Tsunami Remembrance: Loving What's Left

Three years ago the earth cracked open and, collectively, humanity wept. That day a devastating tsunami ravaged parts of South-East Asia and Eastern Africa, killing over 200,000 people and leaving countless others bereft. Today those affected are still trying to put their lives back together.

Sumatra, her brick building machine, and members of the new women's cottage business she started since the tsunami

Circle of Health International (COHI) played a quiet, yet powerful role in the aftermath of this disaster in Sri Lanka. COHI sent a team of 11 women’s health professionals of nurses, midwives and trauma specialists to assist the women of Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Through our two months of relief efforts, we provided much needed women’s focused support in local clinics and refugee camps, trained seventeen local women as researchers, conducted the first women’s health needs assessment, and provided three, $5000 cash grants to local groups working with women.

Two members of our team in Sri Lanka were Lynne Hudson, from Texas, and Sumatra Dhamadeva, a Sri Lankan woman. Lynne was responding to her personal desire to help women in Sri Lanka heal themselves, their families, and their communities. Sumatra Dhamadeva worked as COHI’s translator in Sri Lanka having lost her husband and her livelihood. She is a feisty woman, full of life. Before the disaster, Sumatra was a successful businesswoman, a home owner, and a vital member of her community. When Lynne met her she’d recently been widowed and lived in a small tent, always immaculately clean, in a refugee camp. Lynne and Sumatra came to care about one another a great deal as Sumatra accompanied Lynne on her rounds conducting spontaneous prenatal clinics under trees in the hot Sri Lankan sun. On Lynne’s last night in Batticaloa, Sumatra invited Lynne to her brother’s home for dinner where this family who had lost so much gave generously not only of the delicious meal they shared, but of themselves as they told her stories of those they loved who had been lost.

Bricks produced in Sumatra's widow-run cottage industry sold to local re-building projects

Lynne and Sumatra continue to stay in touch. Lynne’s family, each year at this time, sends money to help Sumatra and her young daughter. The first year they helped buy a machine for Sumatra’s brick-making cottage industry where she hires other women widowed by the tsunami, enabling them to now earn a living on their own. The next year the money they sent built a structure to house the machine in Sri Lanka and to help local children who lost their parents in the tsunami. This year they will provide additional funds, continuing to support Sumatra’s efforts to love what is left of her life. Sadly, Sumatra is still living in transitional housing, but she has regained her sense of independence and is a courageous example for her young daughter.

This friendship is just one of the many sustained results volunteers at COHI forge everyday. In the face of such terrible sadness, to know that you have a friend is invaluable.

COHI continues to support women like Sumatra living in Tibet, Tanzania, Israel and Palestine. To learn how YOU can connect with women living in crises, visit’s COHI’s website: www.cohintl.org/getinvolved/.

Circle of Health International is a 501c3 nonprofit organization supporting the empowerment of conflict- and disaster-affected women through the provision of women's health initiatives. Learn more and get involved at www.cohintl.org.