10-year-old Vijayakumaratharun (nicknamed Tharun) and his mum, Ithayakala, live in a rural village in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka. Batticaloa district is a popular tourist destination, famous for its natural beauty and so-called €˜singing fish` lurking under the Kallady Bridge. Yet with the majority of the population living below the poverty line, life is not always easy.
Ithayakala, 34, was abandoned by her husband when her son was very small. With little education, she earned what she could selling the vegetables she grew in her small home garden, plus doing odd jobs and working in rice paddies, which is seasonal work. Tharun says it made him sad to see his mother cry.
But when Tharun was sponsored three years ago through ChildFund Sri Lanka, his mother saw a ray of hope.
“Things have changed for us now,” Ithayakala says. Although she still struggles to make enough money, the strain has decreased. “Almost all of his educational expenses are covered thanks to sponsorship,” she adds.
In addition to his sponsorship, Tharun and his mother were provided with three goats and three cows. Ithayakala sells surplus milk, which helps to supplement their income.
Ithyakala has had the opportunity to participate in ChildFund`s nutrition program, where she learned about growing and cooking nutritious food for her son. Now, she is a leader and teaches other mothers the same skills. She has also benefited from child protection programs organised by ChildFund Sri Lanka for the community.
Tharun shares with us a photograph and letters he has received from his sponsor in New Zealand. The kea, he points out from a card with several animals from New Zealand, is his favourite. “I want to thank her for all the greeting cards and letters she has sent me,” he says. “I have learned new things about her family in New Zealand and about the animals there.”
On 26 December 2004, many of us were relaxing, taking a day to recover from the Christmas rush. But across the seas, life changed forever for millions of people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand and other Asian countries.
A 9.1-9.3 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean propelled the largest and deadliest tsunami in recent history, destroying entire villages and claiming approximately 230,000 lives. In some cases, the waves crashed into land only 15 minutes after the earthquake, but most regions experienced a lag of several hours. Nonetheless, the tsunami took most people by surprise because there was no infrastructure to warn the affected populations.
For ChildFund, the days, months and years following the tsunami posed many challenges and opportunities to help families and children who had experienced traumatic loss of homes, livelihoods and loved ones.
In the period immediately following the disaster, our focus was setting up Child-Centred Spaces (CSS) in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. These are safe spaces where children can play, learn and receive trauma support. These spaces remain central to ChildFund`s emergency responses today, most recently in the Philippines after last year`s Super Typhoon Haiyan.
“The tsunami disaster poses a kind of double jeopardy for children,” said John Schultz, ChildFund International`s president at the time. “After having survived the catastrophe, they are now subject to increased risk of disease and malnutrition, as well as longer-term risks like dropping out of school to work because they have lost a parent.”
In the days after the disaster, we sent emergency response teams to Banda Aceh, the worst-hit region in Indonesia, as well as Sri Lanka and India. Many of our staffers worked to fulfil immediate health needs and provide relief materials like nutritional supplements, delivery kits for pregnant women, cooking utensils and toiletries. We also participated in massive clearing and cleaning efforts through a food-for-work program supported by the US government.
Donations from our generous supporters around the world flowed in, and after less than a year, $18 million in donations went toward emergency relief supplies, installation of more than 16,000 water tanks, construction of six new schools, repair of nine community wells, construction of more than 400 fishing boats and establishment of more than 300 CCSs that served 43,000 children.
