December 26th marks the one year anniversary of the devastating tsunami that hit South and South-East Asia. Globally it has been a year of immense natural disasters, so it has been hard to keep focus on the long term reconstruction of any single affected area (unless you live there). Luckily there are ever more grassroots efforts by the diaspora community. The tsunami wiped out much of the Sri Lankan healthcare infrastructure, which in turn left children the most vulnerable. Now two U.S. hospitals, Children’s National Medical Center (CNMC) in Washington, D.C. and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP), have joined forces with World Children’s Initiative (WCI), to launch “Project Peds: Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief.” From their press release:

In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, a pediatric cardiologist and a law professor – former college roommates at Brown University – traveled with two other young professionals to the South and East of Sri Lanka. For Dr. Ratnayaka, a Sri Lankan American of Sinhalese descent, and Professor Gulasekaram, a Sri Lankan American of Tamil descent, the mission was to aid family and friends in their motherland. Their multi-ethnic team of volunteers provided direct medical assistance at makeshift treatment centers along the southern coast. They brought school supplies and clothes to orphans on the decimated eastern shore, an area ravaged first by war for the past two decades, then by the tsunami. Though their ethnic communities have been stuck in a bitter civil war for more than two decades, these two men collaborated in their relief efforts as close friends, much the same way they have studied, worked, and socialized together for the past fifteen years even as the bloodletting in their birth nation worsened.

Wanting to do more, the group sought out potential long-term projects for improvement of pediatric health care. The team decided to rehabilitate the pediatric ward at MGH. When they returned to the United States , they assembled a band of more than 20 young professional volunteers — doctors, executives, lawyers and journalists from across the globe — to form WCI and launch Project Peds.

I am just using this one effort as a proxy to highlight the fact that there are still ways to get involved even after you have donated your money to the Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Earthquake in South Asia, etc. I think SM readers are generally more aware than others, but a reminder doesn’t hurt. I would ask that readers use the comments following this post to provide a link to any new organization you know of that was created by the South Asian diaspora as a response to one of the disasters in the past year. Most efforts have been through established organizations but I am sure there may be a few new ones like Project PEDS that could use a shot out for some publicity. Let’s give them some love.