Our Progress

The First House

Anything that can be given would be of enormous benefit, whether it be to buy one brick, or a whole house.

The blessing ceremony performed by the Venerable Sitinamaluwe Sudhamma Thero, from the Talpe Temple before the start of the construction of the first house, took place on Sunday, 23rd January 2005. The house to be built on land owned by a very poor family, outside of the Government proposed 100 meters coastal setback near the Talpe station on the Galle to Matara railway line. The family of 5 previously occupied a stick and mud, one roomed house that was totally destroyed by the tsunami along with the loss of all their meager possessions.

Over the last two years the family had scraped together enough money to lay, piece by piece as money came to hand, the foundations of a house.

As these foundations were found to be structurally sound and closely matched those of our house design, we started from there. We expect to complete the house in around three weeks.

The blessing ceremony and events were filmed by a crew from the international arm of the National Geographic Channel who selected Talpe as the district in which to record the destruction wrought by the events of December, 26th, 2004 and the efforts of reconstruction and rehabilitation. The film will go to air early March and will be globally viewed on the National Geographic Channel. NGC productions will return to Talpe for the anniversary of the dreadful day and make a follow-up film to record the progress and rehabilitation within Talpe.