ABDF

Mary Bernadad Sithamparappilai first met Project Director Bennett Hinkley a few months after the tsunami back in 2005, before ABDF was formed. At the time he was working with a group of independent volunteers engaged in projects to help deal with the tsunami crisis. Mary told her story, which has since been verified:

A view of Peace Village.

Peace Village is a tsunami resettlement village of 100 households, which officially opened in October 2007, almost three years after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Most of the refugees hail from the Kattankudy area, a predominately Muslim enclave 7 km south of Batticaloa. Before the current civil conflict, Christians, Hindus and Muslims lived side-by-side in harmony. In an effort to reintegrate the various religious groups, the main sponsors of Peace Village, Muslim Aid UK, mandated that at least 25% of the households be reserved for non-Muslims. As of October 2007, all households have been filled.

This project came to the attention of ABDF.org as it involves a small family living not ¼ mile away from our office.

Selwenthiran and his wife, Janthi.

Selwenthiran (pronounced Sell-ven-tee-ran) married Janthi (Jan-tee) some years ago, and has one daughter, Panvithra (Pan-vitra), who is three years old. Selwenthiran is an Upcountry Tamil from Nuwara Eliya and works as a day laborer, which is the hardest, lowest paying, and financially unstable work a man can do in Sri Lanka. His wife, Janthi, suffers from severe mental disease; she regularly has fainting fits, and even more regularly grand-mal types of seizures. She has never been diagnosed. For days after her seizures, Janthi wanders about with a vacant, haunted stare on her face. (The Program Director can attest to this himself; he has seen her walking the neighborhood.) As a result, she can not work. To be honest, she looks very sick and one has to wonder how much longer she’ll be around.

Our future doctor.

Eastern University is located about 18km north of Batticaloa, and serves as the only University for the District’s residents. The University itself opened in 1981, and is still under construction, which proceeds off and on, very, very slowly.

The University only admits five medical undergraduate students a year. These positions are extremely competitive, given the number of students who apply. Tuition and housing is provided for by the government, as is a small stipend. However, due to fiscal problems, payment of the stipend is often long delayed and not in the full amount. For example, the last stipend paid out was almost nine months ago, and it covered only two months of a previous six month gap.

Naturally, Program Director Bennett Hinkley’s time is not spent 100%, 24-7, on ABDF.org projects. The nature of project work is that there will be very busy times punctuated by periods of little activity. It’s sort of like the monsoons in Sri Lanka; when it rains it pours, otherwise it’s a drought.