of Ampara called Ampara is 32 Km inland. It takes 40 minutes to travel to Ampara. The main industries are Rice Farming in the interior, Fishing along the Coast and retail/services in the main towns. There is one garment factory out side town in the middle of the Padi (rice) fields. There are 2791 families in this DS division directly affected by the tsunami. The lists of affected families and estimate cost of damages to property have been made available to us.

All the 130 families in our local camp are from two GS divisions and we have developed good working relationships with the local GS (the person responsible for the GS area is also called the GS). They have allocated our shelters for 48 families to some of the most affected families who have nothing to go back to in their villages. We suspect that they will spend many years in the camp we are preparing for them.

3. We met with representatives of Fishermen from the GS divisions No 9,8,3 and 4. They inform us that there are 200 fisher families affected by the tsunami. The have lost all their equipment, boats, nets and engines. They indicate that they could organise into groups of 4 families therefore 50 groups. One small boat, One 15 hp engine, and 20 (1 ½’) nets would cost approximately € 3,000. This equipment could be shared within each group of four families. The government will have a compensation system for fishermen but this will take 3-6 months to materialise. A large Dutch NGO has also indicated that they will work entirely with fisheries and we have been in contact with them. We ourselves believe that it will be a turning point for the local community to get back out on the water and have decided immediately to start with 3 groups and provide them with the requested equipment costing €9,000. This will benefit 12 families and the fishermen themselves will advise us as to which families to start with. We will review this and if all goes well will provide the same support to 3 additional groups in one month’s time. If any one has € 150,000 to allocate to this area then this seams to be a worth wile area to work in that it is the core industry of the people most directly affected by the Tsunami.

4. Shelters. The foundations are laid for our four shelters 100ft shelters (I know we started with two 50ft shelters but the needs are huge) we will be able to provide temporary accommodation for 48 families. We have 32 workmen on site. The Foreman Builder has lost immediate family and has two sisters living in the Ramakrishna School camp. Most of the other workers are similarly affected. The toilet blocks: 5 male 5 female; 6 septic tanks; male and female bathing areas, are been entirely constructed by residents of the camps who we pay a daily wage.

5. NGO Co-ordination. Ari and Vincent have attended the meetings with the Government Agent and the local and international NGO’s. Relationships are not always friendly and the meetings are interesting examples of diplomacy and criticism. We are a little ahead of the rest in construction and also we are building to a higher standard than others. The recommended structure for temporary accommodation is made from plastic sheeting, and steel poles costing US $ 300 per unit. Our 48 units will cost approximately €50,000 or perhaps US $ 800 per unit. We justify this by the fact that the buildings can be reused later by the Ramakrishna Mission or the DS for educational or social uses. Goal, is attending the meetings and they are working flat out providing "Non food Items" to 3 camps. They also plan to build 500 houses in Ampara. There are many international and Sri Lankan NGO’s and UN agencies attending these meetings. So far, unfortunately, only their impressive administration offices and large 4 wheel drive jeeps are evidence of their work. They all have important roles however, in dealing with the larger camps and logistics. We will fill an important role supporting local initiatives and using local capacities to deal with the current crisis. American, Canadian and British Marines are also active in the region.

6. Volunteers: Fredrick left to return to work in Colombo, he was in tears as he left us and already is planning to return for the long weekend. 3 volunteers have just arrived from Colombo all have been in Sri Lanka for 5-10 months. They intend to work in the camps with children, may be start a pre-school or play programme. They may also get involved in the kitchen. This could be interesting…

7. Ampara General Hospital. I have now completed 3 sessions on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with the staff of the Mental Health Unit in Ampara General Hospital. They are all getting the idea and one person is really really good. It will be good to have some one to refer clients to for counselling. The DMO has requested more training perhaps a short course in CBT. I know that there is much available but perhaps difficult and expensive to arrange.

8. National Youth Service Council (NYSC) is the national organisation supporting young people to take leadership and carry out social work. I carried out an introduction to Counselling skills for 60(!) young people from every DS division in the Batticaloa District. They are too young to train as counsellors but many of them will have important roles in peer support and identifying young people in distress. On Saturday I will have 3 follow up sessions with smaller groups of 20 students. We will start the training process and identify people with an aptitude for the peer support role.

