Rev. Selvanal stressed how vital it was that anyone involved in humanitarian assistance not create divisions in a community already so deeply traumatised and fragile.
“There are so many people affected by the war,” he said. “Now we have people whose lives are affected by the tsunami. We cannot afford to only help people affected by the tsunami.”
Assistant parish priest, Father Thirumaguan, said: “This is a good time to help people affected by the war as well,” adding that those affected by the tsunami and those affected by the war should “all be treated in the same way in order to avoid possible tension and economic imbalances”.“We were starting to rebuild after so many years of war,” he said. “Then the tsunami came and destroyed even more.”
Rev. S.D.P. Selvanal, St. Matthias Anglican Church
Rev. Selvanal also warned that the recipients of any assistance should also make many of the decisions regarding how it is to be used. He said he could not believe that “instead of giving people a voice, we are only giving them something. Just because people are at the end of the line does not mean that they don’t have a voice”.
Rev. G. Manoruban of the Anglican Church was wounded in Batticaloa during the war when he was only 13 years old and also experienced the horror of the day the tidal wave roared in from the Indian Ocean, killing some 3,000 people in the region and injuring a further 6,000.
“It was difficult,” he said. “People were already affected by the war, had lost their loved ones, [although] not in a few minutes.”He added: “Then, the tsunami. It affected people mentally.”
Rev. Manoruban was one of many survivors rushing to the beach to help wherever he could, using his motorbike to transport clothes and food from his small island parish to the survivors on the beach. Despite crashing his bike in the rush to get back to the beach and suffering injuries he continued to help.
His small parish has been working alongside the local fishing communities through NCCSL and the support of ACT’s members around the world, which donated bicycles, boats, catamarans and fishing nets, and helped to set up four local newspapers in the community centres in the numerous temporary camps.
NCCSL and ACT in a joint effort replaced a total of 55 boats, 25 traditional catamarans, 500 fishing nets, 30 out-board engines for the bigger boats and 250 bicycles in the district, which have not simply restored people’s dignity but also allowed them to become self-employed once again.
The local NNCSL and ACT-related churches in the region have a long history of collaboration with the Roman Catholic Church, which helped the NCCSL-ACT distribution of boats, catamarans and bicycles.
