SLC brings in trauma-counsellors
Sri Lanka Cricket have secured the services of five trauma-counselling experts from the United States to train up the volunteers who will be working in their Cricket-Aid emergency relief camps over the coming months
Charlie Austin
17-Jan-2005
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A five-day training programme commenced on Monday conducted by the Green Cross Assistance Program, which is part of the Florida State University's Academy of Traumatology.
The programme is considered vital to help ensure that hundreds of traumatised tsumani victims are provided emotional support as they seek to rebuild their lives in the face of terrible grief.
Sri Lanka Cricket have also announced that their Mullaitivu refugee camp on the east coast is now operational and this will replace plans for a relief camp to be set-up at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.
In Ampara, the worst hit area in the island where 11,000 are already confirmed dead, officials have offered Sri Lanka Cricket a 60-acre plot for the construction of a `Cricket Village' - a long term housing project for 50 families.
In addition, Sri Lanka Cricket, boosted by the success of their fundraising efforts so far, have extended their proposed plan to help re-build Sinhapura College in Arugam Bay, a popular beach resort and fishing village in the same area.
Sri Lanka Cricket's Cricket-Aid programme is a two-pronged disaster assistance fund designed to provide emergency relief in the short term and long-term housing for those that have lost their homes.
The board has set a revenue target of $2 million but several large pledges so far, from World Vision and New Zealand Cricket, leaves them with a possible opportunity to expand a programme designed to support over 1000 people.