On a sunny Wednesday afternoon following the winter break, six OU students from the Sri Lanka Student Association came to the dean’s office in Ellison Hall to share their news of relief efforts underway in their home country. Thushari Jayasekera, Madhavie Edirisooriya, Poopalasingam Shivakumar, and Aruna Ruwan Dedigama, all physics graduate students; Sumudu Munasinghe, member of the association; and Nishan Ratnayake, a mechanical engineering student, shared their news, saying no one on the OU campus was directly affected by the tragedy, although many lost distant relatives and friends that were at the beach for the holiday.

Jayasekera was in Sri Lanka for the holidays when the wave struck. “My home is further inland, so we were not affected,” she explained. “For the first two days, it was very difficult to get any information on friends and family members.” Dedigama added during the first week following the disaster, a radio station in Sri Lanka was able to accept e-mails from people out of the country and relay information about family members. Communications improved dramatically over the following two weeks and many people from the inland made the journey to the coastal areas to aid in the clean up. “Most of the citizens tried to stay out of the area and keep the communications lines open in order to help with the immediate relief of the area,” said Jayasekera.

Following immediate relief from the Sri Lanka government, the country of India sent in aid workers then other foreign aid workers began to arrive. Poopalasingam stated that initially there were 790 refugee camps, but the numbers have been dropping and currently there are around 450.

Ratnayake said he was initially confused by the reports on television regarding a tsunami. “I was not familiar with this term at all,” he said. “First they said there were only 100 dead, so I had no need for concern. It was later that we began to understand how large it was.” At last count, 38,000 lost their lives in Sri Lanka, leaving 1,000 orphaned and hundreds of citizens without homes or means of employment.

According to the students, many of those in the coastal area at the time of the deadly wave were fishermen and tourists enjoying the beaches for the holidays.

There has been remarkable cooperation between the different factions in the country. “In Sri Lanka, there are three main religious groups,” explained Jayasekera. “All of them, the Moslems, the Singlese and the Tamil, are working well together.” Thanks to this cooperation, clean up has progressed rapidly. “Initially we were warned that disease would take as many lives as the wave, but with the cooperation between the parties and the help of foreign aid, disease has not been as large a factor as once believed.”

“The government is already planning on rebuilding houses and schools for those affected. It is offering coastal residents the chance to relocate if they no longer want to live by the sea,” said Shivakumar. There were 45 schools affected, which the government is planning on replacing. In addition to the new facilities, the government is aiding students by offering the university entrance examination in June as well as the standard April testing date.

Jayasekera added that the mood in Sri Lanka is one of hope. “We have accepted that this happened, and now we are trying to move on. This is the first time all of the parties have worked together, so there is great optimism in the country.”

The university community is working together on relief efforts locally. More details will be released as plans are made.

For an eyewitness account by Iqbal Hassen, a friend of facutly member Maronita Ratwatte, click here.