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by Elaine Fortin
Real
Medicine Foundation
These
photos were taken during Dr. Fuch's visit on June 16th, 2005,
to the Powerloom Factory IDP Camp in Tangalle, on the south
coast.
Martina is greeted by my smiling friends!
This camp
has not been fortunate to be taken under the care of any large NGO. It
is one of the 'missed' camps. Each of the 29 families here receives only
375 rupees a week from the Sri Lankan government, roughly $3.50 US and
is at the mercy of passersby for all other donations.
This
is the camp I worked at during my month in Sri Lanka, one month
after the tsunami. During that time, I helped raise $2000 US from
friends in the USA and Canada, which paid for 500 pairs of eyeglasses
for tsunami victims in the Tangalle area, on the south coast.
Another
do-gooder who, like me, was sent to this camp, Mervyn Church
of Bristol, UK, has been a major benefactor to these people.
He personally and with the help of friends and family, has
paid for and implemented major improvements in the basic infrastructure
of the camp, the food supply, education, health and housing.
On his second trip to the camp, in June, he posted the following
notice for other visitors who happen to wander into the camp:
Martina delivered
a letter I wrote to these lovely people, which was translated for me into
Sinhala by a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dilan
Jayawardane. Here we see it being read:
During
her visit on June 16th, Martina brought donations of toys and clothing.
Clothes were also fun to receive!
The photo below is inside the
factory, the temporary shelter which provides each family with four plywood
walls, about 10 ft. by 20 ft.
It's been seven months since these people began living in this
camp. They slept on grass mats until a good Dutch fellow dropped
by the camp one day and bought mattresses. No beds. Monsoons were
inevitably going to arrive, and other individuals donated money
to let the residents build bed frames.
The family living in the unit in the next photo is lucky to have
a shelf, a fan, and a curtain donated by other visitors. All other
belongings must remain piled on the floor, hoping for another lucky
day when someone can provide them with a cupboard. The wait for
permanent housing goes on. It is not known when homes will be built
and ready.
J.P.
Malani, below, and her husband, own land which is a rice patty,
not suitable for a home. She needs help raising $3500 US to
buy a piece of land for a house. The German relief agency,
GTZ, will provide a house, but her family has to procure the
land first. Her husband, a fisherman, is fishing again, but
his meager income will not afford a land purchase for many,
many years. She is seeking financial help. The van was rented
to transport Dr. Fuchs on this visit. No one in the camp has
motored transport of any kind. Most don't even have shoes.
There are many other
good, hard-working families like Malani's in this camp and many
others in Sri Lanka. I have taken on a personal project to raise
money for the families in this camp to buy land and therefore
qualify for that requirement to get a house. At present, I am
investigating the prospects of each family, and will post the
total monetary goal as soon as that is known. Absolutely 100%
of all funds raised for anything that Real Medicine undertakes,
goes to the actual cost of the project, and is managed and monitored
at the end location by our members in Sri Lanka, Anu Perera
and Sylvia Hoebig. Your donations are all tax deductible. Can
YOU Help?
You
can help by donating here,
and specifying 'Powerloom Factory Camp'
in the Note to Real Medicine.
This
photo was taken when I worked at the Powerloom Camp, in February
2005.
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