- Kamal Hassan [Actor, Producer, Director]
In Sri Lanka, the ILO says the unemployment rate has more than doubled to 20
percent since the tragedy occurred.
ILO Spokesman, Stephen Pursey, says people are beginning to find temporary jobs.
But, this is not good enough. He says to get the economies of tsunami affected
areas moving again, it is crucial to help people find stable employment.
Relief-
News-
Alert-
The BBC's Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai has travelled widely through Sri
Lanka in recent weeks witnessing the devastation wrought on her country by
December's Indian Ocean tsunami.
This small selection of her photoghaphs gives some indication of the task ahead for
those who survived.
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"All my colleagues are heckled and harassed but we have to accept this. People are
really panicky here and many are desperate to leave," says ticketing clerk B
Srinivasan. Bengali and Tamil settlers make up the majority of the archipelago's
more than 400,000 people.
to Include Civil War Refugees in Tsunami Resettlement [VOA News]
The United Nations refugee agency has urged Sri Lanka to include tens of
thousands of people displaced by the country's long-running civil war in the
government's post-tsunami resettlement plans.
The agency's assistant High Commissioner made the appeal in Colombo Thursday
after touring the worst hit parts of Sri Lanka by last month's disaster.
Lutherans donate goods to tsunami victims [Times Ledger]
Our Savior Lutheran Church in Jamaica held a prayer service Sunday to mourn
tsunami victims and shed light on a donation drive for northern Sri Lanka, where
critics fear the ongoing civil war will hinder relief efforts.
"We know friends and family who lost their lives, who lost their homes. They pretty
much don't know what to do. It's like starting from scratch," said Queens Village
resident Jebashini Thevarajah, 27, of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, which
will bypass the Sri Lankan government's relief efforts by shipping goods directly to
rebel regions in the north.
"We feel helpless because we're here," Thevarajah said. "That's why we're doing
this, because we want to help out."
Sri Haran is from Sri Lanka, and has lived in Chester since 1997, and lived in
America for 21 years. The couple has four children, two of whom attend Black River
Middle School.
Before the service, Sri Haran said he has raised about $3,000 from people in
Chester to help victims in Sri Lanka, but that other organizations that help Tamils
have raised much more.
Baltimore Medical Systems is the largest federally qualified health center in
Maryland. They serve nearly 35,000 medically underserved people in Baltimore’s
neediest areas.
“We wanted to go in groups (the physicians). I joined the second group; the first
group of physicians is all ready gone. They are due back soon, so I am going to
replace them,” said Dr. K.
He will be traveling courtesy of Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO). TRO is a
not-for-profit developed in 1985. Tamils was founded by Tamil refugees who
escaped to other countries from Sri Lanka with the escalation of the civil war. Dr. K
lost family members due to the war. When he found out that TRO was sending
doctors from all over the world to help in Southeast Asia, he wanted to be apart of it.
“I heard that they were sending doctors so I called them,” said Dr. K.
He continued, “I feel I need to return, because it is the land where I was born. I
appreciate the Doctors Without Borders, because they go to lands that are quite
foreign to them. I am going to my country because I have a connection and feelings
for my country. I heard that people were hurt and killed and I felt that I had to do my
part and my duty. I feel that I owe a lot to my country.”
For me personally this catastrophe tears me back to my roots, reminds me of the
fundamentals in life, the fact that nature does not discriminate between rich and
poor, race, colour or creed.
The TRO was formed in 1985 to assist the refugees living in Tamil Nadu, India. Now
the TRO has offices in more than 16 countries -- wherever there are Tamils -- and
volunteers have direct interaction with the main branch operating out of Colombo,
the Sri Lanka capital.
As for working together with Sinhalese to aid the island, Ranjan said, "Maybe in a
situation like this, it would be a good idea. We want to make it extremely clear: Our
hearts go out to everyone that suffered in Sri Lanka. ... Our only grievance is with
the government."
Members of the Twin Cities Tamil community are encouraging others to send
donations to build houses and a school in Tamil territory on the east coast of Sri
Lanka. Go to the Web site of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (USA) at
www.trousa.org to make a donation. For information, contact Indranee
Sivagnanahuru at 651-698-8059.
Southwest Florida residents have already donated more than $50,000 through him
to Sri Lanka. The Caanthans will visit the nation again in March.
"We are getting great support. Really, it is heartwarming," Deva Caanthan said.
A $25 donation can care for one child for an entire month, he said. For $1, two or
three people can eat a meal.
Before the tsunami, about 1,500 children lived in camps throughout Sri Lanka. Most
of them were orphaned by civil war violence between the minority Tamils of the
northeast and the majority Singhalese.
"You get more humble with this," Deva Caanthan said of the tragedy. "I thought
maybe this was going to bring everybody together."
He is disappointed that politics is already interfering with relief efforts.
"I don't want to get into this political thing. I just want to do what I can to help," he
said.
The Caanthans continue raising money for the two charities, the International
Medical Health Organization and the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization.
Both have U.S. tax ID numbers, so contributions are tax-deductible. The Caanthans'
daughters join them in Sri Lankan charity work.
A senior government official said President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
had clearly gained the political advantage from the tsunami. She has managed to
block the Tigers from gaining control of any international aid money, and she
steered the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, from visiting
Tiger-controlled territory.
But Kumaratunga's gains could be undermined by another of her rivals, the once
marginal People's Liberation Front. In this and other towns in the southeast, and
even more so along the southern coast, the front has begun a highly organized relief
effort.
The party, which espouses both Marxist-Leninism and Sinhalese nationalism, has
seen its political fortunes improve in recent years. It now holds 39 seats in Parliament
and is part of the coalition government Kumaratunga leads. It is resolutely opposed
to any concessions to the Tigers, and because the Front holds the power to topple
Kumaratunga's government, diplomats say its hard-line position has proved the
biggest obstacle to the resumption of peace talks.
Analysts contend the Front eventually hopes to come to power in its own right, and
the tsunami could help it do just that.
It quickly mobilized thousands of volunteers to travel to southern districts where it
has been running medical and relief camps, distributing supplies and digging out
fishermen's boats and bodies, all under the party's abundant red-and-white banners.
In the Sinhalese dominated south, no other entity, including the government, has
been as visible.
Some critics, however, accuse the party of trying to capitalize on the disaster by so
widely publicizing its work.
But Mahinda Jayasinghe, the Front's relief coordinator in the southern town of
Matara, defended the party's high-profile effort: "We have a political goal, we don't
say we don't - so people should know what we are doing."
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