I've just been looking through my posts & the comments & realised I was asked to share my experience in Sri Lanka. So here is a shortened version of my time there.
I was really affected by the 2004 tsunami. I don't know why. There are many disasters in the world that really get to us sometimes, but that one I just couldn't get out of my mind. A few months after it, there was a talk at CILIP HQ by Premila Gamage, who had come over to talk about the effect on Libraries. Many libraries and schools were destroyed, not to mention Librarians and teachers killed. I asked after her talk what I could do to help. I wasn't capable of doing any physical work such as rebuild things, but I just wanted to do something. Two months later I was on my way there for 2 weeks for turned out to be the first of 5 trips.
Premila had said I could help by helping with re-training and moral boosting for the children. So I spent 2 weeks travelling own the west coast that had been badly affected. The things I saw were heart breaking. The homes that had been destroyed by the water had to be seen to be believed and there so many tents that people were living in because they couldn't afford to re-build. At this point the Government there were just sitting on all the money that had been raised for these people.
Anyway I could go on, but what I actually did was work with groups of children and library staff and school teachers doing story telling sessions, activities, & workshops. It was fun, I can't deny that, but the stories I heard, & the sights I saw were heartbreaking. The one thing from that trip that stuck with me was how happy the children were despite what they had been through! It was incredible.
I cried all the way home, because when I left the tail end of a cyclone had just hit, & all those poor people in those awful tents were getting drenched & I was going home to a nice dry warm house.
So when I got back I started fund raising and collecting books. I called it "Taking Elmer to Sri Lanka" In total I collected 140 boxes of books, some were new from publishers, some were withdrawn library stock from all over!
I went out a few more time over the next 2 or 3 years - until my personal money ran out & I couldn't afford to go again. The itinery changed a little over the visits, & although I still visited the places worst affected by the tsunami, I also did workshops in the slums of Columbo, two different orphanages, and some very remote areas in the hills around Kandy. Also while I was there the war was still raging with the Tamils and I had to get used to beind stopped at gunpoint by soldiers checking who I was!! The first time was un-nerving, but I sort of got used to it.
On one of my visits I was asked to give a paper to the Sri Lankan Library association on children's librarianship and storytelling. That was far more scary than anything else I did!!
This is obviously a very brief description, & although a lot of it was very enjoyable, I have tried to hide away some of the things I heard & saw.
I hope I helped to make a difference, I'm told I did, & I would so love to go back, but it's so expensive - maybe one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment