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March 21, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 6Oakland,
CA
Father Richard Peiris, back in Fremont after a month
in his native Sri Lanka, has brought with him the memory of joyful faces,
the smiles of fishermen and school children who received his help.
“I feel a tremendous sense of fulfillment and joy,” said Father
Peiris, chaplain at Washington Hospital in Fremont. With $29,000 donated
by parishioners at Corpus Christi in Fremont, he was able to buy nets
for 150 fishermen, purchase two new boats and repair another boat damaged
in the December tsunami.
And with some $8,000 in contributions from employees at Washington Hospital,
he paid school fees for 18 children in grades four through 10 whose slum
dwellings were destroyed in the wave. The money has gone into a scholarship
fund for students at Our Lady of Victories School, run by the Franciscan
Missionaries of Mary in the town of Moratuwa.
“Seeing the faces of these people, the smiles on their faces”
was the highlight of his trip, Father Peiris said. And the generosity
of parishioners and co-workers will continue to help the people who lost
loved ones, homes and livelihoods in the disaster.
Some $10,000 remains from the Corpus Christi donation after the purchase
of nets and boats, and the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Kochchikade
has set it aside to buy land for families left homeless.
Father Edward Costa has “a grand plan,” Father Peiris said,
to build a model village with houses and community space for the fishermen
and their families who are still living in tents. But the priest “needs
a lot of help financially” to make the final purchase of three acres
close to the sea.
Catholic religious communities, fraternal organizations and aid agencies
have all been helping in the aftermath of the tsunami, but much needs
to be done, Father Peiris said. “The biggest need that still remains
is housing. There are a lot of people still living in tents. It’s
a very, very difficult circumstance.”
His contribution of nets and boats has helped the fishermen begin to recover.
They are back to work, he said and “for the little help I brought
them they are really grateful.”
Father Peiris is also grateful to everyone who responded to the victims
of the disaster and sent him to Sri Lanka bearing gifts. “I usually
go during the summer,” he said, “but here people in the parish
said, ‘We want not just to send the money. We want you to go there,’”
and they reached into their pockets once again for his air ticket home.
Father Richard Peiris gives fishermen bundles of nets he purchased with funds from members of Corpus Christi Parish in Fremont.
Father Peiris and Father Edward Costa examine one of the two boats the priests bought for fishermen who lost theirs when the tsunami hit their Sri Lankan village in December. New nets and boats will make it possible for the men to resume their work.
These children at Our Lady of Victories School in Moratuwa are beneficiaries of tuition aid provided by staff at Fremont’s Washington Hospital. The school is run by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.
