Rebuilding homes, rebuilding confidence

Pubalapillai and his wife outside their new home [Laura Storr]

Just south of Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka, Caritas EHED (Eastern Human Economic Development) is working with communities building temporary homes for people made homeless during the tsunami.

Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka is a bustling town right next to the coast. Scooters, bicycles and “tuk tuks” (three-wheeled, motorised, open-air vehicles painted in bright colours) whizz around the streets, weaving in and out of each other and any pedestrians that happen to be in the way.

The town is separated from the sea by a lagoon. It’s difficult to get your bearings here because it feels like there is water all around you, almost like being on an island. As we crossed the bridge out of town my Sri Lankan translator, Nandini told me that the lagoon was full of bodies on 26 December when the tsunami hit.

That is hard to imagine now as the sun glares down on us, shimmering on the sparkling blue water. I can see fishermen trawling their nets from tiny canoes, catching small fish and crabs – many of them wearing wide-brimmed straw hats. On the surface it looks idyllic, but the water in the lagoon was at least 30 feet high in some places as it tore through people’s homes and lives.

We are on our way to Perriyakallor – a village about 25km south of Batticaloa, which was destroyed by the tsunami. CAFOD’s partner, Caritas EHED (Eastern Human Economic Development) is working with communities building temporary homes for people who lost their houses.

I meet Pubalapillai, 56, and his wife Karunaiamma, 50, who have received a temporary home from Caritas EHED. They were at mass when the tsunami came and escaped by running to the second floor of the church.

Afterwards they went to the local school with lots of other people from their community including their priest Father John Pillai. He tells me what happened.

“There were 300 people at mass on the day the tsunami came. I heard a woman shouting ‘water, water’. I thought, 'why don’t you sit down and listen to my sermon'. Then I saw the black wave coming through the window. I told everyone to run and before I knew it I had water up to my waist."

After two months, Pubalapillai and his family received a tent. Now they have a temporary home.

New foundations

“Now we are ok. We are not afraid of the sea anymore. It’s better than before. EHED has also given us 3,000 rupees to help us get some of our possessions back,” he says.

Later Pubalapillai showed me the foundations of his old house. It was unbelievable to see their home completely reduced to a few stones – it had literally just gone.

Their temporary home was surprisingly spacious inside and a welcome relief from the searing heat, which is a stifling 38 degrees. Caritas EHED are building homes from “cadjun” (matted palm leaves) and they have tiled roofs. This makes them cooler than some shelters built with corrugated iron.

Caritas EHED have a team of community workers who work with people to establish what they need and also what they want, and most people have chosen these materials.

Twenty-two-year-old Arjuna Ravindran, a community worker for Caritas EHED, says: "It’s not like we’re the bosses and the people have to do what we say. We’re working as one family and treating each other like family members. People get a say in what happens."

related resources

Tsunami stories (677.00 kB)	Disasters factsheet (157.66 kB)	Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor JD (153.00 kB)
Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor app (173.50 kB)	Development and Disasters in a time of HIV (834.80 kB)	Tsunami secondary school assembly (46.50 kB)