You must be wondering with the flurry of posts how we chose the people to help.
Meeting Roshan was godsend. When we went to see him a couple of weeks ago we found ourselves in the middle of his ravaged neighbourhood.
After speaking to Roshan for a bit we pried information about his sister and brother who both lost either their entire house or portions of it. When we visited them we were able to speak to some of their curious neighbours and also to people who we could see were salvaging what was left of their homes. This was the method in which we judged if the folks we were helping actually lived there.
When we went back on February 2nd we walked in unannounced. And again we went up to a few of the same people we had met before and after speaking to them about their situation we gave them the money. The average amount to get started seemed to be about $1,000.
We filled out the forms we made with their details, asked for their photographs and got signed receipts for the money we gave. It was hard to ignore the tens of houses we passed along the way. But we have limited funds and time and there is no other easier way.
What we are certain of is that the way we have helped provides the best impetus to re-build their lives - a chance to get a house back.
Roshan and his brother accompanied us as we went around. Roshan has promised to be our contact person if any question or problems arise.
Sam is looking forward to visiting the people we helped if she gets to Sri-Lanka next year.
I am hoping that I could possibly get a temporary assignment to help re-build/re-engineer a portion of the coastal highway. Then I could be back here again.
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