9. Suriya Women’s Development Centre; money still has not turned up in the Suriya Account. This is not unusual as transfers with in Sri Lanka can sometimes take over 10 days. I gave them 40,000 Rs to help them get the work started.

10. Sri Lankan Red Cross Societies. Also have not received the money but have ordered the water pumps and will complete the sale when funds arrive. Irish Red Cross have apparently given them funds for two lorries to transport relief supplies. They have a huge volunteer base in Batticaloa and seam to be very active.

11. Psycho Social Support Co-ordination: another meeting of NGO’s and Government to try and coordinate counselling, children’s services, etc in Batticaloa district. Good people involved but perhaps they are all too busy to do any extra work. Anyway, they have set up a Co-ordinating body called Kana Illiam: coordinating group for Psycho social support, Have a database of local resources, policy on good practice, centre for training of staff and hopefully will accept referrals of difficult cases from other organisations.

12. Vincent will be away for three weeks but it looks like he will be back in February to finish off our work.

13. Jeyanthy, who trained in Development Studies in Kimmage Manor in Dublin (with Noel and Ari’s support) has come down to help us relate to the local people in the camps and to suss out the local community.

14. Money transfer: We have tried many different ways to transfer money to Sri Lanka. It all seams to take time and costs. Thank you Mary for all you hard work in sorting that out.

15. Call for volunteers: Ari, Noel and Vincent will all have left Sri Lanka by the end of February. We have accommodation for 3-6 people, transport close by the affected area. We will have a minimal work program worked out mostly around construction. If there are any people at home that are interested in continuing our work please get in touch with us and we can see what we can arrange.

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Thursday, 20 January 2005 – From Noel.

1. Naomi, Carol and Hemming had their first day with us in Karativu. Hemming worked with the carpenters feeding them materials while they were working on the roof. He got a bit sun burnt but put in a full days labour. Naomi and Carol went in the morning to the refugee camp. They found that there was only rice and lentils in the camp with no tea, sugar, vegetables, spices or milk powder. Ari and they went shopping and spent about €150 on these items in the local market. This should last a week. Naomi and Carol returned to the camp and spent the morning with the women cooking lunch. It was a good start to their first day.

2. I attended yet another co-ordinating group for psycho-social support, this time in Ampara. Attended by 38 agencies working here. They will meet every Thursday morning to share information.

3. Progress is going well on the construction. We so far estimate that it will cost €50,000 to provide these shelters for 48 families. This is more than the unit cost of shelters put up by other NGO’s (not including salaries and administration costs of those NGO’s). The buildings are of a standard that shows respect for the people who will live there, are been built by them and are reusable later for other community purposes. All the money is also getting spent in the local economy. We can stand by this process.

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Monday, 24 January 2005 - From Noel.

1. Today is a Poya Day. That is a full moon day and a national religious and public holiday. It is also exactly 28 days since the Tsunami which was also on a Poya day so this is somewhat of an anniversary. There is little evidence yet of the usual one mouth mourning ceremonies. Perhaps this mourning period will be a little different.

2. Visited Akkraipattu this morning. There are volunteers there who are trying to support people to return to their homes as quickly as possible. Camps are not good places for people as they lack individual space and make people feel even more hopeless and powerless. We will provide them with 5 x 1000 lt. water tanks to provide drinking water to the people in their neighbourhoods. They are proposing to do three things,

a. Build temporary shelters the sites of people’s own homes; build from Kajan (woven coconut leaves) on a semi-permanent concrete foundation. Cost to be calculated.

b. Re-build the walls/fences surrounding people’s homes again with Kajan or other local material. Privacy is an important issue in the local Muslim culture and many people will not feel safe to return to their homes even if they are habitable until the family is not visible from the road when they are inside the home. Safety, even psychological safety is a very important issue after a traumatic event. It will cost approximately €30 for each home.

c. Repair windows, doors, roofing and partially damaged walls of homes to make them secure and safe to live in. Many homes will have damaged foundations and this will be much more complex to deal with than we can afford to support. The cost we expect will be approximately €200-€500 per home.

