While much of the spring semester’s campus tsunami relief fund-raising went to India, one campus group decided to help Sri Lanka, the small island-nation in the Indian Ocean.
The International Student Association hosted fund-raisers earlier this year and raised $5,800 to send to countries affected by the tsunami. The ICC originally raised money for Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India – three countries affected by the tsunami – but the Indian Student Association held a fundraiser specifically to send to Indian relief efforts, so the ISA changed its focus to sending money raised from the concerts to Sri Lanka, said Indrajith Senevirathne, physics graduate student from Sri Lanka and current president of the ICC and ISA. The Sri Lankan community is the second largest international population besides Indian students represented on campus.
“We decided children were probably the most affected by the devastation, and we looked for an international organization to help us develop a plan,” said Francisco Aguilar, Ecuadorian graduate student in forest products marketing and former president of the ICC and ISA and.
The ISA held two local music concerts called “Sounds of Healing” this year. International students also donated items from their native countries to a silent auction.
The United States branch of Sarvodaya donated money to the $5,800 the ISA raised and sent $10,000 to build the preschool in Talalla South, a village on the country’s southern coast.
The International Cultural Center’s faculty adviser, Richard Vlosky, professor in the Department of Renewable Natural Resources, and his wife, Denese Vlosky, professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at Duke University, visited Sri Lanka in May to search for a village affected by the tsunami in which to build a preschool. The Vloskys and representatives from Sarvodaya, a Sri Lankan non-governmental aide organization, chose Talalla South for the new school, but construction has not yet begun.
The large village has a population of 5,820, with 1,056 families. Eleven people died, 284 lost their jobs and 55 homes were either destroyed or partially damaged in the tsunami.
The Vloksys visited a Buddhist monk, who donated a piece of land to Sarvodaya, and told him about the ISA’s plans to build the preschool. The monk then donated more land for a new community center in Talalla South.
“It was the perfect match,” Denese Vlosky wrote in a journal she kept during the couple’s travels.
She vividly remembered passing broken, multicolored boats beached on sandbars in the coastal city of Galle. The fishing trade is the most important source of commerce for the coastal towns.
“The devastation was oddly uneven,” Vlosky said in her notes. “We would drive past rubble the size of pebbles and shortly thereafter we would see a stretch of housing along the beach that appeared untouched.”
Senevirathne said though the devastated countries have begun physical reconstruction, many Sri Lankans are still dealing with psychological trauma from loss of life and family heirlooms.
“When [a Sri Lankan family] builds a house, we hope it will last forever,” Senevirathne said. “The house will be passed on for generations.”
Senevirathne said he will visit Talalla South in December to observe the preschool’s construction.
Aguilar said although the ISA and Sarvodaya gave money, the local volunteers who complete the project are the main participators in the aide effort.
Sarvodaya derives its name from Mahatma Ghandi’s phrase “sharing of labor,” said Vlosky.
“Now that we have a community willing to rebuild, we’re just a portion of that effort,” Aguilar said.
Contact Leslie Ziober at [email protected]