Humanitarian Aid work-
BIG WAVE BIG HEART.

Following my trip to Sri Lanka, following the Tsunami disaster in December 2005, I was compelled to set up a relief fund to support those affected by the disaster. It is estimated that it will take about 10 years to help rebuild the communities again in the areas worst affected by the disaster.

I am currently raising funds to support the fishermen, who were some of the worst affected by the Tsunami disaster.

Please click on my website below to read more about my experience of counselling those affected by the Tsunami disaster and about the relief fund work I am currently undertaking. Below I have also included an excerpt from a friend of mine, who helped support me with this work in terms of fund-raising.

www.bigwave-bigheart.co.uk

It was just over a year ago that the tsunami disaster occured which devastated parts of India and South East Asia - it was an event that struck at the heart of humanity.

As we move into 2007, many of the people who were directly affected by this tsunami are still struggling to rebuild their lives. Some of these people will never fully recover from this event, having lost their loved ones, and others are still without homes and the means to support themselves.

As our thoughts turn to the coming year and to what this will bring us, I would ask you to please take a moment to remember those whose lives are still affected by the events of Boxing Day 2005.

I am including a link to a website which was set up by a friend of mine, Shila Jassal, to help the people of Sri Lanka. Shila was one of a group of medical volunteers who went to Sri Lanka to help the people there following the tsunami disaster. Shila is a qualified counsellor and she gave grief counselling to the children and adults who had lost family in the tsunami. Although many of the stories are devastating, they are also stories of great courage and dignity.

Shila was so moved by what she saw that she set up 'bigwave-bigheart'. On this website you will find, not only the many personal stories of people involved, but also details of how you can donate to help them. So far Shila has used the funds that she has raised to buy fishing nets for the fishermen who live on the south coast of Sri Lanka, around Matara, and whose livelihoods were destroyed by the tsunami wave. One net costs around £150.00. The fishermen in the area say that even if they receive one net each, this can be shared by 5 families! In 2006 she also plans to use the funds for rehabilitation purposes, and especially for building new accommodation blocks for the orphans in the north of Sri Lanka. .

Shila plans to return to Sri Lanka in the next year to continue her work there - she has committed to this cause for the next 9 years, which is how long it is going to take for the country to get back on its feet again, with an adequate infrastructure.

I am attaching the link to Shila's website; please take a moment to look at this, and if you can, then please donate to bigheart-bigwave so that Shila can continue the good work that she is doing there.

Gisele Burnett, Amsterdam.