The areas of the town we visited were not the most heavily damaged we have seen in this district. All the homes have rubble and possessions strewn all over their yards. Every house had damaged walls, and roofs. The waves were high enough in places to lift off the tiles. Some foundations were undermined and now have 5 ft deep holes under them. Most damage was to windows and doors and to the poorer fishermen who lived in Kajan Huts on the beach. These huts were completely destroyed. Evidence of them is not even visible. Even with all this destruction only about 25 people died in this area of town. This is due to the fact that people were able to flee easily along many roads to inland parts of the town. They reported that no government official or N GO has yet to visit them. Government is issuing families with 5 kg of rice, 1 kg of lentils and some sugar twice a month. They have no boats or equipment to fish with and supplement their diet. No one is going to the beach yet anyway so how can they go to the sea.

3. Naomi and Carolin have developed a good relationship within the local camp. Mostly playing games with the children and also sharing in communal cooking. Some games start with 20 children and can end up with 100 children watched by parents, police, LTTE etc. Hokie-pokie, old macdonald, statues and several varieties of catch are popular.

4. Ari, Noel and Vincent became concerned that some local groups were becoming very interested in our building work. We have some new staff (over 40 people working today) that we feel may be giving information on what wages we are paying and where we are ordering our materials. There is little we can do about this although it is worrying and potentially dangerous. We have decided to keep control over purchasing of materials ourselves and administer wages as before through our trusted foreman/builder. We expect no problems.

Logistics of materials are becoming quite complicated, wood, cement, stone, bricks are ordered daily and we are spending about €400-600 per day on these materials. Total wages amount to about €200 per day for our 30 regular workers. We are paying good local wages.

Two 8 family shelters have roofs, supporting posts, floors and foundations. The third is being roofed today. The foundations for the remaining three shelters are laid out and in various states ready for the carpenters to begin building. One toilet block with three septic tanks is 60% finished. It is a very busy site.

5. We have been requested to support some families displaced from Ulla to Lahugala. We will visit Sunday morning to assess the situation.

6. Noel has finished 3 sessions in Ampara Hospital on, Counselling Skills, Post traumatic Stress and depression. One more session scheduled for Friday on suicide. Evaluations from the staff are good and they are keen to have more input on Cogitative Behavioural Therapy. The have asked for a book list.

7. Two more training courses on basic support skills carried out in Batticaloa with the National Youth Services Council. Exercise on listening, information on bereavement and loss and discussion on knowing when someone needs more support than you can provide. From the initial group of 60, 20 people are been offered two year training in Counselling and would act as resource people for the districts youth clubs.

8. Suriya women’s Development has reported that they have started to distribute in the following in camps: underwear, sanitary towels, and baby kits for pregnant mothers.

9. One carpenter / sub-contractor in Batticaloa who lost his tools has requested money to purchase about €200 of tools. He has employed 20 people in the past and is hopeful of getting contracts for post-tsunami building. He is giving a costing on which we will make a decision. He is aware of many others in the same position but it will be difficult to support others, as there is no organisation that could assess and administer the donation.

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Monday, 30 January 2005

1. It has been a week since I had time to write up on our work. Really there has been no time during the day and any free time in evening I am too tired to write. A lot has been happening.

2. Transport. Ari has had a horrendous time transporting materials across the island. One truck was overloaded and broke down on the steep hills in the centre of the country. A replacement was sent from Ampara at 4 am and 300 sheets of plywood were unloaded and reloaded on the new lorry. Then this lorry was about to capsize on a hairpin bend and the load had to be cut loose and half reloaded on a third lorry. Ari was up and working for over 24 hours. Two other lorries of Galvanised sheeting and bicycles arrive safely but one day late. Work on site stopped for one day due to delays in supply of materials.

3. Vincent has left for Australia and will return on the 9th of Feb. He is greatly missed

4. Money. We got caught with four public holidays (Muslim Hajj, Saturday, Sunday and Buddhist Poya full moon day) in a row that led to delays in transfers of money from Ireland. We can withdraw approximately €600 per day from the two available ATM machines but they are not convenient or always working. It can be a frustrating hours drive to a non-functioning ATM. Realised today that because of the exchange rate with local currency we are getting receipts for everything down to €uro 5 Cent. Lots of bits of paper but we have a really good bookkeeper.

