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Why
Green Hope The
tsunami diary
Donate | (to
French site) . For news before sept 26th 2005, read more from the French version of the diary |
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May 29th 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. Our deepest thoughts go out to Indonesia, once again the victim
of a violent and hostile act of Nature. A few peaceful days…. tomorrow, we set off again for Paris
and new meetings…Quiet days, wonderfully unemployed….
days with old friends, to read, to play music together, to discover
a new magical place with the children - Scénoparc Iô,
(04 71 78 21 52), in the National park of the Volcans d'Auvergne,
between Mauriac and Riom es Montagnes, in La Valette… Nothing at all like a theme park, rather a space of discovery of
genuine, wild nature, of our friends the cows since ancient times
(we definitely thought of Philippe from Châtelard), remarkably
designed to allow everyone enter into communion with nature …Throughout
this tour, of course, we find the sacred cow, its look marked with
goodness, submerged in the Ganges River, infinite tenderness, a
symbol of life and all the gods….and also the Yak from Tibet
….to stay in contact with the sky, one must be reconciled with
the animal, and oneself … In spite of the bad weather the boats are still taking to the sea
in Hikkaduwa, and the catch is good, tonnes of fish…..Good
news for the fishermen of the Green Hope cooperative and for
their working bank … A tiny bit delayed by the weather, laying the foundations of
the new home for the old couple is going to take place this
week…..The toilets of the Public Beach will be rebuilt in a
few days We were a little bit worried about Dinesh and drove him for a check-up in the Apollo Hospital in Colombo ……it is nothing …a bit too protected and coddled by his family, he did not take enough time for his rehabilitation……he will have to is slowly necessary to re-learn to walk and everything will go well … 25 mai 2006, France - Pierre et Quentin. Here, in the Mountains of the Auvergne, it is the beginning of
" l'Estive ", a thousand year old tradition of bringing
the cattle up to the Summer pastures. …. The shepherds and
their herds go up to the high rich meadows for the sunny season.
The inhabitants of the villages often accompany them up to the farms,
the "Burons" and have a picnic with the shepherds before
going back down to the valleys…… In Green Hope, there is great excitement…we are preparing for our trip to Margencel to attend the 2nd " Dream of Puppets " Festival, on Wednesday, May 31st, the profits of which will be given to Green Hope. There we shall listen to Daniel Dubois on the barrel organ there and see "Ninon", performed by the Jucada Theatre Company, which offers us this show. With Jean-Michel and his friends, who are organizing this occasion, we shall meet up with Sophie, Nicole, Michel of the Savoy delegation, Annick, Cecil, Michel from Bourgogne, Enrica, Karl, Rob, Marcello from Switzerlansd, Jean-Christophe and Alain the "Bearers of words and pictures", Delphine and Marie from the Val de Marne delegation and, hopefully, you also … Delphine and Marie are setting up a Green Hope satellite in Kogala,
with the building of a " Cultural Centre " opened as an
extra-school activity….After their visit to Amiens, to the
Collège de la Providence, the Bread-Apple initiative there
- supported 250 participants - went really well. Johann, the representative
for the Second Year, let us know of a really splendid donation to
Green Hope … Great excitement also around Jean-Christophe and all of the team preparing the second Green Hope Festival. The big party which will take place in Paris - 168, rue de Crimée - on June 3rd of this year You will find everything on the website. We have just learnt that a Sri Lankan Association in Paris will present us dancing and singing by their children …
Our permanent office in Hikkaduwa, has sent us photographs: little
Dinesh continues his rehabilitation…they took off his
casts, the baby Samarasinna is getting better, she will go
back to the Apollo Hospital on August 2nd of this year, her father
has found a job … From next month, Green Hope teams are going to begin arriving there
to prepare for the Festival, keep an eye on all of these pieces
of work, and set up the next programme which will start, for six
months, in November … Six months which will be very full, with the completion of the Training Centre, the Mobile Health Center with " Secouristes Sans Frontières " and the beginning of the reconstruction of the Health centre, paramedical, dental programs, eyesight testing, and the beginning of an information campaign on the prevention of STD's in the villages. Also, our diver friends in " Plongeurs du Monde " will
be back to help discover fauna and flora with the children….
