Chief Executive, Chris Roles reports from areas hit by the Tsunami

23 January 2005

I was able to spend time, during my short visit to both countries, seeing relief work in operation and discussing with our partners in Sri Lanka and India their plans for longer-term reconstruction of those areas devastated by the disaster.

Devastation

In India, I spent time in the coastal region of Tamil Nadu and talked with YMCA staff who had been working flat out since the Tsunami struck on Boxing Day. They were on the ground straight away, first helping to find bodies of those who had been swept from their families, then visiting the hospitals with relatives searching for their loved ones. Then there was the task of helping to bury those who had died and helping to clear rubble to ensure that more people were not trapped beneath it.

I visited villages five hours’ drive from Chennai (Madras), where the Tsunami had swept away all traces of the bamboo- and palm-built huts of fisher communities that ran all the way down the coast. A few hundred metres inland, brick-built villages were left devastated, with collapsed buildings, and water marks high above the doorways of those homes that remained standing.

Effective co-ordination of aid

The co-ordination of the aid effort in this area seemed to be very effective. Government officials were producing daily reports detailing which organisations were helping in which village, and what help was being provided. Madras YMCA was distributing essential items to families living along the coastline. Each family was being given a kit of essential provisions, all locally sourced, which included sleeping mats, clothes, cooking utensils and soap.

In Sri Lanka, I travelled along the coast to the town of Galle, scene of the now famous television pictures of buses being swept hundreds of metres and young girls desperately clinging on to buildings and debris before being swept to their deaths.

The devastation on the road to Galle is almost complete. Thousands of brick and tile buildings lie in ruins, like the site of an earthquake or war zone, but in this case boats are strewn among the houses, or mud has blocked paths or covered parts of buildings. In some places people were still walking in a daze, struggling to understand the unimaginable tragedy that has engulfed their lives. In other places I found families starting to clear the rubble around their homes to make space for temporary shelters.

There is one terrible monument that greets visitors on the road from Colombo to Galle. Now winched back onto the buckled tracks stands a train which was carrying 1,500 people, all of whom perished when the water hurled it many metres. "I can still hear the cries of the people", said one local man who also pointed to the ruins of the village around the train, a village now totally destroyed. It is thought that a further 1,500 people died here too.

Caring for children

The YMCA in Galle is caring for children whose parents are working to clear their homes. At the end of each day the children join their parents in one of the hundreds of relief camps now set up. The children play games in the grounds of the YMCA, or sit and talk with youth workers who are trying to introduce some routine and normality into their lives. Inside, water marks on the wall show the damage that has been caused to the YMCA itself, where computer equipment was destroyed by the floods.

Rehabilitation and reconstruction

As well as seeking to meet people’s immediate needs of food, clothing, cooking utensils and bedding, YMCA plans are already taking shape for long-term reconstruction.

The needs of each community will vary, but there is a desperate need to build houses, provide boats and nets for fishing, care for young people who have lost their families, and vocational and livelihood training.

Building work will start soon. But it won’t end there. Much of the work – for example the care of orphans and livelihood support – will need to continue for several years. And communities supported by Y Care International will have lasting support, not just through new homes and care for the most vulnerable, but centres for training and community meetings, to offer long-term support and community-building for people who have endured such traumatic experiences in recent weeks.

Plan long-term work

The YMCA Movement is also coming together in this relief effort. Besides Y Care International, representatives from the World Alliance – the Secretary General Bart Shaha – the Asia Pacific Alliance, the YMCAs of the USA, Japan and Korea were part of the delegation that visited the affected countries, offering support and solidarity but also coming together to co-ordinate their resources and plan long-term work with local partners.

The scale of this disaster is unprecedented in the region. The YMCA’s response must be equally unprecedented, coming together as a global movement to make a lasting difference to the lives of people who have had to bear so much in recent weeks.