Local group in mercy mission (From Harrow Times)

Local group in mercy mission

5:10pm Wednesday 19th January 2005 in News By Alex Melvin

A LOCAL group of volunteers, who flew to Sri Lanka to distribute vital supplies following the tsunami disaster, spoke of their extraordinary experience on their return this week.

After the Boxing Day earthquake ravaged their homeland, Tamils Thipa Thedlhanamoorthy, 27, of Cannon Lane, Pinner; Mahiban Thevarajah, 28, of Argyle Road, North Harrow; Muralee Sabanathan, 27, of Ryeland Road, Uxbridge; Akilan Vee, 27, of St Thomas Drive, North Harrow and Suthan Anthonpyllai, 27, of Northolt Road, South Harrow felt compelled to act.

They spent a week collecting clothes and drugs and coordinating the relief effort from Flyplaces Travel, Thipa and Muralee's travel agency in Rayners Lane.

Thipa said: "The response was amazing. We ended up with container loads of supplies."

However, the friends were anxious that their hard work should not be wasted.

After learning that Tamil speaking areas in the north and east of the country were not receiving aid as quickly or as fulsomely as Sinhalese regions in the south, the group decided to personally deliver the aid.

Mahiban, whose uncle is a Tamil politician, used his contact to organise the two-week trip.

He said: "We had heard that aid wasn't getting there so we wanted to bring some ourselves. My uncle's constituency is Amparai and Batticloa, in the east, and he invited us to help."

None of the group want to politicise the tragedy but were deeply concerned about distribution of aid to their fellow Tamils.

Mahiban said: "For every £10 spent on Sri Lankans in the south, only £2 is spent in the north and east."

On January 2, the volunteers set off for Colombo, following on from six medical students: Shobana Ratw, of Capthorne Avenue, Rayners Lane; sisters Dhanusha and Dhashnima Thanapalasingham, of The Gardens, West Harrow; Sarvban Pasu, of Carlton Avenue East, Wembley; Kanchan Sharma, of Tower Bridge and Jane Bremnath, of Luton, who left two days earlier.

The group arrived with some trepidation. However, none could have predicted what lay ahead.

As well as witnessing the devastation inflicted by the tsunami, their two-week adventure included a number of hair-raising situations.

"The scariest was being attacked by the military after visiting a hospital," Muralee said. "We were interviewing patients and there was a mix-up with the doctor. He called the military and they beat me up and took us to the police station.

"After three hours they let us go, but Tiaro, the Tamil charity helping us, advised us to leave immediately and change our vehicle in case we were followed."

The rest of the trip was spent distributing drugs, clothing and their own cash across the country.

Thipa said: "We didn't limit ourselves to Tamil regions, we also went to Galle. It's not about politics but helping people.

"We saw some terrible things: bodies of dead children, entire families living in makeshift refugee camps and schools, hospitals and villages completely destroyed."

One moment vividly captured the desperation.

Thipa said: "We started giving out money in Amparai and within seconds a mob descended on us. People were pushing each other out of the way and shouting.

"We drove away but they followed us back to our camp and, for a time, we were barricaded in."

Afterwards, charity workers at Tiaro helped with the distribution which went well.

The last members of the group arrived back on Sunday.

Mahiban said: "We're all exhausted but want to keep things going. We're thinking of setting up our own charity to allow us to receive donations."

To help Mahiban and the group, email amelvin@london.newsquest.co.uk