Report from Sri Lanka

Senator Bill Frist
01/07/2005

Earlier this afternoon in a small village in Sri Lanka I hand-delivered $25,000 from the World of Hope Foundation directly to Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne and his wife, founders of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, which is now one of the most highly regarded indigenous nongovernmental organization in Sri Lanka. It was our first meeting. But he is a saintly man and a legend in the country. Their focus is children and relief and basic human services, with a very special emphasis on self-development and the psychological impact of disaster. I met him outside on a sunny day at one of his orphanages where we had just helped in the delivery of massive amounts of a vital children's fluid replacement solution called Pedialite donated by Abbott Labs, carried over generously by Tennessee's own FedEx and supported by The Limited and other US and Sri Lankan companies. As I personally presented the World Of Hope funds on behalf of so many of you (WOH was established this year to respond to public health and disaster crises around the world as a currency of peace through humanitarian and medical assistance and contributed to by many of you -- and I deeply thank you.), I was struck by the warm coming together of so many world and American partners to respond to the evolving disaster, beginning with you and families all across America. What a connected world we really are!

We spent the day in Sri Lanka. I was traveling with Senator Mary Landrieu, a senate leader on issues such as adoption, and my staff Mark and Bob. We caught up with my friend Kenny Isaacs, formerly with Samaritan's Purse (and with whom I have traveled many times on mission work to Uganda, Sudan, Chad) and now director for foreign disaster assistance with USAID, and visited hundreds of people in three different regions of the country. Sri Lanka is an island country south of India, population about 20 million, the size of West Virginia; it has lost over 30,000 people in the tsunami, with over 100,000 homes totally destroyed and thousands others severely affected. Right now over 800,000 people (who two weeks ago had homes and were living normal lives) have no home -- a third of which are children. And with no home they have no shelter, no jobs, and inadequate access to clean water and sanitation facilities.

At a strained hospital with two children to a bed because of overcrowding, on rounds with the exhausted surgeon I met an 8 year old boy with a leg abscess, infected because he had spent the last 9 days looking for his parents and brothers and sisters (they had died) rather than having his disaster-caused laceration treated early. And across the country at a relief camp for 225 people, waiting in line for medical treatment was a woman, with a crudely bandaged foot, in tears as her 4 year old son frighteningly clutched her hand and leg -- both still in shock having lost the rest of their family. And then there was the US-sponsored (The US Agency for International Development is doing tremendous work as the lead agency for disaster response on the ground) International Red Cross medical team of Sri Lankan doctors and medical students working nonstop in makeshift tents responding to scores of people waiting to be seen to have their lacerations addressed, their dehydration from diarrhea treated, their pneumonia (caused by aspiration of sea water) diagnosed, their psychological trauma alleviated. 

At a Muslim-centered community, in front of another crowded relief center where families were living in crowded classrooms with ceilings but no walls, we joined volunteers handing out CARE-sponsored packages of food and supplies to interminable lines of people, again in shock and seemingly so helpless -- but with each bundle we handed off, there was a brief smile, a quick glance upward, and a "thank you" expressed in said and unsaid ways.

One moment I would feel so good and so hopeful about how everyone is pulling together and then the next, depressed. For example, we saw a beautiful orchestration of relief and medical efforts coming together for the 2,200 family members at the Thasim relief center in Katugoda, Galle (on the southwest coast), where we delivered P & G donated Camelbak hydrating units and water purification supplies we brought to such appreciative families). But as we were driving out, a look to the right discovered the fresh site of the mass graves for 517 from the community. 

We flew the coastline in a helicopter. What was so remarkable to me was the endless continuity of the destruction. We traveled hundreds of miles of coastline and there is simply no break in the destruction. Railways upended, bridges taken out, total destruction of anything even close to the coastline -- it will take years to rebuild. Speaking of rebuilding, late in the afternoon we went by the embassy where we met 20 marines who had just arrived and were planning their operations as part of the relief efforts underway. The general commanding the operation is Brigadier General Frank Panter from Winchester, Tennessee! I was proud to see him in action as he commands the operation that will oversee more than a hundred of our finest in the humanitarian effort underway. We all have so much to thank our military personnel for all around the world.

We flew over to the second worst hit region in the country, the Ampara district on the east coast, where there are 125 relief camps for the 180,000 people who are without homes. In the coastal village Kalmunai, we visited the hospital (North Base) where I scrubbed up to see the primitive but functional operating room, and we made rounds and met the dedicated nurses and Canadian doctors who had just arrived to assist for the next two weeks. The surgeon there had personally taken care of over 500 people on the day of the disaster. He frantically put out a call for help minutes after the disaster on the internet, his computer within minutes rendered nonfunctional; but his brief email had somehow been picked up by some Scandinavian doctors who miraculously arrived within 48 hours to stand up the entire pediatric response ward. You hear miracle story after story.

One logistical problem that will hit within a week or so is the fact that most of the refugee camps are set up at schools (as well as churches, temples, and mosques) -- like the Kalmunai camp for displaced Tamils we visited which occupied Wesley School. The 420 homeless occupants will be displaced again (I don't know where or how), because school must begin for the children within two weeks. Also, the sanitation facilities at the school relief camps have been a huge challenge. This might be a problem coupled with the lack of clean drinking water -- which in disasters of this magnitude can result in as many of the 50% of the late deaths.

Around the country there are 827 camps like the ones we visited. The S.L. military is taking the lead in the camps. USAID is doing a tremendous job coordinating all for us. USAID has thus far had three major relief flights coming in, supplying 250,000 rolls of plastic sheeting for shelter, three 10,000 liter water bladders, 11,000 water containers, and thousands of blankets. More is on the way. I mentioned the wonderful and inspiring presence of the marines who will help with large debris removal and helicopter airlift to remote areas.

Tonight we met individually with the Prime Minister and the President. We pledged our ongoing US support, for which they are thankful. 

Where do you start and where do you end? I guess I can summarize by saying the tragedy is as big as it sounds. The human suffering is ongoing. Our response as a country and as a people has been bold. It is appropriate and it is good. And from my being on the ground I can tell you that the Sri Lankan people are deeply appreciative. There will be more for us to do collectively as a government and as individuals. The reminder is that the world is small and we are all connected.

Time for bed -- jet lag and all. Thanks for putting up with these ramblings. 

Bill Frist 

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