Tsunami Disaster Relief Programme

In the immediate aftermatch of the disaster that struck Sri Lanka the day after Christmas 2004, Settlor of the MJF Charitable Foundation committed through the Foundation and the Dilmah Tea companies, a sum of Rs. 50 million for emergency relief and rehabiliation. A plan was evolved based on an apportionment of 25% of the funds for emergency relief and 75% for rehabilitaion of livelihoods and children.

The Event

On Sunday 26th December, as Sri Lankans awoke to a bright and clear Boxing Day morning, at 10am approximately, a cataclysmic disaster struck. The result of an undersea earthquake north of Sumatra, a tsunami caused a series of waves which in some cases were 30 ft high, and swept kilometers inland all along Sri Lanka’s Southern and Eastern coastline. The impact was devastating as the scale of the tsunami, caused by the largest earthquake in the last 40 years – of magnitude 9.0 – was something Sri Lanka was not prepared for. Thailand, India, Indonesia, East Africa and Malaysia shared a similar fate although Sri Lanka was worst affected.

Initial estimates of 1,500 dead escalated rapidly and now stands at more than 30,000. The final figure for Sri Lanka alone will be more like 50,000. Many of those who have died are being buried in mass graves or cremated due to the threat of disease and the lack of facilities to cope with the large number of deaths. Yet, bodies continue to surface, washed up on the beach, twisted in the branches of trees, several hundred entombed in the wreckage of a train in which over 1,000 have died.

Economic activity in the coastal areas affected by the surges was primarily fishing and tourism. Both have been devastated. In parts of Sri Lanka, communications are not working, towns have disappeared and power lines are down. The scale of the crisis defies description. The WHO and UN estimate this to be one of the greatest natural disasters the world has faced.

The MJF Charitable Foundation
Disaster Relief Programme

The Settlor of the Foundation, Merrill J. Fernando, committed Rs. 25 million to an MJF Charitable Foundation relief effort hours after the tsunami hit. As the scale of the disaster became clearer, that commitment has increased to Rs. 50 million (or approx. A$1,000,000). As the Foundation disaster relief effort got underway it became apparent that whilst the international response was magnificent, proper channels for their aid were not available. Consequently the MJF Charitable Foundation used the resources of the MJF Group of Companies to establish a relief logistics centre in the outskirts of Colombo.

Combined with the MJF Group offer of transport and personnel gratis for aid deliveries direct to the affected areas, the facility is channeling Rotary International medical and other aid to all parts of the country. The Foundation is acting as a catalyst in this programme, to offer Rotary an effective, audited and unbiased partner in delivering their material aid to the affected areas of the country.

The Foundation relief programme has an Emergency (short term) and rehabilitation (long term) component. Emergency aid activity commenced on Wednesday 29th with the dispatch of medical teams to Hambantota, Ambalantota, Rakawa and shortly also to Kilinochi in the LTTE rebel held areas. The Foundation has additionally established a centre in Tangalle in partnership with local charity Navajeevana, to provide 4,000 meals to refugees. More field kitchens will be opened in the coming weeks. The aid deliveries included equipment for handling corpses, clothing, nutritional supplements, matches and candles.

The modus operandi of the Foundation is to complete a needs assessment via a partner NGO or a Foundation volunteer who would visit a target area to establish the exact needs and ground situation. That would be followed by dispatch of the most important aid. The requirements are changing constantly with diseases developing as a result of decomposing corpses and contaminated water supply, the age and gender composition of survivors etc. As international aid agencies and the government improves aid distribution, the Foundation will shift its emphasis to rehabilitation.

The most important aspect of rehabilitation is the management of the crisis after the television cameras have left. As the region loses the media spotlight, aid will necessarily begin to dry up whilst only then will the true magnitude of their situation sink in to the survivors. It is at this time that the MJF Charitable Foundation wishes to escalate its activity.

Psychological issues are expected to be high on the list of social problems resulting from the crisis. As survivors feel the impact of their experience, the loss of family, friends and their social support network, they will become mentally weak. Having also lost their livelihoods and being reliant on handouts from refugee camps, they will also lose their dignity. The result could be dangerous anti-social trends or a complete loss of self esteem. Both are dangerous.

In order to prevent this to an extent the Foundation plans to support the key industry in the areas worst affected. The target areas are remote and lack basic infrastructure, and additionally have fishing as their mainstay, without any significant tourism potential. The Foundation intends to pursue a three pronged programme aimed at addressing psychological issues, and providing employment and dignity to the survivors.

	Fisher Community Welfare and Welfare Centres.
			Centres capable of accommodating upto 100 people in each will be established initially in four towns in the Hambantota District. The Centres will serve social and therapeutic functions as they will enable victims to meet and discuss their experiences as a means of overcoming their grief. The Centres will also serve an equally important role in providing a venue at which nutrititional programmes, preventive healthcare for diseases that will now become commonplace, and psychological treatment could be administered. Currently the populations are so dispersed that they are difficult to reach.
			The Community Centres would bring them together at a venue that would be theirs whilst also giving those who come there the opportunity to rest and ‘de-stress’ in a facility that has the appearance of a club. It will also facilitate organized activities that will help ease the trauma of the victims and raise hope in them.
			As part of this exercise the Foundation is working to strengthen the structure and leadership of Fisher Community societies, in order to establish a basis in each community for long term programmes of training and empowerment through equipment and other support.
	Fishing Nets.
			Fishing nets in the area are badly damaged or lost. Since this is essential for the traditional fishing practiced in these areas (there are no mechanized trawlers or speedboats) they are important.
			The Foundation is working with the CeyNor Foundation, a Sri Lanka Government and NORAD joint venture, in purchasing nets specific to the requirements of the communities in providing nets free of charge to assist in resuming their activities and earning income for survival.
	Fishing Boats
			Less than 10% of the fishing boats in the area survived and given the income levels in this area, their replacement will be impossible without assistance. The boats used for fishing are simple, fibre glass craft.
			he Foundation is working with CeyNor in (a) repairing boats that can be repaired, (b) replacing boats that are beyond repair.

Childcare : Preschools

In line with the MJF Charitable Foundation commitment in 2004/5 to the Mother and Child, a programme of establishing preschools in affected communities will commence as a supplement to the Livelihood Rehabilitation stage. Preschools are an essential element in the healing process for the societies torn apart by the tsunami disaster as well as being important to the long term empowerment of these societies. The opportunity to offer preschool education to provide education in the early and impressionable years of underprivileged, rural children is one which is usually not available to most of these communities due to the absence of facilities.

The MJF Charitable Foundation Preschools programme in Hambanota District will see the establishment of four preschools catering to approximately 320 children by March 2005. These schools will be operated by teachers who will be trained by the Foundation in managing the issues of trauma, poverty and malnutrition that exist in these communities whilst also serving as a venue for the distribution of nutritional foods supplements etc., on an ongoing basis.

The Foundation will fund the salaries of the teachers whilst also equipping the schools with playground, educational and other materials that will enable the schools to make an effective and important long term contribution to the communities in which they exist.

In addition to those activities outlined above, through its field officers the Foundation will maintain close track of the emerging situation and address requirements where they are not being adequately addressed by international relief agencies. As a volunteer operated charity, donations to the MJF Charitable Foundation are directed wholly to the benefit group without any administration costs or similar leakage.

Thank you for caring.