Home
News
Personal Stories
Pictures
Projects
Links
About us
Donate
support@friendsofunawatuna.org.uk
Home
News
Personal Stories
Pictures
Projects
Links
About us
Donate
Friends of Unawatuna by Matt Rose
A little about my recent history:
The first few days have been pretty well documented, so I won’t go into that except to say there were things that needed doing and people that needed helping until finally the British High Commission buses took us away.
After 3 days of having no time to think, this was the first time I had sat down and had time to reflect on what had happened.
There was mixed emotions on our bus, most people were quiet, some people were happy. I could not even talk I felt sick inside, it physically hurt. I had already toyed with the decision of staying, but I wanted to see how I felt when I got out to Colombo. On the bus I realised I could not just turn my back and my circumstances were such that I had no job to rush back to. From here luck and coincidence took over for a while, I will try to explain …..
Half way up the hill on the 26th we had formed a small group and were sitting around looking at the bay and generally thinking ‘Shit, what next?’. Two of the group were a couple (Tom and Jillian McNab) over the next couple of days we stayed on the floor in the Tamprabane. Tom and Jillian are teachers in Colombo and kindly offered to put my girlfriend and I up until we could get a flight out. We took them up on their kind offer and were really grateful for somewhere to sleep. As soon as I mentioned that I might stay on for a while they both said that I could use their house as a base for as long as I needed. Without this I do not think I could have stuck the next four weeks, their house was a haven of sanity and comfort for a couple of days in between 36 hour journeys in lorrys and vans.
Upon my return to Colombo I finally managed to get in touch with a very good friend of mine (Also Matt) who happened to be in Unawatuna at the same time, although staying in another hotel. He had already given his name to the Red Cross and was planning to go home on his scheduled flight on the 5th of Jan. We met up on the 29th and agreed to go to the UN on the 30th to volunteer. We duly did this and had our names written down on a loose bit of paper and were told that we would probably get a call in the next couple of days. Fortunately we both came out of the meeting with the impression that they had no idea what they were doing and that we were unlikely to hear back from them in the next couple of days (In fact, I am still waiting for a call).
We decided to meet up again that night for a beer and decide what we could do, I was keen to go back down to Unawatuna ASAP with food etc. That night was spent at the Cricket Club. It was very strange having a couple of beers and a nice meal after the experience in Unawatuna. At the end of the evening we walked outside and Adam (Matt’s friend) bumped into a tuk tuk driver who was a friend of a friend that he had met eight months ago. Adam got his phone number and we called him the following day to see if he would help us. This young guy (Justin) has been absolutely fantastic and is one of the few people I met over there that I truly trust.
On the 30th Justin found us a van we filled it up with food (rice and vegetable), plastic sheet, shoes and tools and set off for Unawatuna on the 31st. We arrived late on New Years Eve and took our supplies to the Tamprabane, the security guard there had kept us one Lion beer which Matt, Justin and I shared by torch light as the clock struck midnight. This was one New Year I will never forget!!!
We returned to Colombo the next day and realised at this point maybe we could do more than run up and down to Unawatuna with a van. Justin and John said that they could find us a lorry so we told them to get it. The next day we met up and went to the Pettah wholesale markets in Colombo. Matt and I were both astounded. There was no shortage of anything, literally everything that you could every think of buying was available rice, vegetables, baby milk, feeding bottles, bed mats, clothes, lamps, and shoes etch. This was the case for the next three weeks, there was never a shortage of anything in the market, yet people were in need of basic necessities. I still cannot understand that how it could be that it was business as usual in the markets, yet people were lacking the basics all around the coast.
We took the first lorry to Kennia a small village just south of Trincomolee. This area had been devastated. It was obvious from a drive around that many people must have died. We visited two camps, both in schools, one with 43 families and another with 400 families and a total of around 1700 people. We also visited a village that had been totally destroyed. This had been a fishing village, was relatively poor and had very basic wood built houses. The survivors had begun to build shacks to live in, but had no light, or pots to cook with. We drove 15 minutes and bought lamps and pots and took them back. This situation was repeated everywhere we went, there was no shortage, but there was no money, or distribution infrastructure.
Over the next few weeks we took more lorrys back to Trincomolee, to the North near Jafna and to the East near Baticola, as well as repeat trips to Unawatuna. Matt had to go back to work on the 5th, so I continued with Justin and John for a couple more weeks.
In Unawatuna itself, we took supplies to Sam’s house where his family bagged it up and distributed it to the local people. In addition, Sam’s wife was cooking everyday for up to 40 people who had been affected by the Tsunami.
Friends of Unawatuna
Matt and I agreed that we could both spend our own money on filling the lorrys and this would hopefully help a small number of people. Another friend of Matt’s also said that he would help so together we had a fund of about £5,000. It did not take long to spend this and so I emailed my friends and family to see if they would be willing to help in order to fill some more lorrys. I expected to maybe get enough for one more lorry load, however, I underestimated considerably and today the total received stands at £7,600. Of this circa £2,600 remains and this will be transferred in to the Friends of Unawatuna account.
I had also given my email address to a couple of people who were returning to the UK and got the first email from the fledgling Friends of Unawatuna. I emailed back saying I was still there and immediately got an email back with the offer of help. I stayed in touch and immediately let my friends and family know that I was working with these people and that any funds that I did not spend would go into the Friends of Unawatuna fund. It was good that I was on the ground with available funds for a small amount of immediate work, however, now the charity status has been gained the Friends of Unawatuna would be a much better place for people’s donations rather than my bank account!
