News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
On December 26, 2004, a massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Samaritan Children’s Home in Sri Lanka.
A year later, Dayalan Sanders is still working to rebuild the orphanage — with help from donors in Sisters.
“The children are currently living in two rental homes,” Diyana Sanders Gunaratnam, the sister of Dayalan Sanders, told The Nugget on Monday, December 26.
“Dayalan has bought land away from the ocean,” she said. “They have started rebuilding.”
The orphanage housed 35 children when the tsunami hit. Sanders, his wife, the staff and all 35 children escaped from the wave in a fiberglass boat. According to Gunaratnam, Sanders now cares for 28 to 30 children — four or five of them orphans of the tsunami. The new Samaritan Children’s Home will house 150 orphans.
The Sisters community joined others around the nation in funneling support to Sanders after his dramatic story appeared in The Washington Post. The Nugget helped direct funds to Samaritan Home Relief through an account at Bank of the Cascades.
According to Gunaratnam, the financial help — and the moral support — were invaluable.
“He couldn’t have done what he has done so far without the financial support and the prayers of people from all over the world,” she said. “There’s no way he could have achieved any of this.”
Gunaratnam said her brother hopes to have the new orphanage completed in three months — but there are complications. A ceasefire called between Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels and the government has broken down and there has been violence in Batticaloa, where the orphanage is located.
A local legislator, Joseph Pararajasingham, was murdered while he was in church worshipping with his family on Christmas eve and suspected rebels attacked a police station with rocket propelled grenades on Christmas morning, according to reports from the Press Trust of India.
Gunaratnam said her brother does not fear for his personal safety, but he is concerned that the violence will make it more difficult to complete work on the orphanage.
Sanders is continuing to work at a grueling pace, but he is thankful that things seem to be going well.
“Whenever I talk to him he tells me to thank the people... who reached out to help the people and give them hope,” Gunaratnam said.
Contributions to Samaritan Home Relief, Inc. are still being welcomed. Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 83608, #3 Treworthy Road, Gaithersburg, MD 20883.
Gunaratnam said she expects the website at http://www.samaritanchildrenshome.org to be updated with construction pictures in about two weeks.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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