Sri Lankans here organize drive for tsunami aid
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Members of Hawai'i's Sri Lankan community are coping with the crushing grief over their homeland's tsunami devastation by forging a relief drive to speed as much money, food and supplies as possible to the survivors.
Sri Lanka relief drive Donations of nonperishable food and supplies may be dropped off at the warehouse of the Oceanit engineering company, 810 Pohukaina St., from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Checks payable to "Windward Rotary-Sri Lanka Tsunami Fund" may be dropped off at any Bank of Hawaii branch or mailed to Rotary Club of Windward Oahu, P.O Box 122, Kailua, HI 96734 Information: 732-0878 Other relief efforts East-West Center Tsunami Relief Fund Drop off donations at any First Hawaiian Bank branch or at the East-West Center reception desk, 1601 East West Road. American Red Cross, Hawai'i Chapter Mail checks, payable to American Red Cross International Response Fund, to 4155 Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, HI 96813. Write "South Asia earthquake/tsunami" in the memo area to direct your donation to this cause. People can make credit-card donations by calling the Red Cross on O'ahu at 734-2101 or the national Red Cross at (800) Help-Now (435-7669).
Sri Lanka yesterday listed more than 18,000 dead, the disaster's second-highest toll behind Indonesia.
How to help
Indra Vithanage of Kane'ohe has heard all the reports about loss of life in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, but nothing so horrifying as the tales from her own family from the southwestern town of Galle. Vithanage's two cousins, unmarried sisters, shared a two-story house. The one living upstairs held on through the onslaught of waves; the one downstairs was swept away and perished.
"It's like a war there," she said, recoiling at her family's eyewitness accounts of bodies floating away, of the screams of terror. "It's worse than a war. It's hell."
The only thing that saved her own mother — and many other villagers — is that the wave hit about 90 minutes after she had left her seaside house for the Buddhist temple five miles inland. Dec. 26 was the full-moon observance called Poya, a full day of meditation and prayer.
Stories like this have moved people like Bede Cooray and other members of the Isles' Sri Lankan community, which numbers less than 200. Cooray, a Kailua accountant and president-elect of the Rotary Club of Windward O'ahu, has organized a relief drive through his own club and the network of Rotary clubs worldwide
It's the latest local response to the catastrophe that has left south Asia reeling. The East-West Center has its own international relief drive in the works and is organizing a fund-raiser event, 2 to 5 p.m. at the Imin Conference Center, said spokeswoman Karen Knudsen. An assortment of performing groups — including one from Sumatra, the epicenter of the earthquake that spawned the tsunami — hope to draw the crowds, and their donations, she added.
At least one East-West Center student has gone home to Indonesia to cope with losses of family members, Knudsen said, but other fellows and staffers are still waiting for word of loved ones.
Similarly, the full effect on Sri Lanka is unknown, said Cooray, because many tiny coastal villages are all but inaccessible by road.
He and other volunteers are determined to make the most of the contributions the club can raise. "We want 100 percent to go to the victims," he said. "Any expenses, any bank charges, we will cover."
Cooray's own family members in Sri Lanka live far enough inland to have escaped the ravages of the waves, but the horrifying stories from friends have spurred him to action. The money will be funneled to Rotary clubs of Sri Lanka, he said.
Vithanage feels great concern for her 83-year-old mother's emotional well-being, and that of others who endured the terror and the grief. The immediate need, however, is finding the next meal for the survivors.
"The entire village was wiped out, the markets, everything," she said. "People have nothing to eat."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