Anuladevi Balika Vidyalaya School
Galle
Sri Lanka
Principal: Mrs B P Irangani De Silva
A school for girls aged between 6yrs and 14 yrs old with approximately 1000 pupils.
Despite being close to Galle there are a number in girls from Unawatuna who attend this school, Sam’s daughter being one of them
When I originally visited this school they had seen no-one offering anything and the Principal asked if we would help to supply some books and shoes for the kids that had lost everything (Around 250 girls).
The school is in an area that was hit by the Tsunami and was flooded. Although the buildings were OK, once they had been cleaned by the teachers and parents, the perimeter wall was destroyed. The Principal asked, as a priority, if we could help with this as she was understandably concerned for the security of the girls.
A parent at the school had offered to supply the blocks and some of the parents said that they would build the wall, however, they required some more materials, particularly cement which is the most expensive element. Of course, we agreed to help with this and to date (the wall was not finished when I left 80 bags of cement had gone into the wall.
Unawatuna School
There were originally two Unawatuna schools, however, one was completely destroyed by the Tsunami. It appears that a decision has been made not to re-build this school and as a result most of the pupils of this school have now been sent to the larger Unawatuna School.
Integrating the two schools has resulted in about 200 more children attending the school.
Many of the children attending this school have been affected by the Tsunami and one teacher was killed.
When we visited the school the Principal just asked us to provide some flip flops (I think there was a bit of a language barrier!). However, as we were leaving the school the English teacher (Wimal) came running over and asked if we could help by re-fitting two derelict classrooms.
We agreed to fund this project. To date we have refurbished the rooms, added ceilings and purchased new furniture. The school children got involved in doing the painting. The furniture finally arrives on the 25th of February and at this time they are going to have a blessing ceremony to open it and the Principal asked us if we would mind if they named the room in memory of the teacher that died in the Tsunami.
Two computers have recently been donated to the school, however, these are the FIRST computers that they have ever had and as a result the staff are not trained to use them. To try and ease contact I took the English teacher to an Internet Café to teach set him up on email. He had never even used a mouse before. He seemed to pick it up pretty quickly, but I am still waiting to receive an email from him.
The Unawatuna School are fortunate in that they have a teacher training college next door and they have offered to train the staff on how to use the computer. I have always worked in IT and it is really strange to think that these children currently come out of school without having used a computer (it’s a different world!). Wimal knows how important this is and really wants to make the most of computers to help teach English. I suggested that the Internet and Email would be a very good way of allowing students to communicate with English schools and offered to pay for 12 months of dial up Internet use.
Wimal is a really good guy and has taken on responsibility for making sure that the affected pupils are being looked after. He has constructed a list of every affected person, detailing their situation. Of course, some of these pupils are now being looked after by other family members and he is trying to locate everyone to ensure that they are OK.
Wimal is really ambitious for his own school and is so happy that we have been able to help out his school, however, his interest in the children is wider than just his own school. Wimal is the Southern Area Secretary for the Schools Rugby Association and he wants to use these contacts to help us match up English schools to Sri Lankan schools. Wimal has offered to draw up a list of English teachers in all of the schools in the area so that we can match them up with schools here. At present most of the schools are engaged in looking after affected pupils so are not focused on things like pen pal programs, however, the two schools that I have dealt with directly are both very keen to gain such links.
Wimal arranged for the Principal to write a letter (click here to see a copy of this letter) thanking us for our help and another asking if we would help with some other projects that the government are unlikely to fund. One of these projects is a perimeter wall to keep the children out and the cows in. Having stepped out of the van and straight into a fresh cow pat in the school grounds I think this should be a priority!!!! The children found it highly amusing as I tried scraping cow sh1t off my shoe with a small stick and only succeeded in smearing it on my leg.
The Canal Clearance
One of the most important immediate jobs (and by far the most disgusting) was to get the canal moving again. The water was stagnant and seeing as the canal is also used by some as a sewer the potential for disease was significant.
We began work as a small group with a few of the locals, Vee, Jake, Lex and myself. This was not pleasant and when you add the searing heat of the day it was very tiring.
We eventually found some people willing to work so I funded this for a week for 20 people each day. Unfortunately I had to return home, however, Vee and Lex have done a fantastic job with this and I understand that the canal through Unawatuna is now clear and running OK.
The Orphanage
By far the most emotional experience during my whole time in Sri Lanka was visiting an orphanage of 50 children outside Galle. An American couple had found it a few days before I visited and had already made a fantastic difference.
When they arrived the conditions were a disgrace to human kind. I have included a few points below and I am sure Jake, Lex, or Vee can add some more.
There was no hot waterI visited the place after it had been cleaned up a little, however, you could still see the way it used to be and as I said before, it was a disgrace. A casualty nurse who works in Liverpool town centre on a Saturday night was one of the first in and she said she had to walk straight out for 5 minutes. She did not know where to start.
I purchased pots, pans, dustbins, lights (it was a dingy place) toys, lots and lots of medical supplies, nappies fans, kitchen utensils, feeding bottles and lots more.
Vee has also donated many things to this place and has fitted them out with bowls spoons and other medical items.
I have left Vee and Lex with some money and they are going to arrange for the stainless steel topped benches in the kitchen (the existing table is crawling with maggots) and some hygienic tables for the children to sit at.