The filming of a video on everyday life in an associated co-production
with St Nolff … May 21st, 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. We are from Belgium where, thanks to Martine, Roger, the Green Hope delegates, and their friends, we lived some unforgettable experiences. From the moment of our arrival, we were greeted by the Head of the Town and the Council of Aywaille, a Village of Europe. Philippe, the Head of the Town, confirmed us that, as promised during our last visit, the village wished to support Green Hope. We explained him the previous program, the ongoing life in the villages, and our future plans. On Friday, we spent most of the day with the School Saint-Joseph de Remouchamps,, and particularly the famous fifth class, which equipped the boats with mobile phones by selling pancakes. At midday, we had lunch with Martine, Roger, as well as Gérard and Dominique, the teachers. At the same time, the office in Hikkaduwa phoned us to tell us good news - the completion of work on the last two pre-schools, those in Katukoliya and Kumarakanda. Faced with the urgent need, we have decided on the reconstruction of the home for the old persons mentioned in the last Diary entry, sponsored by the big-hearted residents in the nursing home of Mount Joly in Trouville. We shall begin work at the start of next week. We went straight back to join the Saint-Joseph de Remouchamps school for a moving reception. A meeting with the fifth class, slide-show, questions, then the delegates from other classes, accompanied by the Head and the manager of the Primary School, made a donation which corresponded exactly to the expense of building the home for the old persons. This surprise coincidence made it very emotional for us: we offered them this reconstruction project and they accepted. Magical! Yesterday, it was the turn of the nice green region of Ardennes, the land of the "chantoirs" - small underground lively rivers that gurgle in the fertile fields, in the " White Farm " (thank you Jean-Pierre and Renaud!) which organized a celebration in support of Green Hope. It was booked out completely, and so many people reserved that it was necessary to install a tent. Martine and the volunteers were in great form, they continued accepting reservations, they will fit them in, find a place! They leave to buy flowers, candles, it was necessary that it looked nice … Until the evening time it was showery. They looked up at the sky and hoped for a small sunny spell and then, they wouldn't care if it rained, was windy or was cold, they will warm themselves up….. to relax our Walloon friends we repeated a proverb from the Auvergne: " The more the animals are hemmed in, the better they eat! ". When the celebration began, it was not raining any more. A last look, before night, at the countryside - wild fields of grass, distant blue hills, natural grey, rich and happy. People arrive from everywhere, kind and smiling, and are set up around pretty tables full of flowers. Martine introduced the celebration and we shared the happiness of such a great success. The Town Manager announced that the Town Council in Aywaille decided to support the health programme, particularly information and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. He assured us to follow this by assistance, later, for the reconstruction of the Medical Centre and an ambulance.
Joffrey, the President of the Club Service of "The Round Table ", gave us a splendid donation for the future Training centre …and there were kebabs, beers in "white-cola", - a formidable mixture of alcohol of Dutch gin and coca extract!- enlivened by a great DJ, and the party went on until late in the night … To our friends of the Belgian Green Hope delegation, based around Martine and Roger, we devote these lines of Hubert Reeves: " To create life around us, to commiserate in the suffering
of others May 17th, 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. Yesterday evening, we had a nice surprise - François, Green Hope rep in Colombo, in between trips, joined us for a meeting about the celebration which will launch the Green Hope Festival on June 3rd, in Paris. Jean-Christophe was also there, as were Léo who is in charge of communication, Nico, a dancer, and Delphine and Mary, new delegates for the Val de Marne area. To know about it more, you cannot do better than to link to the Festival pages that Jean-Christophe and Alain, the " Bearers of words and images " have set up, brilliantly, on the website. We got news from Hikkaduwa. Green Hope has just handed over a new home to a fisherman and his parents. Their former home was destroyed by the Tsunami.
