140 Houses to the Tsunami Victims – Caritas Village

140 houses built for Tsunami affected families at Orange Hill Estate in the Parish of Hapugoda were handed over to the Tsunami victims of Mutuwal area, on Thursday 26th July 2007, at 4.00 p.m. His Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio Most Rev. Dr. Mario Zenari and His Grace the Archbishop Most Rev. Dr. Oswald Gomis presided at the function, together with His Grace the Archbishop Emeritus Nicholas Marcus Fernando, Director of Caritas Sri lanka - SEDEC, Very Rev. Fr. Damian Fernando, Episcopal Vicars, Fathers and a large number of people.

         The Archdiocese of Colombo is very grateful to His Excellency the Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of  Sacraments for his concern for the Motherland and taking the initial responsibility to find funds for this project. When His Grace the Archbishop Oswald Gomis had purchased the land needed to build 140 houses for the Tsunami affected families in Mutuwal area, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith appealed to the Italian Bishops' Conference and recommended the project as deserving. Director of Sri Lanka Caritas, Rev. Fr. Damian Fernando, made all the arrangements necessary together with the Director of Caritas Colombo Rev. Fr. Jude Raj Fernando and the Staff to commence the construction work of the project.Foundation for this project was laid by His Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio Mario Zenari on 11th June 2005 and the function was organized by then Parish Priest of St.James, Mutuwal, Rev. Fr. Basil Wickramasinghe.

Message of His Excellency Most Rev. Dr. Mario Zenari,
the Apostolic Nuncio :

	Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Mario Zenari
	For the Full Text

Archbishop Oswald Gomis addressing the gathering, thanked very specially the Italian Bishops Conference, Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Scotland for financial support and His Excellency the Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith for his magnanimous initial step taken to appeal to the Italian Bishops' Conference for funds, Rev. Fr. Damian & Sri Lanka Caritas Staff & Seth Sarana Director Fr. Jude Raj & Staff for assisting in numerous ways to build these house.Archbishop continued, " these houses were built solely with the funds of the Italian Bishops Conference Caritas Internationalis & the Caritas Scotland.
	Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith
Some have accused that the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has not done anything for the Tsunami victims, but I feel sorry for their blindness to see the reality." Archbishop then gave full a detailed description of all the projects done by the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, a number of houses built by Caritas Sri Lanka and the Archdiocese and details of the other projects done for the Tsunami affected people and the children.      Rev. Fr. Jude Raj Fernando, Archdiocesan Director of Caritas Colombo, addressing the people said, " Director of Caritas Sri Lanka, Fr. Damian and the Staff laboured so much with our staff to see the completion of these houses.
	Rev. Fr. Damian Fernando Director Caritas Sri Lanka
We have done everything possible in our capacity, but the government has failed to supply Electricity for these innocent citizens of Sri Lanka, who were victims of Tsunami. We have done all that is necessary for them to supply electricity and have made several appeals to the relevant government officials. Yet, there is no response from the government. Therefore we appeal to the government to consider the request of these deserving Tsunami affected people."  Seth Sarana - Caritas Colombo and Caritas Sri Lanka-SEDEC have been working together to complete these houses inspite of several difficulties and problems. The Archdiocese is thankful to His Lordship Most Rev. Dr. Raymond Peiris, Bishop of Kurunegala and his Diocese for the contribution made to construct two houses at the Caritas Village. Aid to the Church in Need gave Bibles to every Catholic family in the Caritas Village.
	Rev. Fr. Jude Raj Fernando Archdiocesan Director Caritas Colombo

A simple ceremony was held on 6th June 2007 at the Community Centre of the Orange Hill Estate Ragama Housing Scheme "CARITAS VILLAGE" to hand over the Keys and Letters authorizing the beneficiaries to reside in the houses allocated to them. The beneficiaries were from the Tsunami affected from the Parishes of St. Mary's, St. Andrews, St. John’s and St. James’ in the Colombo North Deanery. The houses were allocated in a transparent manner as each family drew their house numbers from a pool of numbers similar to a Lottery. The Housing Estate consists of 140 Houses.