Authors

noel.jpg, 7 kB Noel Coughlan
Counselling Psychologist

A practising counselling psychologist in Galway City, Noel worked in Sri Lanka (1995-1998) on a three-year rehabilitation program with people who had been affected by the ongoing civil conflict there. Noel travels each year to Sri Lanka to follow up on previous work programs, give training courses on basic counselling skills, to supervise students from NUIG, and to continue his long-term commitment to Sri Lanka.

ari.jpg, 9 kB Ariyadasa Bowe Kumbure Gedara
Project Manager

A native Sri Lankan, Ari has lived in Galway since 1996. Ari founded Desert Voice in Sri Lanka in 2001 and has been working with it since. He has worked with Galway One World Centre, and studied Community Development at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

vincent.jpg, 26 kB Vincent Commons
Carpenter

Vincent is a self-employed carpenter based in Galway for almost 20 years. In that time he has also explored woodworking and house building techniques in Austria, Australia, Russia, Sri Lanka, the UK, and USA. In Sri Lanka, Vincent worked for 8.5 months on housing and school provision projects for the poorest and marginalised, while teaching local workers the skills to continue building programs for themselves and their communities.

For more information on our volunteers:
Volunteers & Staff

Working between the living and the dead

Update on the work of the Galway Tsunami
Relief project in Sri Lanka

Monday, 7th March 2005

Noel, Ari and Vincent have now returned to Ireland. To rest, pick up their lives and plan the next steps in the Sri Lankan work. It is very difficult to come away from the work. Coming towards completion of the building work brought us closer to people from the local community. People we worked with and people who are going to live in the shelters we have constructed. Their stories of traumatic loss, death and destruction in the tsunami are deeply tragic and disturbing. We wonder how they can go on living. We also wonder how can we walk away from people in such need. It is easier to focus on the work done and to be done than the people:

Karativu

48 Semi- permanent homes have been constructed. Each unit is small, 10 foot by 15 foot, has a lockable front door and two windows. They are constructed from a heavy timber frame, galvanised sheeting, plywood roof and walls, cement foundations and some internal walls are built from brick. There are 10'x 10' yards outside each unit for cooking, two communal toilet blocks and washing areas. The first 48 buildings have been handed over to the Local Government and the families who are to live in the units took part in an opening ceremony. They are waiting for water and electricity connections before they can move in. All families are from the fishing village of Kannagiram in the Karativu townland of Ampara. The entire village was destroyed in the tsunami and because it is within the new 100m no build zones the village will not be able to be rebuilt on its original site. With 75,000-100,000 people in the Ampara district in displaced camps it may be a very long time before the surviving people of Kannagiram will find permanent homes.

Rajendren, Namachi and the other Sri Lankan workers who have worked for us for the last two months are still building a further 8 family units and a play ground in the site. These 8 units will complete the temporary re-housing of Kannagiram village.

The total cost of the work carried out in Karativu so far is approximately €50,000.

Other projects in Karativu:

Rebuilding a small school that provided free 'after-school' tuition by volunteers to poor children in the villages. Cost €1,000
Distribution of Bicycles to fish mongers who cycle through the country side selling fresh fish from ice boxes. In all €7,250 was spent on bicycles.
A small number of bikes were also distributed to children who had to travel long distances to school because their own local schools were destroyed and to labourers who have to cycle long distances to and from work.

Akkraipattu

Work is ongoing on temporary shelters for 25 families in the village of Mihiranager in the townland of Akkraipattu. These shelters are constructed by local volunteers from environmentally sustainable materials of light timbers and Kajan (Coconut leaf matting). We just paid for the material costs, the labour of three carpenters and tools for the carpenters. This camp when it is finished will also have communal toilets and a temporary pre-school. The local pre-school was destroyed in the Tsunami.