Limerick man joins house-building effort in Sri Lanka.

LIMERICK, Ireland (PRWEB) September 3, 2005

The longest-lasting impression left on Limerick-man, Kevin Doyle, after returning from tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka last week, was the resilient politeness of its poverty stricken people and their sincere gratitiude for the help the West is continuing to give them.

“They are a very retiring, self-deprecating people, and despite what has happened to them, always smiling. They call that day the worst day in the history of their country and they are immensely greateful for the help they are continueing to recveive”.

41-year-old Kevin, originally from Lansdowne Park and now the operations project manager with Halifax Insurance Ireland Ltd in Shannon, was the only Irish person to join a UK group on a company-sponsored trip to Sri Lanka to help re-build the many houses that were swept away last Christmas in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

“We worked for a charity called Habitat for Humanity which has been building basic housing for homeless people for over 20 years and currently operates in over 100 countries worldwide,” he explained.

The charity’s activities are only just beginning in Sri Lanka but they built their 200,000th house, worldwide, last week. They plan to have 10,000 houses built in Sri Lanka alone by 2007.”

For Kevin, spending eight days in the former surfing resort of Hikkaduwa, near Galle on the South West coast, plastering, tiling and roofing tiny two bed-roomed houses for tsunami survivors, was an eye-opening change from the computers, graphs and suit-clad professionals he normally spends his days with in HIIL in Shannon.

“When I heard about this appeal, I thought it would be an opportunity to do something more concrete and more personal for the victims of the tsunami rather than just sending money. Obviously, it was also an opportunity to see a part of the world that wouldn’t normally feature in my travels.”

Knowing of the billions of euro that have already been pumped into the devastated areas, Kevin expected to see the towns and villages well on their way to getting back to the states they had been prior to the giant wave. But the reality is that that millions of people are still homeless and living in extreme poverty in makeshift houses of waste wood and sheets of tin.

An enormous stumbling block to the rebuilding of the people’s homes is two new laws introduced by the Sri Lankan Government. To aid tourism, no-one can build within a 100 yard metre distance of the shore, so that the beaches look more attractive to tourists which they are again trying to attract. But with much more serious ramifications is the law preventing anyone who cannot prove he owns his plot of land from rebuilding his home.

“As you can imagine, when you have lost everything in the tsunami, including the deeds to your house, that’s pretty difficult to prove,” explains Kevin.

The houses being built by Habitat for Humanity are basic to say the least, according to Kevin, just two rooms, but properly roofed, floored, plastered, painted and tiled. There’s no plumbing or central heating, an outside toilet, but there is electricity.

“But they seemed like palaces to the local people and their gratitude was obvious. While we were there, another house on the scheme was finished and was handed over to a man and his wife. Just the expressions on their faces was unbelievable. They were really, really beaming!”

Asked what had made the biggest impression on him during his stay, Kevin replied that it was two events in the hotel in which the group of 20 was staying.

“When we arrived, all of the staff and the manager were lined up in reception. The manager made a welcoming speech, we were all given garlands of flowers and invited to light a candle each as a representation of the group. I wondered what this was all about and thought they couldn’t be doing this every time guests arrived but then I discovered that we were the first group of this size to stay at the hotel since the tsunami and so we were responsible for so many of the staff getting their jobs back.”

But while this hotel had been barely saved from serious damage by the tsunami, neighbouring hotels were just abandoned shells.

Asked if he would return, Kevin said that he would love to return on a holiday, as Sri Lanka has always relied heavily on its tourism industry and tourists is exactly what they need now to recover.

If you are interested in joining the house building scheme, contact Charity Challenge who organise the logistics, or contact Habitat for Humanity directly. Individuals can pay themselves, or raise ST£1,100 in sponsorship for the eight day trip which includes travel, accommodation and food. Donations can still be made through various charities.http://www.limerick.com.

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Limerick man joins house-building effort in Sri Lanka.