Starting Over

Fishing communities in Sri Lanka seek new sources of income as charities help them rebuild

When last month’s massive tsunami smashed into the coast here, the killer wave destroyed H.H. Wasanthe’s home

and swept his fishing equipment out to sea. “All gone,” he said, shaking his head and raising his hands in the air.

For now, Mr. Wasanthe and his family have found shelter at a Buddhist temple along with about 20 other families. Charities, such as Lions International and Project Galle 2005, have given them clean water, food, and clothing.

As the immediate needs of Mr. Wasanthe, and thousands of Sri Lankans like him, are met, international-aid groups are shifting gears to deal with the long-term problems facing this island nation off the southern tip of India, and are seeking ways to enable the nation’s population to return to some sense of normalcy.

Some of the charitable projects:

• Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka, World Concern, and other Christian charities plan to build 20,000 temporary homes.
• Catholic Relief Services and World Vision are helping the survivors, especially children, cope with the traumatic psychological aftermath of the tsunami, which killed more than 40,000 people in Sri Lanka alone.
• CARE Sri Lanka, in Colombo, plans to help fishermen find new ways to make a living now that the sea has destroyed fishing equipment or the men are too afraid to return to the water. “They are saying, ‘We don’t want to be near the sea. Give us something else to do,’” said Robert Go, a spokesman for CARE.

But those new efforts will cost money.

Americans and other contributors from around the world have given more than $400-million to help the victims of the tsunamis — an unprecedented amount for an international crisis.

Charities say the transition from emergency relief to rebuilding the ravaged country — an effort that will take at least three to five years — will require even more money. They worry that as the news media’s coverage of the tragedy wanes, funds may dwindle, hampering Sri Lanka’s rehabilitation.

“Just as fast as the tidal wave came and went, so will the attention,” said Tony Senewiratne, director of Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka, in Colombo.

What’s more, the competition for donor dollars will increase because groups such as Catholic Relief Services, Samaritan’s Purse, and Mercy Corps, which had minimal programs in Sri Lanka before the disaster, now plan to maintain a long-term presence here as a result of the tsunami.

In addition, several new Sri Lankan charities are soliciting for funds. Some of the groups said they were frustrated that established disaster-relief charities were slow to help in certain parts of the nation.

Interior Untouched

By all accounts, the tsunamis that struck Sri Lanka and 11 other countries in South Asia and Africa was an unprecedented disaster, causing special problems for emergency relief groups.

“All of the infrastructure inside is normal, but the heavily populated areas were devastated. That’s a unique destruction,” said Ken Isaacs, director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for the United States Agency for International Development and a former charity disaster-relief worker. “I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and never seen anything like this.”

The disaster’s localized nature — it devastated 700 miles of coastline, but did not touch the interior of the country — in some aspects made it easier for relief groups. Food donated by Sri Lankans who do not live on the coast solved most of the hunger problems after the waves hit, charity officials said.

“Most people have access to food,” said Gary Lundstrom, director of international programs for Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian group in Boone, N.C. Instead of helping with antihunger efforts, the organization has focused primarily on working with a network of churches to deliver two million water-purification packets it purchased from the Procter & Gamble Company.

The tsunami’s force also reduced the need for medical aid by leaving more dead than injured people, said Kevin Hartigan, director of Catholic Relief Services’ programs in South Asia. “It has mortality figures like a plane crash,” he said. “Either you escaped completely or you died.”

He estimated that in hurricanes or other natural disasters, for every person killed, 10 people are injured. Here, he said, the ratio is closer to 2 to 1. Due in part to this gruesome fact, the Sri Lankan government said it no longer required the aid of volunteer doctors.

The tsunami’s destructive power also created greater demands on charities.

“The shelter needs are much greater than other disasters,” Mr. Hartigan said.

Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka is leading the effort to provide thousands of 200-square-foot temporary shelters for the 700,000 Sri Lankans who lost their homes to the tsunami. In addition the group is helping to repair 30 homes it built before the tsunami that were damaged by the water.