5. Volunteers. Naomi and Carolyn have returned to Colombo. The felt very emotional leaving the camp and amazed that it is possible to make good human contact with people without speaking a common language. It has been great to have people who have had the time and ability to spend large amounts of time in the camp.

6. Tsunami. On Thursday 27th rumours started to spread that there had been another quake in Indonesia and another Tsunami was coming. People were really frightened and many of the people in the camps started to move inland caring whatever possessions they had left. Usually only one plastic bag. The radio was telling everyone not to panic. Our Masons and labours would not come to work and although we managed to persuade the Carpenters to work on they were terrified. I felt it was a good move to not let fear take over and keep working so I started to pick up bricks and move them around. Naomi and Carolyn walked down to the beach with the radio telling people the radio said there was no Tsunami. It seemed to help. Eventually the atmosphere improved in the afternoon and people started to calm down. We had a good laugh about it. Some minor road traffic accidents in the panic.

7. One of our carpenters fell off the roof and fractured his wrist. He is in hospital and continues to draw a daily wage from us. Perhaps will take 6 months to heal.

8. Akkraipattu. Gave 5 water tanks and € 300 to volunteers working in Muslim areas of Akkraipattu. We plan to give €2000-3000 to them in small amounts. Good people.

9. Ulla/Lahugala. Visited the area of Ulla, which is better known as Aragam Bay and was the only tourist town in Ampara. Suffers used to come from all over the world to surf parallel to the shore in this beautiful palm tree paradise beach. Over a 1,000 people died in this small village. Mostly fishermen. And hundreds of houses, restaurants, and small hotels lay in rubble. We had a disturbing meeting with some of the villagers on the beach. They were mostly giving out about each other and reported that there have been a lot of arguments about donated money. There is little aid getting through as major parts of a huge bridge have been washed away and the only way t o get to these areas is by small boat. These factors will make it impossible for us to do any work here soon but we may ask some of our contacts to visit to try and facilitate the villages to work together if possible. There were a number of visitors helping load and unload the boats of relief supplies, wood and water.

10. Reactions to people’s stories. Somehow we have all stopped really listening to people’s stories of death and destruction in the Tsunami. There are just so many. Individual people are starting to ask more for money.

11. We have not been talking to Galway Bay FM in the last week, poor signals and too busy. Vincent will try to do the next report from Australia.

12. We made the main news broadcast in Sri Lanka. MTV is a commercial channel and our friends got very excited.

13. There are endless visitors to the site: NGOs (Goal are frequent visitors) a Sri Lankan Government member of parliament, government officials from, local and regional government, housing, social services, and reconstruction departments, LTTE regional political leader and escorts, and of course local displaced people. One father of 6 discussed with Ari how to arrange bunk beds in the 10 foot by 15 foot space in the shelter. Ari reports that he seamed to be happy with the possibility.

Accounts for a day. For your information this is a typical financial day on site:

25th Jan 2005 - Opening balance
Credit card advance - 100,000 Rs
ATM Credit Card Advance - 20,000
Cash card debit withdrawal - 20,000
Cash carried forward - 43,000
Total - 183,000 or approx €1464

Expenses 11 Carpenters + 2 labourers - 7,300
2 salaries from public holiday - 1,300
11 masons - 6,300
26 labourers - 10,800
Transport (one week) - 5,000
Kerosene for generator 10 ltr.- 300
Labourers for 26 loads of sand - 2875
River sand 3 loads - 3,300
2 deliveries of bricks - on A/C
Wood (part payment) - 40,000
Total - 77,175 or approx. € 617

Balance carried forward - 105,825 Rs

15. Team on site: Rajendren from Colombo speaks three languages, motivated and interested in work, business man from Colombo but very useful for keeping eye on work on site when we have to go away for other work. Sassi is a volunteer from Karativu, engineer and locally involved in organising relief works for displaced people. Shree is a maths graduate and local from Karativu. He keeps records of deliveries, tools, and prepares salary sheets each day. Namathi is the carpentry foreman, organises the workers, oversees the work quality, advises on materials needed for following day’s work and pays the wages each day.

