The World Of Tzu Chi(Vol.114).

TZU CHI 114 35 Sri Lanka 2019.07.23 Working Together to Restore Shelter lobal News Reported by Tzu Chi Documenting Team Translated by Choo Suet Fun Photographs provided by Tzu Chi Taiwan Headquarters T he Tzu Chi Hambantota office received a request for assistance from Anula Ranjani’s family, whose sources of sustenance had been depleted. Furthermore, the roof of their hut had fallen into disrepair. Several volunteers were dispatched to visit the family after learning of their plight. Anula’s husband lost the use of his left arm in an accident several years ago, rendering him unfit for permanent employment. He currently works odd jobs for a living, leaving the family to rely on Anula’s paltry income as a textile factory worker. The demise of their cancer-stricken eldest daughter in 2017 was devastating for Anula and her husband. The following year, consolation came in the form of their new bundle of joy. Yet, the newborn turned into a source of woe, a burden that compounded their deplorable predicament. For the past four years, the family has been living on precarious terrain in the company of wild elephants. The volunteers arrived at Anula’s home to discover that the family had been getting by with inadequate shelter. Rainwater leaked through the battered roof made of nipah leaves – even the plastic bags used to patch the holes in the roof were in tatters. Without a proper roof over their heads, Anula and her husband had no choice but to tuck their one-year-old child under the bed to shield the infant from the elements. The volunteers solicited donations of concrete, roof tiles, bricks and coconut tree trunks as pillars for Anula’s hut and commenced restoration works on the roof on July 23, 2019 after more than ten days of extensive planning. After a thorough clean-up of the house, the volunteers proceeded to conduct repairs on the nipah roof. Closer examination revealed signs of erosion on many of the pillars due to prolonged exposure to rainwater, leading the volunteers to realize that the construction materials prepared and allocated budget were insufficient to compensate for the damage. The restoration project concluded at midnight with the help of Anula’s kind neighbours.