Pallansena, (IKA) – On Tuesday, October 21, in Pallansena, Sri Lanka, Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo formally opened 50 houses and placed them at the disposal of 50 families left homeless by the 2004 tsumani. The project of housing repair and construction, which began in 2006, was jointly financed by Croatian and German Caritas. The opening ceremonies were also attended by the head of Croatian Caritas, Ivan Milovčić. Pallansena is a fishing village near the city of Negombo, approximately 40 km from the capital city of Colombo, on the west coast of the island of Sri Lanka. In addition to housing construction, the project also includes land purchase, internal road construction, infrastructure and administrative costs. The impact of this project was further enhanced because the work was performed by domestic subcontractors, who employed the local population to a great extent. The total value of the project is 614,000 euros, of which Croatian Caritas contributed 360,000 euros collected in a national humanitarian campaign. The new residents of these houses, the neediest among the local homeless families, jointly contacted the pastor from Pallasena, representatives of the regional Caritas – Seth Saran, and the organizations of the Government of Sri Lanka which participated in the renewal program after the tsunami. The newly built community is named Cardinal Thomas Cooray in honor of the cardinal of Sri Lanka.

Only one day following the tragedy caused by an underwater earthquake and the devastation of the waves, which afflicted approximately ten Southern Asian countries on December 26, 2004, Croatian Caritas launched a national campaign to collect assistance in which, thanks to the donations of Croatian citizens and companies, over 5.5 million kunas were collected. The funds collected in what was the largest humanitarian campaign in terms of contributions that Croatian Caritas has conducted on the international level, were sent to Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Indonesia. The largest share of the collected funds, 4.8 million kunas, was sent by Croatian Caritas to Sri Lanka, where over 1.5 million people had been left homeless and many thousands of children orphaned. Due to the consequences of the tsunami, approximately 40,000 people were killed, mainly women and children. After the tsunami, the economy of Sri Lanka collapsed, particularly the fishing industry, one of the major economic branches of that country, and 270,000 people were left jobless. In addition to housing construction in Sri Lanka, the funds that Croatian citizens and companies collected in the campaign were also spent on medications, children’s food, water purifiers and pumps, school uniforms, school supplies, fishing boats, fishing nets, gas burners, mattresses and tents.