Boats go to sea, but the catch is not that good, the seas being very disturbed … The pre-school at Kumarakanda is completed, thanks to the association of the Pays de Fayence. We will soon get photographs, after the last coat of paint … We know about the couple of old persons sponsored by the residents in the nursing home at Mont Joly in Trouville. T.H is called him. Agosshingno, is 74 years old, his spouse Karunawathi is 70 years old, they live in Dodanduwa and came to ask for the help of Green Hope because their home is in ruins. We are going to rebuild it, so that it gives a gentle end of life to these newly sponsored persons….. François is going to try to take the wheelchair with him on his return to Sri Lanka … Tomorrow, we leave again for Belgium, to find our friends in the
Green Hope delegation. We should be able to tell you some good news
soon … May 15th, 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. We are just back from the Côte Fleurie, Normandy, where we again had a marvellous time thanks to Maud and Thierry. We wish to thank them for all the positive energy which they dedicate, through thick and thin, to Green Hope, and their faithfulness, which carries us along and accomplishes marvels … From the moment of our arrival, they had organized a meeting with friends, among whom was Stephane, a kinestherapist in the Nursing home of Mount Joly. The residents there are very sensitive to our call for the sponsorship of old persons in need in Sri Lanka, and allowed us to write a nice new story: these retired people have decided to come together to sponsor these old people at the other end of the earth…..(Nice news for Enrica!). And they did not stop there, we came back from Trouville with the wheelchair which we needed! We contacted this morning, a friend who works for an airline in order to forward it as quickly as possible to Hikkaduwa. Then, we went to have dinner together with Olivier, from the mayor's office in Trouville, unfortunately absent, who ably represented the Mayor who unfortunately could not attend . It allowed us to speak about Green Hope, and to envisage new missions, new plans. Philippe, a journalist from Ouest France was also at this convivial meal and will be able to an account of the energy of Green Hope in the Côte Fleurie. The following day, we were in Cabourg, where François, Directeur of the Office of the Mayor,. He confirmed to us that the Town council, convinced after a visit by Thierry and Maud on the invitation of the Mayor, and by the visible results and by their following the work of Green Hope, had decided to give their help to the School Fund.
It is only right therefore that we got, just as we were passing through Normandy, the photographs of the home rebuilt thanks to the support of Chevron Solidaire of Belgium, Dominique, Carole and Dylan and …of the Lions Club in Deauville Trouville. For the handing over of the house, a Buddhist celebration was organized …..and the little baby Hirushi, who had been previously so weak, sad, and handicapped, now sits down, happy, on the doorstep of the house-. We think of the " Family Tribe " in France which decided to look after this child…… It will be possible to meet our friends of Normandy in the next Book Fair in Trouville, on June 10th of this year, where our book " Journal du tsunami " and Green Hope itself are featured … In a nod towards the Mayor de Cabourg, a fervent admirer of Marcel Proust, we found this quotation, from " Temps Retrouvé ", which represents exactly this short stay in Normandy: " An hour is not an hour on the clock, it
is a vase filled with perfumes, with sounds, with plans, and with
climates ".
May 12th, 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. We arrived at 9 in evening in the lovely village of Saint Nolff…..We had arranged to meet on the Place de l'Eglise with the Green Hope Support Committee, the Committee of Solidarité Asie. Finally, we could put faces on all those who had spoken to us for nearly a year and a half - Françoise, Yolande, Armelle, Jeannine, Rodolphe, Philippe, the elected representatives, animators and teachers … As is only right in Brittany, we met and got to know one another better around a feast of pancakes. We had so much to tell and to share. The party ended late and we left to take our rest in the pretty home of Yolande and Bernard, a home of love, flowers, and gentle joy from where you can see the Golfe of Morbihan in the distance … At 10 in the morning, we visited the Centre Aéré, la Maison de l'Enfance and then Joël, the mayor, conferred on Green Hope the medal of the Town by telling us how Saint Nolff had got in touch with us, reflecting the wish of the town to respond to the Tsunami disaster, by means of the Children's Town Council, remaining faithful to direction that saint Nolff wishes to go in, a Village of the World, outwardly-looking towards others, their fellows from the ends of the earth, five continents joined together in peace. The Communes of the World have been in existence since 1949. They were created around Paul Eluard, in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, deciding to define the territories as belonging to the world. Since the summit of Rio and the awareness of the danger that the planet is in, the Communes of the World decided on 21 essential measures, entitled now Agenda 21.
