U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) visited the tsunami-ravaged country of Sri Lanka last week with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). The two went to assist with the U.S. aid sent to the country and to find the best way to help the thousands of orphans left in the tsunami’s path.
The tsunami — a Japanese word meaning harbor wave — hit countries surrounding the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, killing an estimated 160,000 people. In Sri Lanka, a primarily Buddhist country about the size of West Virginia, 30,000 people were killed and more than 1 million were left homeless.
“We really must focus on rebuilding families here. Countries are not built by highways and sewage systems alone. Countries are built on families,” Landrieu said in a satellite broadcast last week.
One woman Landrieu spoke with lost her husband and three of her four children to the wave. She now lives with her surviving three-year-old son in a refugee camp.
“The atmosphere is surreal here, but the pain is real, and the suffering is real,” Landrieu said.
A member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption and an adoptive parent herself, Landrieu said the orphans left by the tsunami need to be placed with members of their own families if possible.
“Though the senator sees the need for orphanages, even the best-run orphanage is no match for a loving family,” said Adam Sharp, Landrieu’s press official.
Next week, Sen. Landrieu will host a summit on the tsunami generation that will bring together representatives from several countries and various areas of public service in the United States. to decide how best to care for the children of Sri Lanka.
Landrieu said she believes the first 24 to 48 hours after a disaster are the most crucial in providing help to victims.
She hopes to establish an international organization similar to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA offers immediate assistance to victims of disasters within the United States, but it has no international equivalent. It takes international organizations such as the Red Cross several days to reach catastrophic regions, and by that time many people are beyond help.
Landrieu and Frist donated Camelbak hydration backpacks and water-purification tablets to relief workers in Sri Lanka to ensure they have enough water while helping the victims, according to a press release.
The senators also helped deliver Pedialite donated by Abbot Laboratories and delivered by Fed Ex free of charge to children. Pedialite helps combat dehydration while providing nutrients and electrolytes essential to children and infants.
Landrieu said the United States should assist the children of Sri Lanka “every step of the way.”
Raja Loganantharaj, native of Sri Lanka and an associate professor of computer science at Loyola University, cautions students against sending food or clothing in lieu of financial donations because the needs of the Sri Lankan people are different than most Americans would expect.
“The clothing Sri Lankans wear and the food they eat are different from what Americans could send, and these items would probably go unused. The best thing they could send is water,” Loganantharaj said.
Richard Vlosky, professor of renewable natural resources and advisor to Sarvodaya, a Sri Lankan-based charitable organization, said, “Sri Lanka is in a rather unique situation because she has been suffering a 30-year civil war, which has taken the lives of 64,000 of her citizens, and now they have been hit by this tragic tsunami.”
“The best way for students to help victims is to donate money to an organization that will send it to Sri Lanka as soon as possible,” Vlosky said.