Thursday, January 13, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Group to join relief efforts

Volunteers heed urge to help Sri Lankans recover from tsunami

Sarah Turner packs Wednesday afternoon for her journey to Sri Lanka, where she plans to join nongovernmental groups' relief efforts in areas affected by the Dec. 26 quake-spawned tsunami. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Sarah Turner on Wednesday packed work gloves, a Bible, her passport and a week's worth of clothes for her journey this morning to the tsunami-ravaged island-nation of Sri Lanka.

"The more I pack, the more I'll have to carry, so I'm trying not to take too much," said the 19-year-old University of Nevada, Las Vegas sophomore.

Turner will travel with two other Nevadans and several volunteers from Los Angeles and Chicago. The group of eight found each other through a network of church groups and e-mail correspondence and decided the best way they could help the tsunami victims would be to go to Sri Lanka.

Vegas Thornton, a 25-year-old financial adviser, said he organized the group after hearing reports of clothing and food donations stacking up on ports and the difficulties relief workers were having in distributing those supplies to the people who needed them most. He also said he wanted to help the people of Sri Lanka start rebuilding.

"We're not going as missionaries," Thornton said. "We don't need money. We just want to go to work."

Thornton and Turner said they plan to help nongovernmental groups and locals distribute supplies, rebuild homes, work in orphanages or do whatever else they are told needs to be done. They plan to stay for up to three months.

"I think the best thing I bring to the table is my willingness to do just about anything," Turner said. "I know there's probably a lot of hard, unpleasant jobs that need to be done that maybe other people don't want to do."

Thornton said he is aware of the risk for disease and potential for violence in some areas affected by a decades-long civil war.

"I know it won't be easy, but I felt this was just a perfect time in my life and a perfect opportunity for me to help my fellow man," Thornton said.

The group will be arriving at the home of Amitha Peiris in the city of Colombo, which is about six miles from where the earthquake-triggered waves crashed onto Sri Lanka's shores on Dec. 26.

The tsunami flooded the Sri Lankan coast with parts of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Somalia and Thailand.

Peiris said from her home in Sri Lanka that her family has been helping with relief efforts to the south by distributing cooked food and medication.

"The first day, we delivered 75 loaves of bread with bananas, butter and jam," said Peiris, whose family and home were unaffected by the devastating waves.

Peiris said she learned about the group of eight Americans planning a trip to Sri Lanka through her husband's niece, who is an exchange student in Minnesota.

"She is involved with a church and volunteer organizations there, and she has put it to them (the eight Americans) that they could stay with her uncles," Peiris said. "My house is quite big, and they can stay here. Help is more than welcome."

The eight volunteers, calling themselves the Sri Lanka Strike Team, are not the only ones from Nevada on their way to help the tsunami victims.

The Sri Lanka American Association of Southern Nevada is planning how to help the country rebuild.

Elias Parakrama, the association's president, said he has been in touch with Sri Lankan authorities, who have helped his group identify areas where schools and orphanages need to be rebuilt.

The association's efforts will target the Galle District, one of the areas hardest-hit by the tsunami.

Parakrama said two association members are expected to travel to Sri Lanka in March.