Then we all met around a big picnic near the ancient restored mill, with all the members of the Children's Town Council, who explained us all the actions of the Asia Solidarity Committee (Committee of Solidarité Asie). We were reminded of all those other children of the Solidarity Class in the Collège Barbara Hendricks whom we had visited last month, and in those of Rémouchamps, in Belgium, which we shall visit next week. In the afternoon, Philippe and Armelle took us in a zodiac on the waters of the Gulf to discover there the parks, the boats - which we filmed for our friends in Hikkaduwa - and we went up to the Island of Arz, a natural preserved jewel………In the evening, we gathered around Joël, the mayor for a dinner, before a public meeting in town hall, where we could answer questions and introduce the films made by Jean-Christophe and the Green Hope Festival Team. You will be able to see them, also on June 3rd in Paris, during the launch of the next Festival … After a short night of sleep, we visited yesterday the three schools of saint Nolff - l'Ecole Saint Joseph, Lucien Paye, Jean Constant - to meet the children, and were very moved by their motivation, the intelligence of their questions, and by their attention to others. After a last village meal, we had to take leave of all our new friends by resolving to meet again soon to discuss future plans, such as the realization of a film on the children, their life and their village, which we shall introduce to the children of Hikkaduwa. They too will do a film with us in return. Thus one and the other will tell their stories of life in seaside villages in France and Sri Lanka … We were reluctant to leave……but Trouville was waiting for us ……We paid a last call on the School Lucien Paye which gave us a donation for Green Hope, to support their friends over there….. And so we got back on the road for Normandy, where we arrived yesterday evening…… a nice new adventure which we shall tell you about ….in the next Diary entry….. May 8th, 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. We are on the road, between the Bordeaux region and Brittany, taking a detour to catch up with a friend, and to discover a region, the Anjou. For a good while now we have wished to get together…….but Calixte de Nigremont is always on tour, and we also are extremely busy…so it was hard to find a date to meet … We experienced together the festival " Chalon dans la Rue", and lived through the tough times of us being trodden down by some ……Calixte was by our side. And when the Tsunami came to flood the land we love so much, Calixte was one of the first to care about us, with the anxiety and attentiveness of the friend for life … Of " Chalon dans la Rue ", we preferred not to talk about it much, the wound is still open, the scar not closed over. We were happy to tell him about Green Hope ….. Thanks to the website, he already knew it a lot about it …
Calixte brought us to visit Anjou, little valleys of grapevines, herbs, flowers, ancient noble and delightful, houses, the precious writing of the landscape, the Loire, waters and unstable sands, the rich cuisine and elegant wines … We shall take our leave already this evening, Calixte sets out tomorrow at dawn to record a series of programs and we, set out for St Nolff, near Vannes, anxious to finally make the acquaintance of this village so faithful to Green Hope … " The life of a friend is our life also, since the true
life of each one is that of everyone. " G. Sand.
