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A bright and beautiful day bringing death at the speed of a jet plane
SRI LANKA — Lakshani Fernando has never faced challenges quite like those of this year. In recent months she has had to develop the response of the Ceylon Bible Society to the damage done by the tsunami in Sri Lanka, manage the large donations that came in from the Bible Society fellowship and pause to consider the effects of all this on the ‘ordinary’ work of the Society. Even when talking about the tsunami more than six months afterwards, she still conveys the shock and horror of the day – and her own close escape from it. “On December 26,” she says, “I was due to go to the south and at the time the tsunami came I should have been on the road. And all the vehicles on that particular road got washed away…” Images from newspapers and amateur videos
come back to mind as she describes the day itself. “It was very
unexpected because it was a bright and beautiful day. When we have floods
or whatever, it is dark, gloomy and rainy but this was a beautiful day
– everyone was out on the beaches and then the tsunami came.
“In some areas it arrived at the speed of a jet plane – along the coast in the east and north and south. “In the east it was very bad because the shoreline is very shallow. The sea just came in and washed all the villages away. You don’t see damaged areas there because it’s all been lost.” In the south, by contrast, a coral reef tamed the force of the rushing water and it left houses damaged but still standing. Broken rocksThere is a reef in the north, too, but there many people were killed when rocks broken from the reef struck them. All in all, the tsunami took about 30,000 lives in Sri Lanka and left half a million people homeless. Children apparently refer to it as “the black water”. The water had been stirred up from the bottom of the sea and where it came into buildings a black ‘high tide’ mark remains clearly visible. The first thing the Bible Society did, says Mrs Fernando, was to partner with Sri Lanka’s National Christian Council which co-ordinated the Christian response. Relief, in the form of clothing, for example, had to be taken to the worst-affected areas. Right focus“I sent my staff to work as packers – to pack clothes and put them on the lorries,” she says. “The National Christian Council didn’t have staff because it was a holiday time so four of my staff were seconded to go there.” As national Bible Societies began contacting her asking how they could help, she felt it important to keep the right focus. “I said, ‘We are not a relief organisation; we are concentrating on the Bible.’” So, in the first instance, much of the money that came in, particularly from other Societies in the Asia-Pacific Area, was used to replace the Bibles that had been washed away. Trauma Another immediate need was for trauma counselling. Curiously, help in that regard lay just at arm’s length. “I kept this book which was produced by the American Bible Society after September 11. It was such a nice book that I just kept it on my desk. Then on December 26, I was wondering what I should do and I had this book, The Lord is Near to the Broken-Hearted, to hand! It was tailor-made for our situation! It is a counselling tool, not a tract, and it answers the questions that people ask, like ‘Why is this happening to me?’ So I got it translated into Sinhala and Tamil and we printed it.” The entire print-run of 5,000 copies of the first edition, renamed Sri Lanka and the Tsunami, was gone in two weeks, she remembers. So a second edition was called for. PeacefulDesigned expressly to have a peaceful and positive look, its cover photograph shows sunlight shining down on a calm sea, while the photos inside show people starting to rebuild their homes. A third edition, aimed at encouraging a positive frame of mind still further, is now in hand. Also in preparation is help for pastors. In many cases, their ministry over recent months to people traumatised by the effects of the tsunami has brought them to the verge of ‘burn-out’ themselves. Likewise there will be some long-term help for 25 mentally and physically disabled children in a home in Colombo, most of whom were affected by the tsunami. And in September there is to be an international youth program for 50 youngsters, some from the affected countries – Indonesia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka – and others sent by the donor Bible Societies in Singapore, South Korea and Australia. CounsellingSome of the sessions will be on natural disasters and on peer counselling. “I come from a counselling background,” says Mrs Fernando, “and I think it is better that [in the case of young people] their own age group should counsel them rather than adult counsellors.” Surprisingly, perhaps, another session will cover how to take care of the administration during a natural disaster. “It was difficult for us to do all the work, filling out forms and sending information,” she says. “So we thought we’d train these young people to do that and report back with photographs.” By the mid-point in the year she had realised that the tsunami had become such a many-headed, demanding creature that the Society’s normal work was being neglected. Deficit “At the end of six months I thought,
‘My word! I have only six months now to raise the funds for all
our other work.’” she says. “Now I have a committee
of 10 staff members doing the tsunami work and I am doing the fundraising
for our normal work. Otherwise at the end of the year we will have a
deficit. “So I’m now actually on a fundraising trip. We call it not fundraising but ‘friendraising’,” she adds with a twinkle in her eye. “‘Fundraising’ sounds very mercenary. ‘Friendraising’ is a much better word.”
On the subject of money, allegations in the media about government bureaucracy and incompetence mean she is constantly asked whether the money contributed from overseas is reaching the places where it is needed. No questionDefining the terms of her answer carefully, she gives a quite categorical answer. “From churches to NGOs and churches to churches, the work is being done and the money is reaching the people. Please give that message to anyone who asks. In my country we have partner churches – I’m a Methodist and we have a lot of relationships with the Methodist churches in Britain, for example, and the money given is being used for the people: there is no question about that.” (WR396/1 - 09/10.05) [5 photos] |
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“More
than in India, Indonesia or Thailand,” she explains, “in Sri
Lanka it is Christians that have been affected. And of the churches
it is the Roman Catholic and the Methodist Church that have been affected
in the north and the east.”
