Tsunami Situation Report: Weligama 24.5.2005

5 months have passed since the deadly Tsunami hit the island badly. On Wesak yesterday there was a big almsgiving in memory of the Tsunami dead by Tsunami survivors in Weligama at the seaside

Surviving children attending the almsgiving ceremony in memory of the tsunami dead on Wesak Day in Weligama

Needless to say that the talk during the ceremony was about the incredible, unbearable situation the homeless survivors hardly can cope with.

The Jayawickreme Foundation has recently visited a camp where 66 families with 78 children are living in under such bad conditions beyond any imagination. Behind mash wire they are cramped up in windowless metal huts, which are baking oven hot when the sun shines. There are just 4 open fireplaces only to cook 3 meals a day for 340 camp inhabitants. The 20 makeshift stinking toilets are close to the cooking area. Children and adults have developed some kind of a rash and they complain that there is no medical attention either.

Women are carrying drinking water from far away to the camp	Kids inside a camp

Instantly we have informed the Weligama hospital and asked to send a medical team to the camp. Moreover we wanted to donate 66 gas cookers with the gas refills. But we had to abandon this idea because of the danger of an explosion, as we would have been blamed for such an accident. Instead we have asked the camp people in Pelena what their other urgent needs are and they asked for wardrobes as they have only damp cardboard boxes to store their few belongings.

Moreover we are just working out the estimate to provide the camp at least once a week with fresh vegetables, fish and a glass of milk for the kids as they have told us that they get only bad quality rice, dhal, milk powder and sugar as government provisions. We hope to find sponsors who will provide the funds for fresh food until the camp will be closed down one day, when there are new houses built for the victims.

Donations are still going on i.e. toys, coco and milk powder for needy children and spectacles for adults as well as on and off dry rations and cloths.

The little kindergarten kids can smile again- a little bit at least - after they received toys and milkfood at a donation.	Children of Pelena

Due to bureaucracy, corruption and bad politics it takes a long time until plans to build houses for the Tsunami survivors can be realized. As the relevant Authorities avoid taking sole responsibility for choosing the people, they just have finally given us a list with several names of former house owners, who have lost their houses due to Tsunami out of the 100 m zone and asked us to choose the first 10 recipients together with a government technical officer. Due to the prevailing Wesak holidays we will do so during the course of this week so that we can lay the first foundation stones before June.

It is not possible to find out how many fishing boats were already gifted to fishermen in Weligama, as donors are not cooperating with the relevant authorities. Even boats, which are useless for the local fishermen community, have been donated due to lack of knowledge and lack of necessary cooperation. 354 fishing boats have been damaged due to Tsunami. Some have been repaired, but still plenty are needed to give the suffering fishermen a source of income again.

The Jayawickreme Foundation has been advised by the authorities to give boats to new owners during a public raffle to avoid unnecessary problems i.e. accusations of jealousy, nepotism, etc.

We are still continuing our programme to help small business people to restart their businesses, which were lost due to Tsunami.

The German cities of Plettenberg in North Rhine Westphalia and Zirndorf in Bavaria have established a long-term partnership with the Jayawickreme Foundation.

There is cooperation between the Jayawickreme Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Germany (FES) through its office in Sri Lanka. With this cooperation, the Jayawickreme Foundation is raising funds for the reconstruction of houses and livelihood of the affected families in Weligama.

In Weligama-Denipitiya there will be an education center opened shortly consisting of a free of charge Kindergarten and an English school for 120 poor village children, for which our partner is “Aktion Rheinland Pfalz hilft”. (Action Rhineland Palatinate helps). Rhineland Palatinate is a Federal Country in Germany.

With the help of dedicated donors we hope to continue also our poverty alleviation programmes in rural Weligama soon.

* It is worth to mention that we have realized how difficult it is for many Tsunami affected people to ask us for help, because they were well off and financially independent before Tsunami took everything they owned.