From the field in Sri Lanka

Finally in Sri Lanka after almost 2 days of travel from San Francisco to Colombo. Though we didn’t jump right into the tsunami relief projects, once we got going tons of things started happening. We are just got back after a visit to the southern part of Sri Lanka, where most number of people were effected. On the first day of this visit myself and my mother went to a tsunami camp in Kalutara. We distributed food items, clothing, toys and linen to children of this camp. This camp is not run by any political party or the government. We did see that it had security from the local police, and that different political groups had done work in it. The most notable feature was that it contained semi permanent houses. These had cement flooring but with wooden walls. Electricity is provided to each unit occupied by a single family. Some families had created additions to it where they built a kitchen and a verandah. This camp consists of sixty tsunami-affected families out of which there are about 30 children between the ages of 1 month to 4 years. We invited these children together with their parents to the camps meeting hall. This is where we distributed the goods that we brought. The best part of this project was seeing the smiles coming back to the children. At one point there was utter chaos, where the children were screaming for the toys they like and adults asking for more goodies. Order was brought back quickly when the matron of the camp raised her voice.



After distributing the goods we walked around the camp listening to peoples stories. One of the more remarkable stories we hear was of the baby named “Tsunami Sagara Sampath”. He was so named as he was born on December 26th 2004 right after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka. The parents of this child were able to save them selves as they were at the hospital getting ready for the delivery of the baby. So the parents decided to name the child “Tsunami”. Another notable story was heard from Ranjith a Sinhala fisherman. He said that before the tsunami he used to earn Rs 15,000 per month this is about US$ 150. Even with that income which is relatively a good one he was unable to save anything, his family has five children to feed. When the tsunami hit, his house collapsed with his family inside but they were able to save their lives by quickly crawling out of it and running to higher ground before the more deadly second wave hit. He also said that his boat was lost which cost over Rs 100,000 (US$ 1000) and that no bank would loan him money to buy a new boat. Ranjith said that he has been a fisherman his whole life and could not even think of taking up any other job.

Update on the REBUILD RENEW RELIEF project

Wanted to share with everyone that we have currently raised close to $1500 with the REBULD RENEW RELIEF wrist band sale for Karuna Trust. This is great considering the short time space this was done it. The project continues and will keep raising funds for Tsunami effected children. Please keep your donations coming in we can do so much by banding together. I would also like to thank so many of my friends that generously donated their time in helping selling these wristbands. We could not have reached this fundraising target without your help!!!

Ok that will be the last posting from this side of the earth. My flight to Sri Lanka leaves on March 28th night.

On the way to Sri Lanka

It's been a while since my last posing. Last few days have been very hectic. Trying to get everything ready for my trip to Sri Lanka, making sure I pack everything I need over there. Mostly I am excited to be going back home. At the same time it's sad what the Tsunami had done to Sri Lanka. So many people and animals have been effected by this tragedy that it is almost impossible to fathom the enormity of it.

Today I discussed a future Tsunami project that I will get involved with. This will not involve in helping people that were affected by the recent tragedy but rather the mostly ignored animals. I have been working with the Palo Alto Animal Services, part of the Palo Alto Police Department here in Northern California. Together with them and the Humane Society International ("Tsunami Memorial Animal Welfare Trust") we would try to help with animal shelters in Sri Lanka. This trip to Sri Lanka will be a fact finding mission on my part where I will try to find out the exact needs of Tsunami effected animal shelters.

I am very excited to be part of this project, which I believe will try to help dogs, cats and other pets that give their undivided love and attention to their human masters, but have been left destitute by the Tsunami. Please check back on this site for my future updates on this project and provide any assistance you can. Not only do humans need our affection at this time, lets help the animals too.

Well on that note I bid you farewell. I will most likely update from Sri Lanka, hopefully with some pictures. Thank you for reading my posting.

REBUILD, RENEW, RELIEF

This is the slogan for our latest fundraising drive. We have produced a silicon wrist band, exactly like the Lance Armstrong's yellow band, except it is blue and has the catchy slogan "REBUILD, RENEW, RELIEF". All proceeds of this fundraiser will be used by Karuna Trust to fund the "Foster Parent Scheme" project. These attractive wristband are being sold for a mere $10 each. Please understand that your $10 will go to help Tsunami orphans to survive day to day. It only costs $15 per month to feed, provide clothing and shelter for these innocent children. Buy two bands and help a kid survive for 2 whole months. Check out the Karuna Trust "Foster Parent Scheme".

Please contact me (janaka@ranatunga.com) to purchase these bands.

First posting so be nice

Hi everybody, so here I am finally on the blogging bandwagon. Some of you might be wondering what took me so long. Anyway the main thing is I am finally here. I actually wanted to start blogging to track my activities in the world of Tsunami relief. As you all know very well a Tsunami hit South Asia on December 26th, 2004 killing more than 200,000 people in Asia. One of the hardest hit countries is Sri Lanka where I was born. I was very lucky that non of my immediate family was effected by this tragedy. But the same cannot be said for over 30,000 Sri Lankan’s that lost their lives on that day.

I want to get the word out about an organization we are working with that is based in Sri Lanka, this is Karuna Trust (http://www.karunalanka.org/). This organization is entirely devoting itself to helping victims of Tsunami in Sri Lanka. If you would like to help Karuna Trust please contact me. There are millions of people that need our help right now in Sri Lanka.
Wheew I think I got my first blog done now. Will be writing more later, and please check back with this site for more updates.