First of all, we would like to thank you for the gift of your grant to help fund our trip to Sri Lanka this past May.  The purpose of our journey was to investigate the effects of the tsunami on Sri Lankan communities and to seek ways to help on a grassroots level.  In this letter we hope to highlight for you some of the findings of our visit.

We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka on May 17th, 2005.  After spending a few days in the capital with Marshall Fernando, Director of the Ecumenical Institute for Religious Study, we set out for a small city on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Batticaloa is situated in the region hardest hit by the December 25th tsunami. Once a thriving fishing community and cultural center of the east, this coastal area continues to experience the devastating effects of the civil war and the tidal wave.

Through visiting refugee camps, and with the help of translators, we began to piece together the reality the people of Batticaloa now face. Here are some of the insights we gained:

	There are three types of refugees:
	1)	those who lost their possessions and yet consider themselves fortunate to be alive,
	2)	those who lost their possessions and some of their family members and are desperate to get back to work to support the survivors, and
	3)	those who lost everything and everyone they love and feel they have no reason to go on.
	Some of the most affected are the fishing community. Their livelihoods depended on the ocean, and now they are being told that they will be relocated 5 miles away from the shore – to them, this is the jungle. There are plans to set up a 200 meter buffer zone between the ocean and residential areas. Though this sounds logical, there is suspicion that exceptions will be made for the tourist industry, meaning that the fisher-people's land may be turned into hotel resorts.

We returned to Colombo for a conference held by PC(USA)'s Joining Hands Against Hunger.  Members of grassroots organizations from across the island met to discuss the interrelation of the tsunami and globalization.  Over three days, we learned a great deal about issues Sri Lankans have faced for decades, many of which have only been exacerbated by the tsunami. Matters discussed included:

	The right to employment and land. One of the most important way for Sri Lanka to overcome the effects of the tsunami is through training and hiring in cottage industries such as carpentry, sewing, electrical, plumbing. Also essential to Sri Lankans' well-being is access to land, which, as mentioned above, has become less viable for certain communities after the tsunami.
	Joining Hands Against Hunger's proposal to develop a network of grassroots organizations in Sri Lanka that would combine forces in dealing with the challenges brought about by the tsunami. Joining Hands promised to support their ideas without asserting their own, Western agenda. During the conference, a network of organizations was successfully formed.

Since returning to the US, we have presented a documentation of our trip to five congregations.  Through this, we hope not only to inform Christian communities about Sri Lanka and the effects of the tsunami but to inform congregations directly about Joining Hands Against Hunger and other ways to help directly. Donegal Presbytery is currently considering linking with Sri Lanka's network of organizations through Joining Hands Against Hunger.

Again, we thank you for your generosity toward this effort.  Grace and peace to you.