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| Sunday, 9 October 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Allison
Thompson - yet another 'Lady with the lamp'
W. T. J. S. Kaviratne - Ambalangoda Special Correspondent. A group of four international volunteers, Oscar Gubernati, Donny Patterson and Bruce led by Allison Thompson who hail from New York City, U.S.A. were the first to arrive at Peraliya which was one of the worst devastated coastal villages in the Galle District due to the tsunami tragedy.
Allison Thompson who hails from New York City having previous experience of helping the victims injured by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, reached Sri Lanka with the humanitarian mission of extending her helping hand with selfless dedication and inborn compassion for the benefit of the survivors of the tsunami tragedy displaced along the coastal belt of Peraliya, Telwatta, Seenigama and Akurala in the Galle District. When she reached Peraliya, the surrounding area where the biggest ever train tragedy took place killing nearly 2000 passengers, was full of rubble. Tidal waves of tsunami had not spared a single house in the vicinity. Thousands of the villagers at Peraliya and the adjoining villages had either died or disappeared. Allison's immediate concern was to provide medical assistance for the affected people especially small children and women found living in highly congested welfare centres in temples and schools of the area. Four of the volunteers led by Allison repaired one of the classrooms of Peraliya school with the assistance of the villagers. Soon the classroom was converted to a makeshift medical centre initially with the limited medical resources she managed to bring with her when she left the U.S.A. Allison and her group of volunteers started a campaign to collect donations from both local and foreigners visiting the site of the train tragedy. Out of the funds thus collected urgently required medical items were bought locally till her requests overseas for emergency supply of medical items reached the Medical Centre. Gradually hundreds of volunteers, doctors, nurses and all others involved in every aspect of healthcare from all over the world came in search of Allison and Peraliya tsunami medical centre. Thousands of patients, men, women and children suffering from numerous ailments came both day and night seeking treatment and Allison and her group of medical staff found hardly any rest even for their meals. Allison started a website on Peraliya Medical Centre and updated it regularly on every issue they encountered daily at the Centre. Many thousands of volunteers gone through the web and responded positively in fulfilling the immediate requirements of the patients visiting Peraliya Medical Centre. Referring to the success story of Peraliya Medical Centre, Allison said hundreds of volunteers from many countries of the world reached there and worked several months on voluntary basis in the Medical Centre and some of them provided relief for the affected on numerous ways by improving the infrastructure in the devastated areas. Group after group the foreign volunteers came to work in the Medical Centre and the surrounding villages. Allison Thompson who is an Australian national living in the U.S.A. was employed as a teacher in Australia. She was both a nurse and a film director in the U.S.A. One of her friends who has been working with her since the inception Italian born Oscar Gubernati is active in facilitating the educational and sports activities of the tsunami affected children at Peraliya and surrounding villages recently expanded his programmes even to the North and East of the country. He gave a thorough training on soccer to some of the young boys selected from the tsunami affected villages in the Galle district. In addition to humanitarian relief services rendered both by Oscar and Allison for the tsunami affected, a novel idea emerged in their minds on promoting ethnic harmony through sports. Oscar, very successfully organised a soccer match recently in Jaffna. Galle versus Jaffna soccer match took place in Duraiappah Stadium. Thousands of sports enthusiasts of Jaffna were present to witness this grand sport event. Players of both teams became friendly with each other and according to Oscar, sports could play a vital and effective role in promoting reconciliation among communities. Oscar is planning to get down soccer teams of all the tsunami affected countries in Asia for an International Soccer tournament to be held in Galle. Since her arrival in Peraliya in January 2005, Allison has been engaged in extricating the bodies of tsunami victims found in shrub jungles and marshes in and around the devastated coastal villages of Peraliya, Telwatta and Seenigama. With the assistance of another foreign volunteer doctor and the Police she could collect more than 300 bodies, Allison said. Recounting this bizarre experience she said she was nicknamed as "Body Collector" by these villagers. She took great pains to make the affected children and the women happy visiting them almost daily. She gradually became the visiting doctor for the villagers. Referring to unpleasant experiences, she revealed that the hands and fingers of the majority of the bodies she collected were chopped off most probably to remove the jewellery. In addition highly decomposed bodies were found exposed to small children of these villages. Later on the small children were seen playing the 'Dead', imitating a dead person. At present Allison is keen on expanding the services of "Community Tsunami Early Warning Centre" located at Peraliya. She is planning to install a network of Wireless speakers along the coastal belt of the Galle district. By now the people living in the coastal villages of Peraliya, Telwatta and Seenigama are in the habit of making inquiries from this Tsunami Warning Centre whenever rumours are spread of impending tsunamis. For the livelihood development, she had also assisted many of the less fortunate tsunami affected families of these villages. For the reconstruction of tsunami destroyed Peraliya School funds amounting to nearly 15 lakhs of rupees had been received as donations which amount been deposited in the Bank and if the Ministry of Education gives the green light, Allison said the construction of Peraliya School could be started at any time. Allison Thompson, Oscar Gubernati, Donny Patterson and Bruce were the first batch of foreign volunteers to arrive at Peraliya immediately after tsunami. They are seen here with the villagers who joined them later in providing relief to the affected. |
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