Lankan lives rebuilt with Liverpool Echo's help
Nick Coligan
The wrecked lives of young Sri Lankan tsunami victims are being
rebuilt - thanks to ECHO readers.
More than three years on cash raised in Merseyside is still being put
to good use. It is being spent tackling the unthinkable psychological
damage suffered by children who saw their families and homes swept away.
The region's astonishing fundraising effort in the wake of the tidal
wave disaster on Boxing Day, 2004, brought in more than o100,000.
It means volunteers in Galle, which bore the brunt of the tsunami's
devastating power, can help youngsters and adults heal their mental
wounds.
Money from Merseyside is also being used to rebuild shattered
communities by lending money to destitute mothers so they can start
small businesses.
Liverpool-based charity Hands Across The Sea, formed in early 2005 as
donations poured in from well-wishers, still has about o36,000 left.
It means it can keep working alongside the Epiphany Trust, an
organisation experienced in emergency aid, for some time to come.
With physical rebuilding work well underway in Galle more emphasis is
being placed on the long-term mental and economic recovery of its
flood-wrecked communities.
Volunteers Charlotte and Furrukh Riaz's first trip out to Sri Lanka
lasted just three weeks.
But they were asked by Epiphany Trust director Bill Hampson to return
long-term. The couple were back in Liverpool last week to update city
councillor Flo Clucas who started the original collection which
eventually became Hands Across The Sea.
Their area of expertise is "grief support" - a much-needed skill in
Galle. Mrs Riaz, 37, says: "Everyone living on the coast experienced
grief.
"The loss of a family member was the worst thing. But there was the
trauma of seeing dead bodies and losing all their belongings.
"We originally went for three weeks. But once you are out there you
see the effect of being there long-term."
The couple trained Sri Lankan adults in how to help bereaved children
recover. Mr Riaz, 36, adds: "When we first went out we found a lot of
adults and teachers did not understand grief and felt it was best for
children to just forget about it.
"We taught them that they have to express grief and talk about it.
And we taught the children how to deal with grief by drawing pictures of
the tsunami and talking about it among themselves.
"Many adults have suffered severe trauma themselves so they are not
in a position to work with kids.
"We spoke to a father who had managed to grab his daughter when the
flood came in, then lost her in the second swell, grabbed her again but
lost her again.
"How can someone who has gone through that help other people ? He has
to deal with his own grief."
One of Hands Across The Sea's most successful beneficiaries is a
scheme to help penniless women set up their own small businesses.
After those in the greatest need are identified they are given Rs.
5,000 - about o25 - to establish family companies selling goods ranging
from linen clothes to wooden elephants.
As their businesses succeed the women gradually repay 50 per cent of
the grant which is then passed onto other mothers desperate to follow
the same path.
So far more than 500 firms have been set up - including a successful
restaurant run by a woman from her own front room.
Another woman set up a road-side aviary where passers-by can buy
birds to release into freedom - a good luck sign in Sri Lanka.
According to Hampson it is incredible to see how far o25 can be
stretched by families left with nothing by the tsunami.
He says: "It is striking to meet someone who has lost everything,
even their identity papers and deeds to their house, so they cannot even
prove who they are.
"But they are so resourceful - they do not throw anything away until
they check out the possibilities.
"We helped one woman who collected broken electrical goods. By
collecting two or three clapped-out food mixers she made one good one
which could be sold on." Mr and Mrs Riaz go back to Sri Lanka next month
for the next stage of their work, identifying people who need help in
parts of the country which have so far received less aid.
Mrs Riaz says: "It might sound crazy because we are three years on
from the tsunami. But there is still a massive need for emotional
support. In the East there are a lot of tsunami-affected areas where
people were then displaced by war and fighting.
"They desperately need work around trauma because their kids have not
recovered. Now the fighting has stopped in the East we can do some
really good work there. "But we will still work in Galle as well. Even
though there is now a little bit of a stigma attached to getting
emotional help.
"We are being creative by using after-school clubs and working with
mothers in small communities supporting them in an indirect way."
The tsunami, which killed more than 225,000 people in 11 countries,
prompted an unprecedented humanitarian response with over $7bn donated
worldwide.
Hands Across The Sea made sure its o100,000 fund was carefully
targeted to have the greatest possible effect.
Hampson says: "Millions of pounds came in and people here sometimes
get the impression that now it is no longer on television, it must be
OK.
"But the victims were so traumatised that they needed time to
recover. That is the fantastic thing about Hands Across The Sea - it
gives people the chance to move on. "We did not have millions of pounds.
We had a decent sum that, targeted in the right way, could make a
difference to a lot of people."
Cllr Clucas explains that the charity's aim was to find out what
people really needed before spending Merseyside's donation.
She says: "We have o36,000 left and we can point to where every
single penny has gone - to the people most affected.
"The people of this city and ECHO readers should be very proud. We
came together and it has made a difference." |