Web of Life

Podimenike protected her onion cultivation every night. It is a small patch, perhaps a twenty perch plot. The harvest would see her through the year. That is if she could harvest. The elephants come from the jungles of Minneriya to devastate the cultivations of the Indigaswewa villagers. "mahaththayo, pol katuwakata anguru daala mama aliyata gahuwa". She threw a coconut shell filled with cinders at the elephant. That is what she told me and 1 could not help thinking of a biblical parallel of a grey haired "Woman David" without a sling shot swinging a coconut shell at a Wild Elephant Goliath. That was the only protest she could make against the intruder in protection of her precious onions.

Sunil worked at a hotel in the vicinity as a Daily paid labourer. He was coming home in the night and the elephant atttacked grabbed him and threw him from his bicycle. Sunil survived. Six months in the hospital with damaged intestines and God knows what else. He smiles and tells me the story, "mama yanthan be runa Sir".

Little Roshani walks 3 km to her school. She is 8 years old. Mahesh is 17 years and has sat for the GCE ‘O’level examinations. He now loiters in the village, hopes dimmed, reluctantly returning to the field with a mammoty. Manel has three children to raise and her husband died years ago. She makes bricks in her back yard. Podi Appu has no home. Yes, he has a one room shack with a door-less doorway where he and his daughter and her husband and three children sleep. Toilets? The village never had any; it was always the jungle.

That was Indigaswewa when AFLAC first visited in the January of 2003. Today, thanks to the generosity of so many people associated with AFLAC International, Association for Lighting a Candle — (A very much Sri Lankan approved charity working to alleviate poverty in Sri Lanka) Indigaswewa is completely transformed. Twenty four new homes have been built for the families - little two bed-roomed tiled houses made of bricks and cement to - replace the cadjan shacks. A small play-ground has been constructed with swings and seesaws for the children of Indigaswewa. An AFLAC Hall has come up to serve as a community hall, with simple residential accommodation for volunteers to stay and teach the village children English. A beautiful "Bodhiya" has been surrounded with a white pillared fence and a matching tile-laid "Budu Ge" where rests a serene statue of the Lord Buddha — a place of worship for the villagers.

All this came from a collection of kindness from those associated with AFLAC. A professor from Hong Kong donated generously. A doctor from Eastbourne matched. AFLAC Perth branch arranged for the paint and AFLAC Sydney branch gifted lamps. The playground was funded by a Lankan lady from Monte Carlo. There were bicycles from Amsterdam and sewing machines from all over. AFLAC members "hat collected" in Colombo; individuals and companies generously responded with cement and tiles and weathershield and "what not". That is how the project became a "Collection of Kindness".

It was no easy task building a village in a remote locality. The bricks were made by the villagers. The windows and doors came from Moratuwa. The cement, the tiles and the tins of paint all had to be transported, along with the workmen who would lead the village volunteer force. The AFLAC Project Coordinator, an expert at construction, tirelessly traversed the distance in order to ensure the houses were properly completed.

AFLAC Village will be formally opened on’ the 30th of October — it would be a morning to remember; even more for those who made it happen than the ones who benefited. People who had nothing have been given a "home and a hope". It is a meaningful beginning. Promises have been made and promises have been kept. Indigaswewa is no more another "Village in the Jungle". It is a place of beauty where the combined efforts of people who cared have blossomed into a heartwarming story; a reality for the needy.

The rainbows and the stars were far away — it is nice to know they are a little closer now.

website — www.aflacinternational.com

(http://www.island.lk/2004/10/24/features9.html)