Sri Lankan plea for St Andrews' help

St Andrews businesswoman, Claire Macleary, has called for people in to cast their minds back three years and remember the devastation caused by the Boxing Day tsunami.

On December 26, 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a series of huge tidal waves which left nearly 230,000 people dead or missing and another two million homeless across Sri Lanka, Somalia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Immediately following these events, the owner of the St Andrews Fine Art Shop, Margaret Carruthers, from Leuchars, and her friend Ranee Shepherd, from Strathkinness, travelled to Sri Lanka to help with fund-raising and rescue operations. Macleary, who lives in Ceres, was inspired by their efforts.

She visited the country earlier this year to join ongoing relief work. Macleary told the Citizen about Chandralatha: "Her husband, a fisherman, was lost that day. Having owned her own home and brought up her children in relative security, this woman now lives in a refugee camp in the southern town of Matara.

She added: "One of these ruins was the happy home of the Chandralatha family, but Mrs Chandralatha is not allowed to rebuild so close to the sea, even if she had the means to.

''Instead, she must continue to bring up and educate her children as best she can, helped by a Government allowance."

Macleary has appealed for Citizen readers, who feel able to make a contribution, to contact the Buddhist Vihara at 1 Caldercuilt Road, Glasgow G20 0AD.

For more information, go to www.tsbv.org.uk.