An
update on Mercy Trucks mission We are working on new projects to help with agricultural and micro enterprise development. Through developing and implementing new technologies, we hope to help protect natural resources and increase their financial revenue and encourage environmentally friendly manufacturing. This includes working to research ways of producing paper pulp from sugar cane waste and ethanol for bio fuels. As part of our Education program, some of the projects we have undertaken in Sri Lanka this year include supplying and installing computers in schools and installing a water supply to a school. Programme to help children in orphanages We have been really blessed through your support. This has allowed us to embark on much more work. Some of the things we have done this time to help orphans in Sri Lanka include an art class were the children were able to design their own T shirt. We were able to hand over £250.00 to buy and make more beds at the Terrokkovil orphanage in the East of Sri Lanka but further funds are still needed. Through your support we were able to give some small scale funding to a girls orphanage south of Colombo and also buy 27 new mattresses for an orphanage near Bandarawela in the centre of Sri Lanka. The Reverend who runs the orphanage is a great pioneer. He built and started the computer training centre (that we helped to fund two years ago.) This has enabled many of the young people to train and get jobs. He also started the sewing school (that we helped to fund last year) again this is going strong with many girls training and then starting their own businesses. He has also just built a new weaving school as well as the car/tractor, mechanic / maintenance course and the brick making facility and he has just started a wood-working shop. He is not only looking after the children but also schooling them and teaching them life skills and entrepreneurship so that they can survive when they leave the orphanage. These business enterprises also help towards funding the orphanage. Community Development Last year we built a causeway / bridge for a community of 500 who were cut off when their road was washed away further North in Kalmunai. Last July, when we finished this project, we pulled out just as the security situation worsened. We felt it un-necessary to return further north this time to see the causeway but we know it is a vital piece of infrastructure that is a real blessing to the community. UK plumbers provide pipeline in Sri Lanka Sarah Westall from Haydon Bridge joined five others from Tynedale in the UK who were volunteering teaching in special schools in Sri Lanka. One of the schools was in a very poor area in a tea plantation in the uplands. The school had no water supply making it difficult for the children on long hot days in the classroom. Over the last few years, Mercy Trucks have had many volunteers from Tynedale working to undertake a number of orphanage, community development and educational development projects in Sri Lanka ever since the tsunami. Roy Dixon the Founder of Mercy Trucks, said that when he realised that Sarah’s Father and Uncle were the Directors of J.P. Westall Ltd, a plumbing company based in Hexham and that Sarah was teaching in a school with no water, that here was a perfect opportunity for a joint venture and he persuaded Sarah to ask her Father’s company to sponsor Mercy Trucks the £430.00 they needed to dig and install a water well, electricity line, pump house and install the 180 metres of water line up to the school class rooms, toilets, kitchen and school house. Roy said that this is a perfect example of people working together to help make the world a better place. Mercy Trucks are on the ground in a number of countries around the world but we can do nothing without people coming out to volunteer and without individuals or companies who are prepared to fund such projects. He continued “a pound goes such a long way in developing countries when it is managed correctly”. Older News This is an extract from the diary dated 18 February 2005 Before Christmas, the main project was to set up a Mercy
Truck base in Sweden. This was to fundraise and then build and operate
mobile medical units in the Ukraine. Then the Asian tsunami struck and
we had to get into gear and do something. Since starting the Asian
project things have snowballed, the original plan was to ship the truck
full of aid and rebuilding equipment out to Sri Lanka next month. Then
last week we had a number of requests from our counterparts in Sri
Lanka to go this month because they are having difficulties getting aid
from the port out to where it is needed. We have been delighted with the response, including; the Mercy Truck shoe box appeal in Wiltshire for family resettlement packs, water purification units from Holland and a JCB type digger machine from London so that we can assist with the clear up and redevelopment work. We are now unable to fit everything into our truck so we have had to change plans and instead ship it all out in a 40 foot container. By doing it this way, we can take more aid and equipment for less cost. We hope to be able to get a smaller second hand truck such as a transit pickup. We will ship it to Sri Lanka in a container with other aid and equipment packed around it. This way, everything will arrive sooner and the truck will stay to keep working on the longer term re-development projects. This now releases our larger truck to undertake another Mercy Truck project in Africa, after it has finished collecting the aid in UK and Europe for Sri Lanka. A few months ago there was only the two of us with one project, before too long, Mercy Trucks we will be undertaking simultaneous projects in the Ukraine, Africa and Sri Lanka with volunteer staff from UK Europe and the USA. People are really getting behind the project for Sri Lanka. Family, friends and local businesses have been volunteering there services, preparing the equipment that is necessary for the clean up and reconstruction. All we need now is some help towards funding this work. Donations will go a long way in Sri Lanka because of the local economy and the fact that everyone on the project is a volunteer who pays there own costs. This is an extract from the diary dated 31 March 2005 We have spent four hot and sticky days in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo