by Gail Kenyon, Assistant Professor, Meredith College, Department of Sociology and Social Work.

I knew about tsunamis because my mother was a fan of Pearl S. Buck and when she was done with the novels, we children got to read them. Something about the quiet, deadly waves stuck in my consciousness. Later, I would have dreams of seeing that wall of water coming and running for higher ground only to be engulfed and swept away. Unlike the real thing, my dream tsunami was clear, clean water, not sludge filled with trees, cars, dirt, concrete, wood, bricks. Not thick, dark water that demolished houses pulverized fishing boats and swept away families. Never in my waking dreams did I think a real tsunami would have anything to do with me.

But we were all captured when the day after Christmas we started to hear and see news of this unbelievable disaster on the other side of the world. Hundreds, then thousands dead, devastation in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and then beyond belief, all the way to the Africa coast. We heard of this mass of water traveling at the speed of a jet plane and we saw film clips of the beaches, ominous, swirling water tearing children out of their parents' arms, sweeping away homes, livelihoods, lives. We were all moved.

When the email came at Meredith College, where I teach social work, asking anyone interested in tsunami relief to come to an impromptu meeting, I immediately thought of my child welfare class. We were trying to keep a local and a global perspective in that class so along with NC child welfare policies we had looked at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (still not ratified by the US or Somalia) and issues like child exploitation, trafficking and slavery. We had learned that these kinds of disasters make children much more vulnerable to being stolen, trafficked and exploited.

Not one thought of actually traveling to Sri Lanka crossed my mind but an interested social worker is easily drafted. Soon I was asked to sit on a steering committee for tsunami relief efforts across the College. The next thing I knew I was getting off the plane, groggy with jet lag and lack of sleep, in serious need of shower and a nap and being bombarded by the sights and smells of tropical south east Asia.

Seven of us from Meredith traveled to Sri Lanka. We had focused our effort on that area because one of our faculty and her husband had been there the day of the tsunami and their passion infected us all. Our goal was to find suitable projects that Meredith might focus on in its relief efforts and to find partners with whom we could development long term and sustaining relationships that were mutually beneficial. In Colombo we didn't see the devastation we would see when we headed south and east but there were still victims of this disaster. One relief camp housed around 30 families, all the poorest of the poor. Those with any resources had other options but these families, including 4 month old baby and her mother, lived in large communal building, with colorful pink and blue mosquito nets to protect the children when sleeping. We were taking our malaria pills each day, good for our short trip, but they lived there. We visited several relief camps, some run by Buddhist monks (the most prevalent religion in Sri Lanka), some run by post graduate students at the Professional Management Institute of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. All had clean potable water, communal latrines, food and no sign of disease. All also had dozens of gorgeous children scrubbed by their parents and dressed in what were probably donated clothes. Most tsunami victims escaped with what they had on their back and not much else.

One orphanage we visited in Colombo proved to be our first partnership. We met 17 boys, ages 13-16, all chess buffs. They had been orphaned by the civil war in the north. Their patron and "foster" parent had brought them to the south to get away from the strife and the memories of the trauma they undoubtedly experienced when their parents were killed. Unfortunately, the tsunami displaced them again. Our offer of support was met with caution. The widower who runs the orphanage these boys live in receives no government support and does not ask other sources of funding. "I want it to be there when I really need it", he said. However, he agreed that a monthly sponsorship of $30 for each boy would make a huge difference in their lives.

Next we visited Lovigahawaththa, a fishing village near Galle, which received heavy damage and loss of life from the tsunami. Seventy-two of the 220 residents of this village died, 26 of them children. Fifty-two of the 55 homes were destroyed and the remaining was uninhabitable. Since fishing was the livelihood of most of these families, fishing boats were their biggest need. Using local leaders and long established organizations in the community, we have been able to set up a mechanism that will allow boats to be built and fisherman to fish. But unlike the traditional economy where the owner of the boat gets 50% of the take and the fisherman share the rest, the fisherman will share their profits with the community to buy sewing machine for widows and finance the rebuilding of their community.
Our third project came from our visit to Pelena School. Situated in the village of Welligama on the south of the country, this public school teaches grades 1 through ten and services over 800 children. The families in this community suffered many losses. At a three month commemoration of the tsunami we met dozens of people who wanted to tell us their stories. Sometimes, to overcome the language barrier our new friends would hold up their fingers, maybe 2 or three, one time seven. This was to tell us the number of family members they had lost in the disaster. Often the women and girls would share their tears. The men, more traditionally stoic would look solemn and say, they just needed to get back to work.

Nowhere else did the juxtaposition of eastern and western seem more apparent. The children wore very crisp white skirts and blouses for girls, white shirts and blue shorts for boys, ties for everyone. The teachers wore colorful saris and the monk who is the Principal of the school wore the traditional saffron robe and shaved head. Everyone, but especially the children, greeted us with great enthusiasm and curiosity. We understood that better at the end of our trip when one of the law students from Colombo University told us "You are the first westerners we have ever been around".
Our role at Pelena School will be to replace the school books, musical instruments, science equipment, etc., that were washed away by the water. The Principal has asked if would send some English books for the students to read to improve their language skill. They have a sponsor to help rebuild the school and hope to put the classrooms on the second floor. The children are still frightened to see the ocean from their classrooms. I see another trip to Sri Lanka in my future. This time with social work, education and child development students, maybe science and music students too. The school is keen to have our students come and help teach English (all children learn English in school) and perhaps work with the teachers in other class. There is lots of manual work to do, rebuilding the playground, refinishing desks and tables and more.

The social work community has been divided on whether we should be making these kinds of trips in the midst of such a huge disaster. I have made up my mind. The entire Meredith group agreed that had we not made the trip we would have never known the extent of people's need. We did not see the large NGOs with the exception of Red Cross and one Oxfam project. While we had raised funds initially for Save the Children, we now know that the time it takes for that relief to get to the people is too long. In a meeting with government officials we were told that the hope is to have all families re-housed in 5 years. We would not have had a vision of what it will mean for those children to live in relief camps for 5 years. We would not have met the awesome students from PMI who are housing families now.

We are told think globally and act locally, but sometimes we need to act globally too. We have so much to and it is our obligation and, I hope, our pleasure to share it. For further information about the Meredith College Tide of Hope: Tsunami Relief and how NC Social Workers can help please feel free to contact me. Gail Kenyon: kenyonga@meredith.edu

The North Carolina Social Worker Newsletter, June/July 2005 XXX No.3 a publication of NASW North Carolina Chapter.