Telwatta

The wave of tsunamis that devastated countries all across the Indian Ocean on Dec 26, 2004, killed over 40,000 people in Sri Lanka. Despite the immediate humanitarian response that resulted in over $7 billion in donations worldwide, aid has been slow to reach the rural coastal communities of Sri Lanka. Rampant corruption and inefficient government bureaucracies are both to blame, and on the east coast, the ever-present political crisis between the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and the Sri Lankan government has shut down government aid and severely hampered NGO aid operations run by foreign volunteers. But despite all this, Sri Lanka still gets thousands of tourists every year; while the north and eastern provinces are usually avoided due to the political instability in these regions, the rest of the island is virtually cut off from the conflict and remains as safe to travel to as any other tourist destination.

The resort areas of the south and southwest coasts have been the quickest to rebuild as the tourist industry has begun to gather steam again. However, the rural people of these coastal communities continue to live hand to mouth; both psychological trauma from the tsunami itself and new laws that regulate how close to the shore people can rebuild their homes now hinder these people from making their living from the sea as they have always done.

I will be working in the village of Telwatta, on the southwest coast. (I'll be living in Hikkaduwa, about 5 km away from Telwatta.) Telwatta was the last stop that the doomed train Queen Of The Sea made before a tsunami wave over 6 meters high washed the train off the tracks, killing over 2,000 people (making it the worst train disaster in history.) My NGO, the Manacare Foundation, has set up a Montessori school in Telwatta and also continues to help rebuild homes and infastructure in the village. For more information about Manacare, click here.