Sri Lanka’s devastated fishermen on Wednesday sent a shipment of fish to the president as they pleaded with people to resume eating seafood in the wake of the Asian tsunami disaster. At the southern fishing village of Mirissa, where around 300 boats support some 1,300 families, three boats of fishermen returned to sea Tuesday night…
Read moreStudent pins Sri Lanka’s hopes on generous aid
Wearing a donated red T-shirt, pale green pleated skirt and rubber thongs, Waruni Delpagodage, 18, ponders her future in the refugee camp her destitute family has fled to in the tsunami aftermath. "A year. I think my parents will have to stay here for about a year, that’s how long it’s going to take to…
Read moreSri Lanka’s hard-hit fisherfolk ponder their future
Fishing runs in the veins of N.G. Punchihewa, 71: his father was a fisherman and his grandfather before him. Punchihewa’s son, too, was carrying on the tradition until the December 26 tsunami struck. But now the 37 boats that plied the waters night and day off the southern Sri Lankan village of Thotamuna, at the…
Read moreSri Lanka’s southern Catholics celebrate return of statue
Sri Lankan Catholics in the southern town of Matara have celebrated the return of a statue that disappeared during the Asian tsunami disaster only to be found days later unscathed. Around 100 Catholics held mass on Sunday at the Our Lady of Matara Shrine, where some 200,000 Sri Lankan pilgrims typically converge for a major…
Read moreAid trickles in southern Sri Lanka, but more urgently needed
In the grounds of a college at this southern Sri Lankan town lashed by tsunami a week ago, giant pots of rice and lentils are being cooked over wood fires for the masses crowding into classrooms. Workers flit around the grassy courtyard and a team of South Korean medics had set up shop in one…
Read moreForeigners caught in killer tsunami dig in to help Sri Lanka
Wearing shorts, rubber thongs and a pair of washing up gloves, New Zealander Scott Gardiner is standing in a sewerage drain ankle deep in sludge, joining the huge effort needed to clean up Sri Lanka. The 29-year-old artist and his girlfriend Bianca Wilks, 27, are among scores of tourists refusing to leave this popular resort…
Read moreTsunami scared Sri Lankans plead with tourists to return soon
Fearful of a bleak economic future, tsunami scared Sri Lankans in this southern holiday resort village that was flattened by the killer sea surges are urging foreign tourists to return. Nearly all the survivors here depend on foreign tourists who are lured by a coconut palm-studded surf beach and excellent diving. Many of the locals…
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