ABDF

• Location: Thiraimadu, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
• Recipients:1,000 Households
• Objective:Sustainable food sources for one village
• Final cost:$943 US

Thiraimadu is a large-scale tsunami resettlement village. The section currently under construction will house 1,000 families, and is expected to be open for move-in sometime in June 2008.

ABDF.org has received a request for help from the Sri Lanka Friendship Society, one of the sponsoring organizations. The request is to provide three coconut seedlings for each household. Once the trees mature, which should take five years, they will provide each household with shade, food (a major part of the Sri Lankan diet) and excess produce that can be sold. Upon purchase, the seedlings will require eight months of nursery care before they can be transplanted onto the village site.

A beautiful view of part of the coconut seedling farm.

They just keep growing, and growing, and growing...

Once this project is complete, the lives of the new residents of Thiraimadu will be greatly enhanced.

Project Update - October 7, 2008

Passing out - coconuts, that is.

On October 7th, 2008 we distributed the first batch of our seedlings, about half, as the full 3,000 would have taken forever to give out.

Bennett speachifying at the distribution ceremony.

Program Manager Bennett Hinkley is happy to report that the ceremony marking the distribution was short, small, and very heartfelt. We in the West don’t understand the value of the coconut to Sri Lankans; it’s second only to rice in terms of diet. The American equivalent might be beef, in terms of food importance. The second half of the coconut seedlings were distributed the following week, on the 16th.

A very happy recipient!