Sarah Turner of Las Vegas as part of the Sri Lanka Team visiting the people of Morotuwa. 

Week 1 Update

Marking our 1st week here in Sri Lanka here is where we stand.

HOUSING SETUP- We plan to have a Sri Lanka Outreach home within the next few days. We have housing opportunities from many sources. We wish to thank and express our appreciation to our home opener, the family of Amal Peiris who has generously provided housing, food, and transportation for our team of 6. Without the hospitality and understanding of the Peiris' we would find it difficult to continue to be in Sri Lanka. Currently we have confirmed 1 person joining us February and 2 teams pending confirmation. March will bring us a couple from New York.

VISAS RENEWAL- Upon entry to the country, a Visa of 1 month is issued at the Columbo airport. For each 3 months continued, the cost is $174 plus $100 processing fee.

INTRODUCTORY MEETING- Through our communication with governmental, US, Sri Lankan and others in Sri Lanka, we would ask each representative to work with our Outreach Team to plan for an informal hour meeting to communicate relief obstacles, safety concerns, and areas of need.

Assessment #1

As of tomorrow, Thursday, January 20, 2005, we will have been gone for a week- in Sri Lanka for five days.

Oh my goodness gracious have we seen a lot!

We have been trying to take the first week to assess the situation here, so we have been doing a little bit of everything.

Saturday we went to Moratuwa, less than 45 minutes from Colombo. Even there- so far from the tsunami- was more devastation than we could handle. Along the coast houses have been completely wiped out. The waves were smaller in this area, so most everyone lived- but was left with nothing. UNICEF has already visited this area. They have put up tents and taken the injured to the hospital. Since they have gone, however, no one has even attempted to give them any food, water, or clothing.

We also went to the Sarvodaya Center of Operations. Sarvodaya is a food distribution center working out of large spaces, such as warehouses or Buddhist temples. They are receiving food from other countries and deciding where to distribute it. This is well organized but takes a lot of grunt work, and has very few volunteers. While there, we only met five volunteers- all from Canada.

Sunday we met with a religious representative of Sri Lanka. His connections are with over 30 churches around the coast. Each church lost people and lost supplies "but the church is still standing." They have moved all of the families about two miles inland. They are building camps, putting up tents, and starting housing projects in this area (which, by the way, is the jungle) while they bring in volunteers to clean and rebuild.

We also met with World Vision. World Vision has completely shut the door for untrained volunteers. Because of the tension rising between Christians Non-Government Organizations and the Buddhist Government, they are under strict investigation. Any person who comes to help with one form unfiled, can get them in a lot of trouble. In addition to this, they have had their ability to work with orphanages almost entirely revoked. So until things calm down, they are not taking on any more liability then they already have.

Monday we took the day off the sleep, recover emotionally, buy shoes, and hang out with our host family.

Tuesday we toured the west side of the coast, from Colombo to Galle. Along the way I became very very sad. We had been told again and again that the reason there is no help closer to Colombo, is because all of the organized help is in Galle.

But we stopped in five villages and talked to numerous families- all starving, all sick, all recovering from loss, all living in an overly crowed house- none who have had any help. The first wave was 4 ft and the second was 25 ft. Near Matara, the second wave was 60 ft. We spoke to eight people who'd been at a party when the wave came. Those eight people are the only ones left alive out of the 400 in their community.

In the city of Galle, I did not see one World Vision truck or t-shirt, I did not see any UNICEF or MercyCorps or AmericaCorps or Samaratins Purse volunteers or signs or food stations or tractors. In total, we saw three front-loaders, a groups of kids who were rebuilding their college, and a team of U.S. Marines.

--I have to add this, even though it has nothing to do with assessment....the Marines were rebuilding a school, so there were children everywhere. Our team stopped for about an hour and just played with the kids. They were so much fun! They'd never seen a digital camera before so I gave them mine and let them run around with it. Overall, they were amazed with seeing the picture in the viewscreen after it had been taken. We flew them around like airplanes and put flowers in the girls' hair. It made the entire day with it. Those children kept us sane, they were our saving grace--

We met a British man while in Colombo who was on the same mission as us- to asses the damage and do what he could. We asked him, "Where's all the help?" He told us that the committees have been taking advantage of people's money and that all the big NGO's were supposedly on the east coast. (But our contact on the East coast said that they didn't have any help either.)

Further south, we could not get out of our van because people were swarming it. They would see us coming and run at full speed until they slammed up against the side window.


WHAT TO DO FROM HERE?
I know that it sounds and feels overwhelming, but there are things that can be done. Our team has to decide where we will be used. We have a lot of options. We have food to distribute, shipping contacts, construction supplies being brought over, RV's to travel in, medical supplies to distribute and more...

What we don't have is the manpower to use it all.

We're working very very quickly. There is a lot of politics and a lot of red tape to go around- but we are working and will have an organized way to volunteer within the next week. We want to bring in teams. Teams of five-ten people to volunteer for up to three months at a time. The total cost would be in the area of $1500 per person, including airfare (none of which would go to our team..it's not that kind of group.) Any person who wanted to come for more than a month would need to raise $150 -$300 for each additional month. We do not yet know where our focus will be (as I have said, we have many opportunities) but volunteer opportunities could include construction, food sorting and distributions, working with women and children, survivor inventory, computer work and so on..

We would like to schedule teams starting February 1.

Please contact our Coordinators at Vegas@SriLankaOutreach.com to arrange teams or answer any questions.

Sarah Turner
Sri Lanka Strike Team