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Friday, 11 February 2005

1. Ampara is not quite as remote as it used to be. There used to be 6-8 international humanitarian or development agencies operating in Ampara. There has been a dramatic increase since the Tsunami. Here is a quick rundown of the NGOs (non governmental organisations) we have come across in the district:

a. Another group of volunteers, Mercy Malaysia, are working locally. They are doing Tsunami Education. That is explaining to children what a Tsunami is how it is caused, what are the signs, what to do if there is a scare, etc. The idea is to reassure children through education and thereby reduce fear. They also have a medical team but will be reducing this work, as the local health system appears able to cope.

b. GOAL from Ireland is working away on relief supplies, temporary accommodation and preparing for infrastructure rehabilitation. They have mostly a team of engineers. They are based in Sainthamaruthu just 1 km up the road from Karativu. Invited them from dinner on Saturday night.

c. UNICEF, WFP, ZOA, GTZ (German government programme in Batticaloa (?)), CARE (worlds largest NGO), ICRC, Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, Oxfam, (the big guys) from various countries. Islamic Relief, Save The Children, Forut, Terres des Homme, World University Service of Canada (WUSC), Brothers of Charity… when you stay by the main road of Karativu the whole world eventually drops by.

d. TRO, Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, the social and development wing of the LTTE. Have a hand in running most camps.

e. Many Sri Lankan groups quietly working away. Saryodia, Seva Lanka, Foundation for co-existence, SOWAD, Maha Shackti, Women’s Development Centre, Shadow (counselling), Shade.

f. Approximately 130 local and International NGO’s turn up for coordination meetings in Batticaloa and Ampara. Some have been here for many years some have just arrived. People have mixed feeling about the work of international NGOs they get a lot of bad publicity but many of them can take on important roles that the Government, local people or people like our selves could not. It does make me ask the question why are we working here? We certainty don’t want to compete with others to do work. Questions of our unique role as individuals with a long-term commitment to the area will emerge again and again as we try to look to the future.

On the fringes:

g. Respiratory Relief, a group of aroma therapists from UK. Tea tree oil and Lavender for stress and grief?

h. Telecom Sans Frontiers, ‘Telecommunications without boarders’ offering free calls (international) for people in camps to relatives abroad. Are Telecommunications now a basic need?

i. Lots of ‘born again’ type gospel missions from South Korea, USA and other parts of Sri Lanka.

j. People with t-shirts that say stuff like ‘Texan Disaster Relief’

2. Amirthanathan (Sassy) our volunteer Engineer and local community worker has had a motorbike accident. He is released from Hospital but has a fractured wrist/arm and is busily trying to scratch under the plaster cast. Sassy has been a great help to us, he has kept us up to date with all the changes in building regulations etc. and is involved in planning for the future use of the site we are building on in Karativu. He is applying for a job in Oxfam.

3. The session with the Kathankudy based Female Teachers Union went ahead successfully. It was my first time lecturing to an entire audience of Muslim women. Basically I was trying to support them to maintain their roles as teachers in order to provide stability and normalcy for students affected by the Tsunami. Stability and normalcy are somewhat like security which is what the children really need after all the destruction. The issues that emerged from them were: separated children (orphans), children new to a class following loss of all family members, child thoughts of death, suicidal parents, concentration problems, children wanting to go to bathro om every 15 minutes, crying going to school, parents frightened to leave children, how to deal with Tsunami scare, children withdrawn and isolated in class. The teachers themselves also had similar problems themselves. Some times there is so little you can do that even when you address all these problems listed above you still come away feeling that you have nothing to contribute. Dr Gnaneshen the consultant Psychiatrists from Batticaloa Hospital spoke for about 30 mins. and Amara Happurachchi (counsellor/community worker) will be following up with the group on future needs.

4. 12 counsellors working with people in camps attended for clinical supervision in Batticaloa. Issues emerging: decisions on when and how to finish counselling relationship, how to work with people who have not spoken or made any human contact since the tsunami, children explaining how the tsunami happened in their village, examples of 4 session intervention with visible results.

