College connects with survivors

College connects with survivors

by Bill Engle
Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN)
1/27/05

Caption: Earlham College students gathered Wednesday morning in the Richmond Room in the Bolling Center on the Earlham College campus for a videoconference on how Sri Lanka is dealing with the aftermath from the deadly tsunami.

The tsunami disaster half a world away came to Richmond's doorstep Wednesday.

That's when Earlham College played host to a videoconference with Sri Lankan officials and victims of the South Asian tsunami.

Americans for Informed Democracy, a national organization whose goal is promote global awareness and cooperation, organized the event. It matched mainly college students from 11 universities in the U.S. and Great Britain with officials and survivors in Sri Lanka.

Behar Xharra, Earlham co-coordinator of Americans for Informed Democracy, organized the two-hour event, which attracted about 75 students and staff. Xharra, a second-year Earlham student from Kosovo, expected the event to be "inspirational and educational."

"The Earlham community is always looking for ways to be involved globally," he said. "We have been fund-raising on campus but it has slowed. We felt this would be a very good place to get inspired and continue with that fund-raising."

College students from schools ranging from Indiana University, the University of Texas, Tulane University and Oxford University in England posed questions to officials in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The videoconference linked with officials and survivors in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the hometown of first-year Earlham student Gaya Hettiarachchi. She offered opening comments as the videoconference began.

Her family was spared, though family friends were not. Still, she was thrilled with the event.

"I think this is an excellent idea," she said. "I don't know if we get the whole picture from the media, but we get a much better picture from the people affected. I think it makes the students aware for now and for future generations."

One Sri Lankan woman from Colombo told students of being swept off her feet by a wave "twice or thrice my height."

"I lost all feeling. I thought it was my last," she said. "I landed against a (building) and clung to it like a monkey. Later, I heard people crying for their children, all in pain."

Khulood Kittaneh, an Earlham faculty member from Jordan, said it was exciting to "look at how people can gather all around world and share feelings with each other."

"Each of us has that sense of losing when an event like this takes place," she said. "(The video conference) is an example of the unity of humanity which is to get together and support each other."

Reach reporter Bill Engle at (765) 973-4481 or bengle@pal-item.com.