• Although casualty figures were much higher in other countries, Sri Lanka was the most profoundly affected, with roughly 85% of its coastline flooded and destroyed to greater and lesser degrees. Without a doubt, Sri Lanka will be years in recovering from this tragedy.

• International NGO and Multilateral efforts are focused primarily on the East and North of the island. You can find out more about the Big 5 at the following links:

• The government has removed the tax-exempt status from NGOs and duty must be paid on all incoming relief supplies. If the intended recipient cannot pay the duty (usually around 100%) the government seizes the commodity and sells it at auction.

• The only way to avoid paying this duty is to turn the goods over to the government for distribution.

• The southern coast of the island has been the focal point of the most effective recovery efforts:

• Firstly, because despite significant damage, the infrastructure in the south was fairly well developed (compared to the east and north), and has since been mostly repaired.

• Secondly, the south is easily supported from Colombo via rail and road links as far east at Hambantota. To reach Ampara and Batticaloa it is necessary to go overland on very poor quality roads

• The east and north of the island bore the brunt of the effects of the tsunami. In addition these areas are very flat, so instead of a few hundred meters of destruction, as occurred in the south and west of the country, sections in the East and north were devastated up to 5 and 6 kilometers inland.

• Familiarity with foreigners is much greater in the south than in the east and north, so in general; people in the south have been much more receptive to relief activities.

• The smallest unit of government authority is the Grama Sewaka (person) or the Grama Niladari (area). This is generally represents 500-1000 people.

• Next level is the Divisional Secretariat, The Divisional Secretariat is the lowest level of government administration in centralized office (sort of like county government)

• Next highest is the District Secretariat (DS). The DS is usually the point of coordination, if there is any. for relief and reconstruction efforts going on in the area. The DS may have statistical information available as well on NGOs, bilateral and multilateral efforts going on in the area.

• Villages are small and may be identified with a larger village nearby and the nearest town. i.e., Valuvwatta , Morrakatiara , Tangalle. [small village], [larger village], [division]

• There are 16 Districts in Sri Lanka and 12 of these have been tsunami-affected.

• Every major international NGO (INGO) in the world is operating in Sri Lanka right now.

• For perhaps the first time in any modern disaster, there seems to be plenty of money for recovery and reconstruction. But most of this money is going to these large NGOs and directly to the Sri Lankan government. Some of these NGOs take as much as 40% off the top in administrative costs.

• There is also growing discontent at the village and community level who perceive that the INGOs are not including the affected people in the decision-making process.

• The most effective efforts seem to be those from smaller international aid and volunteer organization, as well as the countries national-level community-based NGOs such as Sewa Lanka, Sarvodaya and the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA).

• New NGO registration has been frozen. The only way new NGOs will be allowed to register in Sri Lanka is if they bring a minimum of $1,000,000 in capital and are able to detail in advance exactly how these monies with be spent to the appropriate off in the Ministry of Finance.

South Coast::

• Towns have been impacted at in different levels by the tsunami. Some villages may have been totally flooded by the Tsunami (high water levels were about up to the ceiling in areas).

• Some houses were totally destroyed while others were damaged. Even if they still have their home, most people lost all of their possessions. Although the village may be abandoned nearby villages may be totally intact. Hence, much of the surrounding area is functioning normally.

• The south of the country is generally where all the tourists go, so they are much more used to foreigners there and you are much more likely to find English speakers.

• Most of the international NGO and volunteer efforts concentrated in the southern end of the island are comparatively small in contrast to the INGOs. See our links page for links to some of these projects.

• Nearly all our efforts at VSL have been in supporting these projects.

• We have a networked presence in about 80 IDP camps in the southern end of Sri Lanka. These camps are run variously by small INGOs, local NGOs, Buddhist temples, private-sector organizations and

East/North Coast:

• International NGOs are operating in these areas and generally do not accept volunteers, so we recommend you stay out of these areas and let people who are paid well for taking these risks work there. There are still plenty of volunteering opportunities in the south of Sri Lanka

• The security risks in the East and Northeast of the island are significant. Not only are there tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamils, between Tamils and Muslims and recently between Tamil factions in the north versus the east.. 

• Infrastructure and housing much more profoundly affected in these areas.

• In Tamil controlled areas the relief authority is the Tamil Relief Organization (TRO), the relief arm on the LTTE.

• By all accounts the TRO is doing good work as far as we know.