Mr. Senewiratne, the group’s executive director, said Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka will create a separate group to handle the housing needs generated by the disaster.

Charities also are turning their attention to a less concrete, but just as important, issue: psychological damage.

Catholic Relief Services, for example, gave out 20,000 drawing books and crayons to help children cope with their feelings by expressing them through art. Michael Finegan, a clinical psychologist at the Maryland State Police Department who volunteered to work with the charity, is teaching parents, teachers, and religious leaders in this city on Sri Lanka’s southern coast how to spot signs of mental distress among children.

Mr. Finegan said the tsunami will generate a greater number of cases of “survivor’s guilt” than other natural disasters. “They were on roofs, watching the water carry people away who were screaming for help, and they couldn’t do anything about it,” he said.

Focus Starting to Shift

As the recovery efforts begin in earnest, the charities are hoping donors will continue to support their work. “The rehabilitation will take years. We’re telling donors, Please support us through the entire effort,” said Mr. Go of CARE.

But charity officials worry that the public’s interest is already starting to wane. “Nobody knows what’s going on in Bam. The international community has moved on,” said Nick McDonald, a program officer with Mercy Corps, referring to the earthquake that killed more than 30,000 people in Iran 13 months ago.

Yet one aid worker from a major relief organization, who asked to not be identified for fear of alienating contributors, said more money has been raised than can be immediately spent. He worried that people would become annoyed and stop giving because they expect their contributions to be used quickly.

Vying for Donors

In addition to the long-term fund-raising challenges, competition for dollars has increased.

CARE Sri Lanka, which has been here since 1956 and has 250 employees in 18 offices across the country, is among the organizations with expansion plans. Mr. Go said it was unclear how much the organization’s budget or staff size would grow.

He emphasized, however, that the programs CARE was involved in before the disaster, such as helping Sri Lankans affected by the country’s civil war, will continue.

“We’re accountable to the donors who want to see those projects through,” he said.

Mr. Isaacs, of the United States Agency for International Development, said Sri Lanka will benefit from more charities, but the new groups need to coordinate their efforts. “They’ve got to get plugged into the big picture,” he said.

So far, he said, he was pleased by how well the nonprofit groups have worked with the government and military.

Response Debated

Not all observers agree. “To be honest, I don’t see any aid. What I see is Sri Lankans themselves cleaning up,” said Geoffrey Dobbs, a British businessman who owns several hotels in Sri Lanka. Referring to nongovernmental organizations, he added, “We’ve yet to see any of the big NGO’s.”

After the tsunami hit, Mr. Dobbs founded Adopt Sri Lanka, which has raised $300,000, primarily through its Web site, to help with the relief efforts in southern Sri Lanka.

Project Galle 2005, another charity whose founders said established aid organizations are not doing enough in the country’s southern region, has raised more than $100,000, said Oliver Francis, one of the group’s organizers.

Working from an art gallery and gathering donated goods in a hotel storage room, the group has been delivering sleeping mats, water, and other items to temples and other areas where the government has moved Sri Lankans made homeless by the wall of water.

Relief charities bristled at the criticisms that they are not doing enough.

“Aid has been reaching the places it needs to go,” said Mr. McDonald of Mercy Corps. But “when you’re responding to the whole coastal strip, it will take time.”

Yet for some Sri Lankans, recovery aid cannot come fast enough. Udaya Liyanage, a 28-year-old from Polwatta, saw his small roadside antique store destroyed by the tsunami and wants help from aid groups to rebuild.

“Everything is lost. I couldn’t identify the shop,” said Mr. Liyanage, whose store was located close to where the tsunami overturned a train, killing more than 900 passengers.

Taking a break from clearing the debris from the home of a friend killed in the disaster, Mr. Liyanage pleaded for assistance: “Everybody is waiting for help.”