Mary and her husband had a love marriage, meaning it was not arranged. She is Roman Catholic, he was Hindu. As a result, the new couple was ostracized by both families, and disowned by both her parish church and his kovil (Hindu temple). This is a common and extremely unfortunate occurrence in Sri Lanka, and effectively cuts both people off from their communities. He eventually went to work in Saudi Arabia where in 2003 he was murdered under mysterious circumstances, leaving Mary a widow with six children. The kids range from the eldest daughter, Kavitha, to the youngest daughter, Abinaya (Abi) who was only two when the tsunami hit.

Peace Village is a tsunami resettlement village of 100 households, which officially opened in October 2007, almost three years after the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunamis. 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.

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.

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 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.

One of the missions of ABDF.org is to act as a conduit and facilitator for foreigners to plan and run their projects in Batticaloa, using our local expertise and contacts. Towards this, in 2008 and 2009, ABDF.org has been able to offer assistance, free of charge to the following groups and individuals:

One part of the ABDF’s mission is to help local Sri Lankan groups help themselves. A big part of this is grant writing.