having meetings with various organisations who we are networking together to undertake a number of house building and redevelopment projects. The plans are coming along well and it is wonderful how the different skills offered can be combined together to make a real and lasting change. It was good to be with the team earlier in the week and to be able to visit one of the building plots. We find this to be an exciting project with great potential. Catherine and I are delighted in the way that it is being coordinated with such integrity and transparency. Also the sensitivity for the needs of the families and the holistic approach to serving those needs, i.e. building homes not houses with the social support and infrastructure, make this whole project one in which we feel honoured to be able to serve. Catherine and I decided to take off south for a couple of days to be closer to our first project and then later we have travelled further south to Galle. Sadly travelling down on the train from Colombo to Galle we witnessed enough tsunami destruction to last us for a lifetime. Vast areas wiped out. We have spent time with locals who are eager to show you around and explain their story. One guy showed me photos he took on the beach when the sea receded back from the shoreline. No one knew what was happening and they were running down over the now exposed sea bed looking at the stranded fish. Then about ten minutes later when all of this water had charged up into a massive wave they noticed it out at see and began to run for there lives inland. Unfortunately due to the confusion of this new experience many just stood and watched in amazement at this phenomenon of nature. Fortunately, this guy was able to run fast enough and far enough inland to be able to survive. He explained how in that area it was not just a big wave that initially smashed its path through towns, but also that the swell of the sea continued to rise and rise flooding inland washing away everything in its path for about half an hour. Then, later when it started to subside, the flow started back in the opposite direction washing now smashed building and people back out to sea. Travelling south by train to Galle in a hot and steamy third class compartment was an experience. The exciting feeling of being an explorer as I was hanging out of the side of the train dodging the branches of jungle was mixed with a feeling of great sadness and distress when you go past vast areas where whole villages have been wiped out. Long stretches of heavy railway track attached to concrete sleepers were ripped out and flipped over. We were very impressed with the engineering skill and the speed that they have been able to rebuild the bridges and build up the land again that had been washed away and then to replace the track. There techniques of bridge building without a crane, is especially inspiring. Much of these areas were not just damaged on the surface but the long period of heavy water flows has completely changed the landscape, digging out lakes where none had existed before and filling up to ground level where other lakes had been. The map in these parts will have to be re-drawn. One guy who lost his fishing business, home, wife and children, buried his family all together where the home once stood. He has pitched his tend on top of the grave and just cries all day and night, he wont eat or move from the spot. There was a peace that fell in our train carriage as we passed the smashed up train where 2000 people died near Galle. One carriage has been left on a short section of track that still remains upright, as a memorial. One thing that did strike me was the determination to
rebuild. Some of the survivors are cleaning the old bricks and
re-digging their foundations and when they see a white face hanging out
the train the kids run along side smiling and waving. They still have a
big smile and welcome even though some have lost more than we could
imagine. Back on the 24th of March we loaded the following into the Mercy Truck export container. (The container arrived here Sri Lanka on the 23 of April.) The aid and equipment that we took in this first shipment included:
Things that we still need:
Because no ramp was available, we had to use the
climbing method to load the digger into the shipping container. The team loading up the aid and equipment into the
export container at the Youth With A Mission / Mercy Truck base in
Harpenden, England back in March. The container arrived here in Sri Lanka on the 23rd of April. While we were waiting for the container to arrive Catherine and I visited some of the areas affected by the tsunami. We travelled south and witnessed some terrible destruction. In Hambantota, a small town where over 4,000 died we found dead fish still lying on the beach with rubble of houses and smashed fishing boats lying all around. Our hearts broke for a little girl called Cumari, who
was still having to sleep among the rubble of her former home. I did
not take a photo of her parents living among the rubble as it felt to
be an invasion of their privacy. As she played in the sand she made a
model of what is most on her mind, a new home. Most of these people are now poor because they have lost everything however many of them were not poor beforehand. The tsunami did not distinguish between colour, race, or wealth. It just trampled over everyone equally. We heard many heart wrenching stories some telling of how they survived by hanging on to a log while being washed far out to sea or how they managed to rescue friends and neighbours or other sad stories of how a mother can not come to terms with the last look she saw on her child’s face as she had to choose which child to let go of to save the other, or of the fisherman who returned from a days work to find everything he had including his wife, children and home, all washed away. Those fishing far out at sea did not know about the tsunami until they returned home. However among this, we also saw a strong resilience by
the Sri Lankan people to rebuild their lives. We found these three
young boys Dilshan, Sihas (with a broken arm) and Rishort, they were
using a hammer and chisel to chip away at the rubble to dig out bricks
so that they can start to rebuild a home. Although they have been
through so much, they still smile and welcome you. They have since
