On once we arrived our plan was to head straight to Arugam Bay.  The north west region of the country that had the privilege of making the news for a short time.   Before setting out on our journey we met a bellman at our hotel named Pryanta.  He told us of his village, Mahamodera,   and asked if we could please stop there on the way up to Arugam Bay. 

We arrived on February 11th, with our driver and interpreter, Shrimal, who turned out to be part of our crew and a huge asset to our team, and began surveying the area and surrounding villages.  Being very much aware of the billions of dollars in donations sent to help aid these very people rebuild their lives,  I was to say the least, surprised that no aid had reached them, and outraged to report  that after four months they are still waiting.  Now I want to make clear, again, that this is in no way an attack on any other organization but we had cameras in hand and rolling everyday we were there, and with the amount of money that had been reported in donation there wasn't much being done in this entire region of Galle. 

From what we saw and were told by most Sri Lankan's, and believe me we looked, was most of the aid provided came from smaller privately funded organizations and foreign groups.  Thats not to say the bigger organizations did not play apart, only that they should be doing more then they are. 

Nearly four months after the deadly tsunami  struck Sri Lanka, many victims continue to live in makeshift camps while still awaiting a move by the government to provide housing.  What concerns me the most is the way the International media has irresponsibly turned their backs and cameras on these people, allowing the public to think that everything has returned to normal.  Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth.  The world's Asian relief effort, the largest in history, and the enormity of the disaster has put into sharp focus an intensifying debate over- WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO....!? 

I think the world would be shocked to see how little theses people have actually received in the way of aid.  To this day, in Sri Lanka, people along the coast have found themselves plating the "waiting game" with not only the aid but a solution to "The 100 Meter Law"  or  "Set-Back Zone".  This law states, people are NOT allowed o build or rebuild their homes within a 100 meters of the ocean.  So, with the 200,000 that died and the 5 million displaced you can see how this is a major problem for these people.  Most of these displaced survivors find that their homes fall within this "buffer zone".  They are now forced to live in refugee camps and in small tents designed for a much cooler climate.  Still, to this day, there has been no visible dialog between the government decision makers and the affected people regarding the government's plan for the future. This has had an adverse impact on peoples livelihoods and has created great uncertainty as these communities cannot make decisions on whether to rebuild or not.

The tourist areas and surrounding villages are already up and running and continue to rebuild without any recourse from the government, while the poorer villages are forced to wait.  Because of the countries social welfare and relief systems that have failed to deliver in the aftermath of the disaster, the Sri Lankan's, are forced to rely on NGO's (Non Governmental Organizations) and private international donors.   Also, another question that begs to be answered is where are all the millions of dollars that were donated to certain NGO's?   I don't want to dwell on this but I can't help it... After living and working in Sri Lanka for 3 months in these small villages I can honesty tell you that not enough is being done by these major organizations that claim to be making such a big difference.  Just look at the exchange rate- one american dollar is equivalent (or close to) one hundred rupee's- You do the math...

In light of these on-going problems CAN-DO.org has found ways to help bring much needed support and aid to these villagers.  Rather than getting involved in the "statistic gathering", that seems to be playing a huge part, and rather that telling you of our efforts,  CAN-DO wants to show you what one person, a video camera, and the villages willingness to rebuild their lives are capable of.
Using my own savings and the help from family and friends we accomplished more than I originally thought possible...

1.  The first week we went straight to work on the cesspools that were clearly harboring an infestation of mosquitoes and disease.  The plan was simple.  We rented back-hoes and trucks at less than a hundred dollars a day to clear the coastline across the street from Mahamodera and used the debris to fill in the cesspools and kill the disease. 

2.  We then focused our energy on basic clean up.  Bulldozing debris, knocking down unsafe structures and rebuild what we could.

3.  While continuing to clean we felt it was important to increase the standard of living as best we could.  Remember, most of these people lost everything... We began looking for the village common areas, places to build.  With a blessing from the Monk, the support from the Major of Galle, Major Mohamad Ariff and the overwhelming support of the people, we began building the villages first playground and community well. 

4.  As our jobs continued around the village and we found our system to be working we began branching out to other villages.  We used the same strategy we used in Mahamodera.  Every village we went into we would first construct a data base where we would compile a list of the family members, ages, occupations, needs, etc.  This helped us keep track of our progress as well as keeping us from duplicating other relief efforts.   On February 13th we came across the village Pettiagallawalla.  A small fishing village made up of 80 families.   The tsunami caused vast damage in the fishing trade.  7500 fishermen died and 5000 have been reported lost.  18,000 boats were destroyed.  We began with the basics- clean up.  With the help of Cliff Sutherland, Gerry jsdfdjs, Condasami fdfhj and Martin dfjjdh, we brought in the bulldozers and trucks and began to clean.   After cleaning the debris we began our data base.  We went shopping and made up kits with everything small stoves, gas grills, cooking utensils, etc.  Next,  we focused on transportation.  We began fixing tuk tuk's(three wheelers), bikes, motor bikes and a truck(Gerry?).  This way, parents could work and kids could get back to school.  We also helped restore a makeshift school where the smaller children could attend.  Since 90% of this village was made up of fishermen, we bought boats, fixed boats, motors, and supplied each boat with fishing nets.   By the time I left, this village was once again back fishing,  They were also one of the only villages that were able to get back to work since the tsunami.

Keeping with the CAN-DO philosophy, we will document the rebuilding process from start to finish. Always accountable, we not only aim to show our loyal donors, and the general public where every CAN-DO dollar, euro or pound is spent but prove that realistic and worthwhile projects can be done effectively with real results in a reasonable time frame by side stepping the "red tape" and bureaucracy.