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Life after the tsunami
Three years ago today, the world was left shell-shocked when news spread that a tsunami had made its way across the Indian Ocean.
More than 33,000 Sri Lankans were killed, millions were left homeless and the effects on the country's economy and infrastructure were colossal.
In the wake of the Boxing Day disaster, people from across the world responded on a massive scale and within days millions of pounds was raised to help the hundreds of thousands of people who had their lives ravaged.
Aid workers and volunteers from across the globe flocked to the devastated countries to help.
But one project held back, carefully assessing how it could help to rebuild lives in the long-term.
Professor Joy Palmer-Cooper, of Durham University, witnessed the humanitarian crisis that was rapidly unravelling before her eyes in a country she had grown to love and knew careful planning would provide the best kind of long-term aid.
Over time, Professor Palmer-Cooper established crucial links with organisations in Sri Lanka to find out where to channel help.
In the immediate aftermath, she visited the worst-hit villages and built up the trust needed to move her plans forward as she listened to the heart-rending tales of children who had been orphaned, families that had been torn apart and hard-working people who had lost their livelihood.
On her return to England, she put her plans into action and launched a fund-raising campaign and joint initiatives with the university, Durham Cathedral and various charities.
And soon after, the university launched Project Sri Lanka, headed by the professor.
The initial aim was to raise enough cash to rebuild a destroyed school in one of the southern villages of Sri Lanka, but over the last three years the project has snowballed beyond Professor Palmer-Cooper's dreams.
Last year, the first Durham University-funded school, Durham University Charity Kommittee Palana West Pre-School, opened in the southern village of Palana West.
The 100-pupil school was the first of its kind in the area with modern technology and a community centre for all residents offering banking services, computers, a library and medical facilities.
In the summer, another school in the village of Kassandeniya was finished, and a third school in the village of Sabaragamuwa is set for completion next summer.
Another vital part of the project involves Durham university students. Each summer a group of 15 has been sent to each of the villages where schools are being built.
This summer, a group will visit Sabaragamuwa, a group of returning students will go to Rassandeniya and a third group will spent time in Palana West.
Professor Palmer-Cooper said: "The project really has developed extraordinarily well. It's very exciting because we really are showing this is long-term support for the villages.
"We said from the beginning this was going to be long-term and now we've got the real evidence that it is. The students really have built up wonderful relationships with these villages."
The returning groups of students will be living in the homes of the people they have helped during their nine-week stay.
"This is another development. We will be working with the whole village; people of all ages from small children in schools, teenagers and their parents helping to improve their English and computer skills.
"The whole community will benefit from these trips."
Professor Palmer-Cooper said life in most parts of Sri Lanka is slowly starting to move on after three years, but the disaster of that day is far from forgotten.
She added: "There have been noticeable changes in terms of infrastructure. There are many new buildings and schools, but there is still a lot to do.
"Three years later there are still houses half built, people living in homes that were badly damaged and have had no support.
"Every year, you can see development taking place, but there is still a lot to do. There is no escaping the emotional and psychological scars but people are getting able to distance themselves from the tsunami. Although they will never, never forget.
"That is why this project is so important because it's giving them new meanings and challenges, but you can never help them forget the tsunami."
And it seems news of the good work the project is achieving has spread and in a ground-breaking move the Rotary Club has invited a group of post-graduate students to teach kids English at an inland village.
"At the moment we're working on working with inland villages in the central area of Sri Lanka where there are villages with just as dire needs as those on the coast and received nothing of the tsunami publicity that they did.
"We are now looking to extend the Durham support in land where the standard of living is completely suffering because of landslides. Tourism has massively dropped through civil conflict and the tsunami, and employment and levels of poverty have dropped.
"I call it the forgotten interior because there are a lot of very, very poor people who are in desperate need to support. We would like to spread Durham's work to other areas while not forgetting the tsunami villages."
TO support the project, contact Professor Palmer-Cooper at The International Office, The University Office, Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HP, Tel: 334 6328, or email project.srilanka@durham.ac.uk.
For more information, log on to www.durham.ac.uk/project.srilanka.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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