A little relief

By Candace Doyle

There's a top project in the state not mentioned in the preceding pages, so we'd like to honor it here.

That's the Salvation Army's Building Homes, Building Hope from Wisconsin project, a tsunami relief effort.

The disaster relief organization was asked by the Sri Lanka government to help with the recovery from the Dec. 26 tsunami, said Tom Thuecks, service extension director for the nonprofit. He said 40,000 Sri Lankans perished in that disaster.

"Shortly after the initial response the Salvation Army provided there, it was realized someone had to step up and build homes for these people," said Thuecks, who spent 10 days there in January and February. "The Salvation Army decided to take that challenge on."

The Sri Lanka government donated 344 acres for the project, Thuecks said, and the goal was 1,000, 400-square-foot homes that cost a "little more than $1,100."

"The purpose of my trip was to go over there and identify villages and the logistics of how this was going to happen," he said.

Soon, he learned that the logistics were hard to overcome. The government is unorganized, frustrating the building process, he said.

"Each little village has its own government, and the bureaucracy that goes along with that is just a maze to go through," Thuecks said.

Also, rebuilding can't take place within 100 meters of the shoreline, for obvious reasons. As many there make their living fishing, that proved frustrating too. And the infrastructure isn't much to speak of either.

"It's really been a mess trying to get going," said Thuecks, adding that the Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity were teaming up to teach those displaced by the tsunami how to build a home.

"Then they have another source of livelihood," he said.

It's the old teaching a man to fish philosophy, Thuecks said.

"We don't just like to go there and hand someone a blank check. We want to work with them. We want to work along side them."

While the home-building process there is slow, despite $300,000 raised here for the effort, Thuecks said the Salvation Army's presence — and that of other relief organizations worldwide — is helping with the rebuilding.

"Everyone there affected by the tsunami wants to tell their story," he said. "That's all part of the healing process too, and we want to be there for that too."

Stories he can't forget include the father who swept up his six children and carried them to safety. And he can't forget being told of Sri Lankans', especially fishermen's, newfound fear of the water.

"They have a fear of that water now," he said. "They didn't trust going back in the sea.

"They can't get out of their mind the possibility of these fish feeding on the corpses."

Then there's the sight of what initially looked like campfires to Thuecks, who later realized that found bodies were cremated on the spot.

"You'd see these burn marks all over," he said. "That was a body, that was a body, that was a body.

"But yet, they're rolling up their shirtsleeves and getting back. It's survival. The strengths of their will — I'll never forget that."

Which brings us to the plea: Donations for the project can be mailed to The Salvation Army, 11315 W. Watertown Plank Road, Wauwatosa, 53226. Online gifts can be made at www.samilwaukee.org.