First Steps Toward Rebuilding Take Shape in Sri Lanka

By David Snyder

Resting in the splotchy shade of a beachside tree, Sanda Nimal looks out at the calm sea before him and casts his memory back to the moment he lost everything.

"We didn't see it coming," Nimal said of the December 26 tsunami that killed more than 4,200 people here in the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle. "But when it came, it was very strong, and people started running."

Like all who survived the devastating tsunami here, Nimal is haunted by the memories of that day, and lives now amidst the rubble of a beachfront that reminds him daily of the loss he has suffered.

I met Nimal through my work with Catholic Relief Services, which is working in Sri Lanka to provide emergency assistance to some of the more than 430,000 people displaced by the tsunami here. The city of Galle, on Sri Lanka's southern tip, was among the worst affected areas of the country, with the wave rolling inland as far as a quarter mile in some areas, taking everything in its path and causing panic among the population here.

When the wave hit, Nimal ran with his wife inland, struggling to reach a nearby Buddhist temple built on high ground not far from his beachfront house. When he got there, he found a scene of panic and shock among the 60 or so dazed survivors gathered there that he will remember forever.

"Some were without children, some without fathers, some without mothers," Nimal recalled. "Some were wondering about their houses, some were looking for children — nothing."

Below them, the water, which hit the town in three waves, raged for half an hour before receding. As residents cautiously ventured back down into the town, they found a scene of total destruction.

"There was nothing at my house, not even birdseed," Nimal said. "In five minutes everything was all gone."

As the shock begins to wear off of the survivors here, thoughts are turning to rebuilding some semblance of their former lives from the rubble that litters the coastline. Some residents, many of them having lost members of their families, are returning slowly to the sites of their homes, and sifting through the debris for bricks and clay roof tiles with which to begin rebuilding. Because most of those affected by the tsunami were fisherman, loses among this community were particularly hard, with boats and fishing nets — the very stuff of survival for poor fisherman — smashed and tangled amidst the wreckage. For many, the tools with which to earn a living disappeared as quickly as the homes in which they once lived.

"In other times I could make [$2 or $3] a day fishing with hand lines," Nimal, himself a fisherman, said. "But now I don't have those."

Recognizing the massive needs that exist, CRS is working to help rebuild the homes and livelihoods of those affected by the disaster in Sri Lanka. Having committed an initial $25 million in private funds to the emergency across Asia, CRS is now constructing housing for 30,000 people in the worst hit areas of Sri Lanka. Efforts are also underway to help rehabilitate the livelihoods of those who lost everything to the sea, providing them the means to support themselves, a task the people of Sri Lanka are already embracing as they shake off the shock of the disaster.

"We ourselves are trying to make money now — maybe selling coconuts," Nimal said. "Or when others are building their houses I can work with the cement."

The effort to rebuild Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami here will continue long after the media attention surrounding this disaster has faded. International aid agencies are gearing up for a response on an unprecedented scale, supported by a tremendous outpouring of support from private citizens across the globe. Such efforts are having and will continue to have a profound impact on the lives of millions of people in Sri Lanka and across Asia who have lost so much.

And while international good will turns increasingly to action on the ground here, perhaps the greatest weapon at the hands of the Sri Lankan people is the resiliency of the people themselves. Everywhere here, a devastated country is rising from the rubble, brick by brick. For Nimal and others who lost everything, they are victims of the tragedy and witnesses to the remarkable spirit of unity that has taken hold here even as bodies are plucked from the rubble.

"Some people are helping," Nimal said. "If they have many things, they are giving to others."

David Snyder has traveled to more than 30 countries with CRS, working in such crisis zones as Pakistan, Sudan, Angola, the West Bank and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most recently, David visited those devastated by the Kashmir Earthquake.