5. Carpenters. Have new tem of 6 female trainee carpenters starting on Monday.

6. Permanent Housing

a. Land. Government is to allocate land for relocation housing, public land or compulsory purchase of private land (political issue that could cause delays). NGO’s, International donors, etc. to provide funds for homes.

b. Building Standards: minimum 500 sq ft. Two bedrooms, living room, kitchen and w/c bathroom.

c. Costs of houses 400,000 Rs to 800,000 Rs. Current estimates 500,000 Rs. € 4,100 per house at current exchange rates.

d. There are a lot of people who want to build houses. Many of the international NGO’s have had lots (hundreds of millions of €) of money donated to them and they need to spend it.

e. 100 m proposal. No construction in the first 100 m from the sea. (Some days it is 150 m) This is where most people died and where most of the damage has been done to the buildings. The result of this is relocation of large numbers of people. Sometimes the proposals recommend moving the entire towns 8 KM inland! (Hambantota) This is a particularly troublesome proposal for fishing communities.

f. 200 and 400 m regulations, special areas. The regulations have not been fully formed yet but there is talk of extending the no build zones to 200m and 400m from the sea in areas with extensive lagoons, and low lying inland coastal plains. The largest such area is the coast of Ampara from Kalmunai to Nindavur. This area also has very little government land available for distribution. Expect delays and political controversy in these areas. Karativu is in the centre of this area.

g. Awareness of historic ethnic and political communities. Sri Lanka is a multi-cultural country in ways we cannot conceive of in Ireland. Sinhalese Buddhists, Tamil Hindu, Muslim and Christian people have lived for generations in somewhat segregated towns with strong economic inter-dependence. There are some political parties that span these different communities but in recent years there has been a growth in smaller political parties that represent ever-smaller special interest groups and communities. When planning for rebuilding towns in new locations these factors become very complex issues that can delay decision making indefinitely or make it impossible for people to live in houses con structed in the wrong area. These issues are further complicated by the separatist activities of the LTTE and the potential of political violence for resettled communities.

h. There are 750,000 homes to be built nationally! Former governments have had housing programmes for the last 10-15 years which have constructed hundreds of thousands of homes (officially one million). Logistically it is therefore possible. It is just a lot of work. Estimate of costs of US$ 450,000,000 in housing and construction Ampara District alone. Source Goal

i. Cultural norms in housing. There are some beautiful historic designs. Privacy, verandas and courtyards are important often over looked features.

j. There are a small number of people in the camps who own or whose close relatives own land suitable for building in the towns where their own homes have been destroyed. Some times less than 500m from where they lived. There is a possibility of immediate start of small-scale construction on these homes. And immediate benefit to families. Estimates so far known to our contacts of 6-8 such families in Akkraipattu and similar in Karativu.

k. Some other building on private land going ahead. eg. christain orphanages, etc.

7. Vincent returns YppHi!

8. Akkraipattu. Repairs of first 6 homes started. Mostly windows and doors. Next twelve starting this week. 20 bicycles distributed to people who need them for work, mostly fish vendors. Fencing started but shortage of suitable materials. Deliveries of wood arrived for camp construction (roofing Kajan provided by other source) Requested water tank for 20 family camp (Mostly catholic carpenters!) construction started immediately in land at side of main Pottuvile road. Oxfam building 3 toilets with temporary sceptic tank. Ari bought vegetables and meat for dinner for the whole camp. Cost € 32. Jokes about good dinner but no functioning toilet.

9. Fishing boats. Entire production of fishing boats for east of Sri Lanka booked up until March. Single order from NGO to reinstate entire fleet. Problems in that no boats will be distributed until entire order is filled in May 2005. This misses important fishing season and adds delay to normalisation. Attempts underway to use this as opportunity to upgrade fleet

10. Kaushaliyan political leader of LTTE in this region was shot in an ambush. 5 others also died including former Member of Parliament from Ampara. Adds political complexity to situation on ground. General strike or Hartal called. No work on site for 2.5 days.

11. Rice harvesting season. Labourers now making more money on rice harvesting. €10 per day. Now only 16 or so workers on site. (we pay €4.5-€6 per day and get in trouble with local businesses for paying € 0.50 per day over the odds for unskilled workers) Main impact is delays to our schedule.

12. Ari’s parents have cooked cleaned and put up with us all for the last two months. I have not acknowledged them yet. Great cooking and nice people.