written to us asking for our assistance as they still need help. It
breaks . my heart but we can’t help everyone. This has taken a lot of pulling together and cutting through red tape. It is just through Gods’ grace that the right doors have opened and we have been able to have meetings with the right government officials, although it has been very hard work and tiresome, they are lovely helpful people, it’s just a very bureaucratic system. We are now getting very involved with some other large projects most of them through the church. At the moment there are many hundreds of miles of demolished houses with piles of rubble strewn all around. This looks bad for the tourist industry and for Sri Lanka as a whole. We are hoping to set up a number of micro enterprise projects that will have a positive effect by setting up in business many of those who have lost much in the tsunami. Through working with locals we are able to determine the harder working and enterprising people and form mini cooperatives. If we can raise the funds we will then supply on loan a hand (low scale) concrete block making machine and the working capitol so as to cover the cost of income and running the business over a period of time long enough to allow sufficient production, sales and eventual financial return. If after a few weeks they seem to be meeting targets then we are able to take back the hand machine (to start the process over again with another group) and loan the initial group a larger scale mechanical block making machine. It is hoped that these partnerships might then start to eventually expand into builders’ merchants selling other items as well as the blocks that they are now manufacturing. This not only creates employment, but gives hope to the hurting and a local source of low cost building materials for those who need to rebuild. Another spin off benefit is that instead of having to buy the sand and gravel and pay for the transport they can instead clear up the rubble from the destroyed buildings and crush it to make the aggregate and use this material to make paving slabs, drainage channels, curbs etc. So it not only helps to clear-up the old rubble but it also helps with rebuilding the new. There are many positive synergies between this project and the home and community building projects we are becoming involved with. These people don’t want handouts, they want homes and businesses and to be able to create self sustainability for the long term, this is where we are trying to serve. This is an extract from the diary dated 18 August 2005 Much has happened since the last update, we have been working hard helping to build temporary accommodation for the tsunami victims in the East of Sri Lanka. This is a remote part that has missed out on much of the help due the remote location, the fact that it is a Tamil area and it is becoming more dangerous to work here because of the Tamil Tiger attacks on the Sri Lankan Task Force. (This has become much worse recently) We have had over 35 people from more than 7 countries out assisting Mercy Trucks. We have been working on a number of projects, the main one being helping to build temporary houses for 1,300 people. At the end of August, we are returning back to the UK for two months to work on setting up new projects in other parts of the world. A quick update on some of the other projects;- The fully equipped dental van is now working in the Ukraine with street children and we have been preparing the other truck and trailer for possible work in Africa on medical outreach projects. However we also need to pray in funding for these other projects. We have now set up an office and base in east of Sri Lanka are we are very excited about returning to carry on with the work that we have started. This includes giving out the aid and family resettlement packs that we brought from the UK. We have started a program of re-digging out the water pits / wells that were filled in by the tsunami, so that the farmers can pump the water again and re-start there vegetable growing enterprises. We took an old plastic sheet and used soapy water to make a slide. This was a great way of undertaking subtle counselling and helping the children with their physiological fear of water along with rebuilding some of the community sprit. If we can raise the necessary funds, we are hoping to carry on supporting and working at the orphanage. Some of the 75 boys here were orphaned by the war, some are returnee child soldiers that were abducted by the Tamil Tigers and some are orphaned by the tsunami. We are hoping to help with welding and tractor maintenance courses for the boys as they need a skill to be able to survive here. We are hoping to be able to help with the concrete block making facility that they have already set up. This will help to fund the orphanage as well as supply a source of low cost quality building blocks for the rebuilding of the community. Another exciting project that we have been able to assist with is the sewing school. We were able to donate some machines but the class will have to close if they can not raise the necessary £500.00 they require for the next six month term to run the school. When the 25 girls from each term finish the course, they each receive a certificate in dress making; a sewing machine of their own and 1000 rupees (£5.00) to start up there own business. They have started to build this computer training
centre, this will help to provide an income for the orphanage but again
lack of funds have halted this, they need £1700 for the
completion. We would like to be able to assist with this when we
return. Sri Lanka is a great place to serve and your donation goes such
a long way here. Since we have set up our office and base in the local village, many people are coming with requests for help and assistance. We are also networking and assisting other organisations and over the last weeks we have had many of the locals wanting to work with us. Many have said that they want to volunteer the same as us, work for no wage, they just want to get working and help their community to rebuild. Mercy Trucks have no shortage of work and volunteers we just need some funding and to get back quickly and help to coordinate it all. Thank you and God bless you. Roy and Catherine Dixon. |
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