[sustran] Re: Post-Tsunami help to Samaritan Children's Home in Sri Lanka

[Upali Pannilage]

Thanks for sharing this with us. I will send one of our staff members to
study the actual situation there and will act accordingly.

 

Upali

 

Upali Pannilage 

Programme Team Leader 

ITDG- South Asia

No 05, Lionel Edirisinghe Mawatha

Kirulapona

Colombo-05

Sri Lanka

 

Tel. ++94 01 02 829412

E-mail upalip at itdg.slt.lk or pannila at hotmail.com

Web : www.itdg.org

 

-----Original Message-----
From: EcoPlan, Paris [mailto:eric.britton at ecoplan.org] 
Sent: Monday 10 January 2005 10:47 PM
To: 'Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport'
Cc: 'hamid sardar'; 'France Benainous'
Subject: [sustran] Post-Tsunami help to Samaritan Children's Home in Sri
Lanka

 

Monday, January 10, 2005, Paris, France, Europe

 

Dear Sustran Friends,

 

I would be most grateful if you could help us do a quick "Due Diligence"
of the following organization with whom we have entered into contact,
with the idea of seeing what might be done to offer them some kind of
support in the post-Tsunami rebuilding efforts.  It is of course very
difficult for us to be sure of their complete bona fide since we do not
have any colleagues directly in place or experienced in working with
them.  My hope is that one or more of you may be able to help us carry
out even a rapid check, before we begin to put a lot of time, effort and
eventually money into this.

 

Background:  I attach below some extracts from a newspaper article
covering the story.  There is a website for the Samaritan Children's
Home at http://samaritanchildrenshome.org
<http://samaritanchildrenshome.org/> , and here is what they have to say
about themselves and their terrible plight: 

 

The Samaritan Children's Home was founded in 1994 by Dayalan Sanders in
Navalady, a small village on Sri Lanka's eastern peninsula. The
orphanage was built through money from the sale of his Maryland home and
donations he has managed to collect over the years.

 

With no insurance to rebuild the orphanage and a need greater than ever
before, the family of Dayalan is trying to raise $400,000 needed to meet
immediate needs, such as interim accommodations for the orphanage and
the purchase of a 4 wheel drive vehicle for transportation; as well to
rebuild and re-equip the orphanage and the children. 

 

Samaritan Children's Home was not only providing a home for the orphaned
children, but was also involved in community development projects for
the impoverished community in Navalady where the children's home is
located. As a result of the current devastation, the needs of the
community will be even more, and more children will need shelter at the
orphanage.

 

We have taken first contact with them and at this end have initiated
some first discussions of possible direct assistance measures, but it
would be wonderful if you could work your networks to help us be sure
that this information is accurate.  For my part, I am ready to move
ahead, but given that there are many others who may be involved I feel
it is only prudent to carry out some kind of check.

 

Kind thanks dear friends if you can help in this.  Also, should you be
interested in following developments from this end, please let me know
and I will try to keep you efficiently informed.  Who knows? You may as
well have some good ideas for us in this. 

 

------------------------------

 

Extracts from article dated Wednesday, December 29, 2004. By John
Lancaster / The Washington Post

 

With little warning, director saves 28 orphans from tsunami

 

Navalady, Sri Lanka -  On Sunday morning the 26th, two hundred yards
away from the beach in the Samaritan Children's Home in Navalady, a
small fishing village that occupies a narrow peninsula on Sri Lanka's
economically depressed east coast, most of the 28 children were still in
their rooms, getting ready for services. 

The orphanage director and found, Dayalan Sanders heard the pounding of
feet in the corridor outside his room, and his wife burst through the
door, a frantic look on her face. "The sea is coming!" she said. "Come!
Come! Look at the sea!"  There on the horizon was a "30-foot wall of
water," racing toward the wispy casuarina pines that marked the landward
side of the beach.

With barely any time to think, let alone act, he ran toward the lagoon,
where the orphanage's boat chafed at a pier. By then, many of the
children had come run outside, some of them half-dressed. Sanders
shouted as loud as he could, urging them all toward the boat. 

Thanks to quick thinking, blind luck and an outboard motor that somehow
started on the first pull, the orphans and their caretakers joined the
ranks of countless survivors of the epic disaster that so far has
claimed tens of thousands of lives in Sri Lanka and 10 other countries. 

Desperate, he asked if anyone had seen his daughter, and a moment later
one of the older girls thrust the toddler into his arms. Sanders heaved
her into the boat, along with the other small children, as the older
ones, joined by his wife and the orphanage staff, clambered aboard. 

One of his employees yanked on the starter cord, and the engine
sputtered instantly to life -- something that Sanders swears never
happened before. "Usually, you have to pull it four or five times," he
said. 

Crammed with more than 30 people, the dangerously overloaded launch
roared into the lagoon at almost precisely the same moment that the wall
of water overwhelmed the orphanage, swamping its one-story buildings to
the rafters. 

As the compound receded behind the boat, Sanders said, he watched in
amazement as the surging current smashed a garage and ejected a
brand-new Toyota pickup. "The roof came flying off -- it just splintered
in every direction," he recalled. "I saw the Toyota just pop out of the
garage." 

The orphans' ordeal did not end when their boat pulled away from the
shore. Not only was water cascading over the lagoon side of the
peninsula, but it also was pouring in directly from the mouth of the
estuary about 2 miles away. Sanders feared the converging currents would
swamp the small craft. 

As it made for the mouth of the lagoon, the boat was broadsided and
nearly capsized by the torrent pouring over the peninsula. "The children
were very frightened," Kohila Sanders recalled. "We were praying, 'God
help us, God help us.' " 

Eventually, the boat made it to the opposite shore, to the city of
Batticaloa about a mile and a half distant. The Sanderses, their
daughter and about a dozen of the orphaned and now displaced children
have found temporary refuge in a tiny church; the rest have been sent
elsewhere. 

The scene at the orphanage was one of utter devastation. The grounds
were covered by up to three feet of sand. Several buildings, including
the staff quarters, were entirely gone, and the others were damaged
beyond repair. 

Surveying the wreckage, Sanders broke down and cried. But at other
moments, he was philosophical about his loss. "If there was anyone who
should have got swept away by this tidal wave, it should have been us,"
he said. "We were eyeball to eyeball with the wave." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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