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Friday, 18 February 2005

1. Another Friday, they come around very fast. Noel heads home on 25th of February, 2005. Vincent and Ari similar…

2. Akkraipattu. We must stress that all the work in Akkraipattu is been done by local volunteers. We can only take credit for, encouraging people, paying for materials and trusting local people to do the work. The hard work is theirs. The work is concentrated in two badly damaged coastal districts of Akkraipattu town:

a. Mhirandagar i. Working ongoing on reconstructing the pre-school for 25-30 children. It is relocated on nice new elevated site donated by a private individual. It is in the centre of the village community between the primary school and the mosque. Locals are calling it "Irish pre-school 2" estimated costs so far are:

a. Wood - 18,000 Rs b. Labour - 32,000 Rs c. Bricks, cement, sheet roofing - 75,000 Rs Total - 125000 Rs €1000

ii. 25 Temporary houses for people in Mhirandagar Camp. These houses will be made from environmentally sound materials, Bricks, Kajan, (smaller dimension) Wood and are budgeted to cost 35,000 Rs. per family.

So far estimated (and actual) costs have been:

a. Timber 52,000 Rs

b. Kajan 56,000 Rs

c. Transport 23,000 Rs

d. Oil (wood preservative) 500 Rs

e. Bricks

f. Labour

g. Remaining finishing costs 743,500 Rs

Total - 875,000 Rs €7000

This work will not be fished before we (Ari, Noel and Vincent) leave in end of February. Kumari, Thavam and the other volunteers will continue to work (for many years). Scottish volunteers will also help out.

b. Badurnagar

i. Work is completed on "Irish Pre-school number 1" makes it sound like a gaelscole. It is a simple structure made from 6x6 upright wooden posts supporting a roof of galvanised sheet metal. There is a cement floor is painted bright red and a low 4 foot high wall between the posts encloses the class room. It is in a shady location 100 m through the gardens of houses from the Badurnagar camp. You can see and hear the sea through the trees about 300m away.

40-50 local children will attend the school. The total construction costs, as with the other pre-school, were 125,000 Rs work took about 2 weeks. Money (50,000 Rs) was then donated to make desks AND chairs (benches)

ii. House repairs, 140,000 Rs has already been spent mostly on wood for house repairs in Badurnagar. A carpenter has been taken on who him self lost everything in the Tsunami. He has borrowed a friends' workshop and is producing doors and windows.

These houses are structurally intact and not in the no build zones near the sea. The water rushed through these houses at about 5-6 feet deep. It tore out windows and doors, furniture and possessions and of course fences and walls. Anything not securely build was smashed or swept away. Some houses have been undermined and have collapsed or are about the collapse, we have not tried to repair these more severely damaged homes.

Other work in Akkraipattu has included building materials (wood and Kajan) for a 25-member camp. Additional food for people in the camps. Bicycles for people to cycle to work and school. Fence repairs. The group is very active and are moving their work on to the next town down the coast, Thirukovil. They want to build another 25 temporary shelters like the ones in Mhiranagar. We have decided to keep the focus on the work at hand and they are looking of money from other sources for the Thirukovil work.

Kumari is quietly trying to select families to build permanent houses on their own or families land. It is a sensitive process trying to chose 6 families with so many displaced.

His priorities are: complete loss of own home during tsunami and now living in camp or otherwise displaced, will probably not be allowed to rebuild in original location Have deeds to property in local area (or permission from relative to build and live permanently on their land?) Can get permits to build home on same land Additional family circumstances will be taken into account, e.g. numbers of children, deaths of wage earners, no other financial means, etc. priority will be given to families who will take in others (relatives, friends) who are also displaced until they get re-housed.

3. Ari is undertaking the complicated and stressful process of interviewing families for houses. The DS has now issued a final list of families to be housed in our units. There are 56 families on the list who are all from the fishing village of Kannagipuram which has been completely destroyed. We are approaching completion of 48 houses. 16 are fully finished and the other 32 will be ready in the next two weeks. Houses for the remaining 8 families will be constructed by the team with the Scottish volunteers in the 3-4 weeks after we depart.

