CapAsia Students Help Tsunami Victims
By Nihal Perera
In March, 21 U.S. students had the opportunity to help the residents of Kalametiya, a Sri Lankan village destroyed by the tsunamis, begin building new houses. The December 26, 2004 tsunamis ruined most of the country's coast line and killed more than 40,000 people. All 31 families there lost their homes and livelihoods and 11 people died. The students were participating in the CapAsia program, a field study semester in south Asia offered through Ball State University since 1999.
When the team arrived, the survivors had just moved from tents to temporary housing — rows of 10'x10' rooms built by Oxfam. The group first helped to clean out a nearby lagoon. Several NGOs led the effort and hundreds of local residents joined. The students then met with the Kalametiya villagers, created a children's play area, played with children and adults, and made personal connections with the people. This was not so easy in an environment in which white people were seen as tsunami tourists who come to consume the tsunami-hit landscapes, spend a lot of money to provide unnecessary things like water purification plants in areas with good water and internet connections, or proselytize. Instead of imposing any values on them, or getting the villagers to take part in their processes, the CapAsians carefully began participating in the locals' processes. When construction of the first permanent house began, many people from nearby villages also showed up. In a few days, representatives from all families began digging their foundation trenches. Suddenly the survivors became active.
The CapAsia group acted as a catalyst, helping the efforts of the funding agency, the architect, and the community to build permanent housing for the villagers. According to local sources, this was the first student group to be directly involved in the post-tsunamis "rebuilding" process, and Kalametiya was the first project to be built by the residents. The team was led by CapAsia Director Nihal Perera, Co-Director Wes Janz, and faculty colleague Tim Gray.
To conclude, they presented preliminary development proposals in English and Gujarati to an audience of more than 100 leaders and activists at the Town Hall where the participants debated issues on their own terms. Instead of imposing our ideas, CapAsia and CEPT students drew attention to the most important issues raised by the locals themselves and provided a platform for a conversation among all participants, including the local government, the new Municipal Commissioner, and the business leaders.
Before their arrival in Sri Lanka the group, led by Perera, took part in CapAsia's "Planning to Learn" component in Veraval, India, a fishing town of 150,000 people in the northwest. Collaboratively with graduate planning students at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad, the students probed into the strengths and issues in that town. Veraval is a historic town where the Somnath Temple, one of the six most important Hindu temples, is located. But the fishing port is extremely polluted and the fish population in the area is dropping. The students visited towns in the area where Gandhi grew up and lived, conducted housing surveys in Veraval, and made connections between the citizens and its leaders.
CapAsia is a unique, biennial field study program that provides a cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary learning experience through cultural immersion in south Asia. The experience is supported by a custom-made curriculum, immersion in lower-middle income neighborhoods, and organized around collaborative projects with partnering schools. It is open to qualified students from any American university. For more details, visit www.capasia.net/iv/.
Nihal Perera, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Ball State University, Muncie, IN.