Sri Lanka Tsunami, On the Road to Recovery: Getting on with Life in Godagama
December 22, 2006 -- The World Bank's Chulie de Silva visited tsunami survivors a year ago to see how they were moving on with their lives. Now, as the two-year mark approaches, she revisits some of the survivors she met a year ago.
The Phase 1 of the World Bank financed housing program in the in the southwest region of Sri Lanka is due to be completed this month. This entailed the reconstruction or repair of 12,651 houses.
De Silva revisits one of the housing grant beneficiaries she met last year -– Kanthi Wirasinghe in Godagama -- for whom recuperating from the tsunami hasn't been easy.
Kanthi Weerasinghe, her husband Lesley and her sister-in-law (r. to l.) in front of their house. Photo by Chulie de Silva.
A year ago, Kanthi Weerasinghe’s tsunami-destroyed house was half built.
She lived in a wooden house next to the new one she was building with her husband, Lesley Gunasekera, her speech impaired sister-in-law, and three children. Now a year later, the two-bed room house is finished. But this past year hasn’t been an easy one for Kanthi.
When we met Lesley a year ago, he was showing signs of the heavy mental strain he had been under.
Lesley was a well respected tailor who sewed for everyone in this community. A couple of months before the tsunami, he had lost his mother. Losing his ancestral home and the tools of his tailoring trade - the sewing machine, cutting table, etc. - was the last straw. He had lost the will to pick the pieces and start again.
“The tsunami impacted badly on my husband and he lost his mind,” Kanthi says.
When he became violent and was at the butt end of the jokes in the village, she hospitalized him in a mental hospital. The cost of hospitalization and extra expenses were all met by Kanthi.
As we walked in, Lesley sat outside with his hearing-impaired mute sister, who was just as quiet. Kanthi and the sister recognized us, but Lesley didn’t. The lively man who spoke nineteen to a dozen in English, Sinhala and bits of Italian, thrown in for good measure, was gone.
“Now my husband has recovered and I brought him back home,” Kanti says.
Their two bed-room house feels cramped compared to the six-bedroom one they lost in the tsunami.
Kanthi used theUS$2500 [LKR 250,000] grant given for a fully destroyed house to build this one using timber from the trees in their garden.
One of Kanthi’s brothers has helped her start a small business of selling readymade garments from home.
“I get an income from this but with the increase in cost of living, garments do not sell well,” she says.
Sometimes she gets sewing orders for school uniforms.
Kanthi’s one aim is to educate her children. She is proud that her elder two children – twins -- have completed their secondary school and have passed the General Certificate of Education with good grades.
The twin daughter comes out to speak to us but the son needs more coaxing. He still lives in the adjoining temporary shelter, as the house can’t accommodate all of them. They don’t want to be photographed despite Kanthi’s coaxing.
We apologize for invading their privacy and move away.
Many of the tsunami survivors are tired of the influx of visitors invading their privacy.
“Life is difficult but I am not discouraged,” says Kanthi. “We must be able to face any adversity.”
RSS