There are some discrepancies from earlier lists with some people on earlier lists from other villages, some people from this village not on our list. The other families will be housed in shelters erected by NGO’s, government departments, etc. so we do not have to take too much responsibility for their situation just to make sure that the people who get houses are those who most need them.

There are two women in the camp who are on our lists who have lost all their relatives in the Tsunami. We had hoped that they would share with some other families but they are very distressed all the time and want to live alone. Ari has a very difficult job trying to balance their needs with limited supply of accommodation.

Meetings with the families in the camp turn into public meetings with a great deal of loud talking with people making their cases for them selves and sometimes against others. It is not quite complete desperation but their difficult circumstances are evident.

We are meeting everyone to ensure there are no irregularities in the selection process. All families are to be from the same village and with homes completely destroyed. Then we are trying to access needs in terms of space, family support, household equipment, livelihoods and other work related issues. We can follow up with some of these issues.

4. We have tried to overcome delays in construction by talking on more carpenters and masons now we have 4 teams of 3 carpenters and 3 teams of masons. We are making small changes to the construction method using bricks in some places where it is faster to erect.

5. Psychosocial co-ordination meetings are ongoing, eternally.

6. The Galway Sri Lanka Fund is investigating a small housing project in Panama in the very south of Ampara, which is been organised through contacts in the travel and tourism industry. We are meeting with them today in the Government Agents Office. Panama is a very remote village of Sinhalese and Tamil people living almost completely sounded by wildlife parks and jungle. It is very beautiful but supply of building materials with make construction challenging. There is also some talk of reconstruction of a school in Thirukovil further north near Akkraipattu.

Met Mr. Senthil Gopinath, VFS Lanka ltd (part of the Kuoni travel group) and Mr Mohan Panabokke of the Mahaweli Reach Hotel, Kandy. Very friendly and businesslike people. Discussed site selection, importance of discussion with prospective residents, difficulties in monitoring work 4 hours from Ampara town and 14 hours from Colombo. The plan to appoint two of their workers to oversee the project full time. They seam to have a good relationship with the Government Agent Ampara

7. Carpenters. Following on previous work with a Carpenter in Batticaloa a small group of 18 carpenters approached us looking to replace lost tools. Vincent and Noel helped coordinate them, Jeyanthy did a wonderful job in organising data on individuals, tools needed, costs. Sivanesan from Dublin/Batticaloa came up with the money (€8,000) from their fund and is running with the ordering and distribution. Another group of Carpenters has also been identified in Akkraipattu (the camp that Ari bought dinner for last week) and Siva and Kumari are planning to follow through with this group.

8. Vomiting and diarrhoea. Noel, then Ari and now Vincent have picked up a vomiting and diarrhoea bug. It lays you up for a half day for about three days and puts you off the smell of food for life. Visa Office. Noel had to make a three-day dash across the country (during the vomiting phase) to spend 2 hours in the immigration office renewing his visa. Ari took a break and came to Colombo too. Did a bit of shopping (Colombo is a great place to buy clothes) and went for a swim. Not being able to go swimming it one of the oddest parts of working in Tsunami affected areas. It is physically safe to go in the water but doesn’t feel right to go in. Many of th e local people don’t even look at the sea because it brings back such memories. We are almost always working within earshot of the sea but turning away from it.

9. We have received letters requesting support from local Community groups. One from the Sri Murigan Community Centre, close to the Karativu camp, is looking for building repairs and books for the library. We are planning to provide books and would love to support any work programmes they may have in mind.

10. Sanmurga Maha Vidyalaya, Karativu (Ramakrisna School camp) has asked for 4 computers, two typewriters (one in Tamil), and a Roneo Machine (?). with the aim of ‘uplifting the educational process of our school.’ The certainly don’t have computers at the moment and their school is in a mess with 120 families living their for the last 2 months. We need to come up with something.

11. Dr. Mark Kandu Jeyanathan (Ayruvedic) Karativu. Is one of our strongest supports in Karativu. He is a young herbal doctor with a wife and 3 daughters. Drives a powerful motorbike, gold earrings and dark glasses. He has been helping Ari talk with the camp residents and helps sort out problems with the workers on the building site. He is also fun to hang out with.

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