Sri Lanka - First Hand

[xoxoxoBruce]

My brother got this email through a Tiger owners(car) group. I've reversed the order of the original message and the reply, changed the @ to AT in the email addresses and edited the phone numbers.
I believe this to be legitimate.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigersATautox.team.net [mailto: owner-tigersATautox.team.net]On
Behalf Of DJoh797014ATaol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 6:05 PM
To: "Derek White"; "PHILLIP SILK"
Cc: tigersATautox.team.net
Subject: RE: front suspension rebuild
Derek

Glad to hear you are OK. Several of my co-workers are Indian and some who lived on the coast have not heard from their families yet. To say they are concerned is a gross understatement.

The pictures and commentary in the US show incredible destruction and suffering.

Do you have any advice for the net as to where one can send money to help. My experience with the Red Cross makes me reluctant to use them. Perhaps the Red Crescent?

My prayers.
Dave Johnson
*** http://www.team.net/the-local ***


From: "Derek White" <derekwATsltnet.lk>
Date: 2005/01/02 Sun AM 03:56:32 GMT
To: <DJoh797014ATaol.com>, "Tiger List" <tigersATAutox.Team.Net>
Subject: tsunami

Thanks for the concern all who have written.

So far no friends dead just lots banged up, cut up and only one finger lost
among the two dozen friends who were at the coast. My brother was covering
it for Reuters from day one and he got back to Colombo last night and was
quite shell-shocked from what he had seen (plus lost a few kgs and had mouth
ulcers from poor nutrition + stress.) All his clothes were covered in mud
and blood. Some of his pics made it into papers and the web but most were
deemed too disturbing.

The country is full of food and clothes so any donation/collection of these
is a waste of time/effort. With good air support from India and US they are
now getting it out to the places that are cut off. Shortages are medicines,
medical personnel, reconstruction experts and equipment, water/sanitation
people and equipment, boats. Half of the country's fishing fleet is damaged
or gone which will effect livelihoods of many millions plus protein intake
of the poor. The boat building companies are working together to try to ramp
up production quickly but someone has to pay for the boats. All insurers
here have decided together that it was an earthquake, not flooding so few
people will get anything as few here have earthquake insurance-- why would
you, we are thousands of miles from any faults.

I am starting work with CARE as a volunteer this week on the rebuilding
assessment. Lots of buildings and infrastructure have been lost, lots of
businesses, lots of breadwinners gone. Most attention is still on emergency
relief (feeding people) but long term they have to have houses, income.

If you want to help, give money or your expertise in the above fields. Don't
give to the small charities that have sprung up overnight. I have seen good
work done by CARE and UNICEF both here and in Zambia. There is a good
organisation here geared up for helping women and children which I have been
working with. It is called Women in Need (WIN) and I can get details if
anyone wants to help them. Lots of fishermen have been lost and their
families have lost the sole breadwinner.

Listening to and helping people who have survived but lost almost everything
(including family members) makes one realise how unimportant most of the
material clutter in our lives is. A friend of mine, Josten, said he spent
two nights on the floor in a buddhist temple with over 1000 other people and
despite all of his cuts and bruises, despite hearing on the radio that their
home town was hit and their house and factory probably gone, he was so happy
that he had been able to hold on to his 2 year old son and his wife had
survived too. cheers, derek
Derek White
37/2 Buller's Lane
Colombo 7
Sri Lanka
Telfax: +94 11 2581xxx
Cell: +94 77 7475 xxx