01. Introduction
Giant Tsunami unleashed by a massive undersea earthquake in distant Sumatara lashed coastal areas of many Asian countries on the morning of Sunday 26th December 2004,killing several thousands of people and affecting millions of people across Asia and Africa. Next only to Indonesia, Sri Lanka was the worst hit amongst these. 50,000 people died in Sri Lanka.

02. Initial Status
90% of the affected people sought refuge in schools, temples, churches, mosques and public halls, which became the operational camps. Most of these camps did not have electricity and proper water supplies. The entire water system was polluted. The locals mostly depended on wells, which were now filled with sea water.

Most people had lost their homes, livelihood, families, close ones, entire life savings and above all hopes of living. Thus they were depressed and needed lots of counseling.

The worst affected communities were the fishing villages who had traditionally lived along the shores. In one area of Thambiluvil 2 whole villages had perished. In Batticaloa one young sanyasi was swallowed into the sea altogether with his Ashram of 25 children and 8 staff.

03. Volunteers
Our volunteers sprang into action since within an hour on that the very disastrous day itself, concentrating in Batticaloa and Ampara districts which were the worst effected areas in Sri Lanka and have mass Tamil Hindu population.

In Batticaloa since some of our volunteers were already gathered in a school prior to Tsunami conducting a Training Camp, they were able to immediately go into action of helping the people to safety and also distribute food to the needy ones.

04. Relief Centres and Camps
Initially some 800 volunteers were in the field and to date some 225 volunteers are working round the clock to look into the needs of the affected people.

Volunteers immediately set up a relief centres namely one in Kalavanchikudy of Batticaloa District taking care of 9 relief camps and another in Thambiluvel of Ampara District covering 11 relief camps.