May 5th, 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. A house in Périgord, on a hill, bathed by the light that is found only in this region, lively and soft, tracing out every aspect of the landscape…..like a landscape in Tuscany. It is there that we meet Gurmuck and Sue who are in charge of the association " Alliance Sri Lanka ", their friends join us so that we can speak to them of the Training centre which they support. We got to know them in Hikkaduwa, where Sue and Gurmuck came to visit us to get to know Green Hope better, before deciding to join with us on a precise project. As we meet them again these memories from over them come back, when we learnt to know and to appreciate each other. Their way of action was the most constructuve: come to Sri Lanka, meet the associations on-site, ask questions about their activities, visit the activities, and then choose the one to which they would dedicate their desire to support the victims of the Tsunami …… and Green Hope was chosen. The Training centre is a nice plan, ambitious, for which we need support. Already " Dominique, Carole and Dylan ", who drive the teaching aspect of Green Hope's activities, encouraged us, then linked us in with the European school in Munich and soon, hopefully, a town where we shall shortly meet with the municipal town council. We have already bought the large piece of land on the Gall Road, where there is a house which we are going to renovate and that will house the classes of English and computer science, a reception area, a room for expositions and meetings, where we shall be able to display the creations of the Women's' Workshop. This Centre will be completely free, and we shall organize how it runs, in a close relationship with the town and the government, so that priority will be given to those who have or would not otherwise have access to studies. Outside the cost of the work, our needs are for the computer equipment, equipment for the language laboratory, without forgetting the ongoing costs, the wages of the teachers … " It is while teaching that we learn. " Seneca. This Training centre is meant to be a small popular university, to be place of meetings and exchanges….. practical, approachable, efficient. Work has already begun about a month ago and will continue till the end of October. We shall have then two months to set it up, do a trail run, study, and take in inscriptions, in order to open, like the other schools, at the beginning of January, 2007 Yesterday morning, we were in the IUT (the University of Technology) Périgueux Bordeaux IV along with with Jean-Marie, responsible for the department of ongoing Adult Education, and Lucie and Barbara, two students in biology, dietetics, agronomy and the food industry, who decided to dedicate their studies to the conservation of fish in the Green Hope Fishermen's cooperative - an exciting project, already well advanced, which is going to allow us to secure the best prices for the fish. Until June, they will study all possibilities of conservation. Jean-Marie himself will visit the place itself this summer to know better the particular conditions in the region of Hikkaduwa; however they are already planning the creation of a cold conservation unit. Lucie and Barbara will visit at the end of the year. A splendid example of a co-operation and achievements between the IUT, Green Hope, and the cooperative …
In the last Diary, we mentioned to you the sponsoring of old persons; our permanent office has sent us on these pictures of this couple in real need, living in their broken-down shack, and also this, paralysed woman, all alone, who needs a wheelchair…… we shall not abandon them …
May 2nd, 2006, France - Pierre and Quentin. Yesterday we were with our friends Guylaine and Dominique, from the Auvergne delegation, and with Secouristes Sans Frontières, with whom we have already put together so many projects, a trawler, the reconstruction of houses, First-Aid Training and now the establishment of the Mobile Health Centre, a bus fully equipped to bring treatment without cost to the most needy, in the villages. It is an ambitious and really needed project which we conceived in partnership with the Health Centre in Hikkaduwa, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health and its Health Officers; it will allow us to draw closer to those in need and to link French doctors and aid to the local medical teams. Furthermore, we can envisage preventative campaigns, and the distribution of information, such as dental information with Nathalie from this year on, and a campaign on sexually transmitted diseases, through Nicolas, a new Greenhopien, who has started making contact with French associations which fight against STDs … The document of collaboration between SSF, Green Hope, and the Health centre in Hikkaduwa has been drawn up, it is going to be studied and modified by a jurist in international law, then translated into English and signed in July. The first deputation from SSF should go to Sri Lanka, with doctors and nurses, at the end of this year. We shall await their visit to inaugurate the Mobile Health Centre.
The other advantage of this Mobile Health Centre is that it will act as a bridge and for the monitoring of treatment during the work of enlargement and renovation of the Health Centre in Hikkaduwa. This is even more important given that, at the same time, work will also be taking place in the governmental hospital in Gall. Today, we were much reminded of Enrica, from the Switzerland delegation, which rightly wished that we also consider sponsorships of old persons in need. Kumara has just phoned to alert us to the plight of a couple of old persons living in an extreme poverty, without family and without money. Another person, also advanced in age, is paralysed, and must find a wheelchair…Now is the time to urge you to sponsor there elderly person and give them an end of life that is gentle and just … We prepare our suitcases again for a trip in France and in Belgium…… tomorrow, we shall be in Périgueux with our friends from Alliance Sri Lanka who have gathered their friends around them for our visit. With them we shall speak about the Mobile Health Centre and about the Training centre which will be opened at the end of the year. In the next Diary we shall tell you about this meeting. Around
one and a half years after the disaster of the Tsunami we are sincerely
happy to follow and to build up the links of the splendid support
network of Green Hope.
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