Helping Unawatuna smile

If you know Timothy Seneviratne, you will know that he's a man who can really make things happen. If you know him, you will know that he's a man who has great ideas, and most importantly, the determination to see them through to fruition. And this is nothing if not a story about one man's determination.

In December 2004, Timothy was one of the lucky few who survived the tsunami after having been on the beach in Unawatuna that fateful morning. Not only did he fight for his life, he spent the following days helping the survivors, burying the dead and trying to keep his head amidst great tragedy and chaos. He saw and experienced many difficult things in this time and his shock was deepened by the fact that Unawatuna was a place very close to his heart.

Unable to stand by, he soon founded the Tsunami Relief Foundation (TRF); a non-profit organization that travelled around Sri Lanka from South to East with volunteers, working with children affected by the tsunami, helping them relieve trauma and fear through art, music and drama workshops.

A successful photographer and film-maker, Timothy need not have spent another day thinking about these events that changed his life. Instead, he has thought about it almost every day since.

Earlier this year, he was walking to the beach in Unawatuna, when he noticed that the wall that separates the beach from the road was being rebuilt for the first time since the tsunami. Immediately, he saw an opportunity to give something back to the place he feels is his second home. And so an idea was born. The wheels for project Smiles at Unawatuna began to turn. Timothy says, "After the tsunami, it was very important for me to give something back to Unawatuna. It's very personal."

However, from the very beginning the project seemed doomed. Timothy ran into one obstacle after another and at a time when it seemed like it would never happen, he persisted, with the support of a few good friends, both in Unawatuna and Colombo. Due to all the 'roadblocks' as he calls them, an idea that was born many months ago, only had the chance to blossom on May 17.

Timothy's friends from Colombo and Unawatuna alike prepared eagerly, donating paint, paint brushes and offering to make food and drinks for the children who would attend. When the day dawned, and the children started trooping in, it was clear that everything was going to be, at long last, just alright.

Outlines in chalk soon turned into colourful, vivid and utterly imaginative drawings, and the children's ideas grew on the wall. By midday, all inhibitions had long left them, they drew fish with stripes and spots, small and large, turtles and shipwrecks and treasure chests.

There were mermaids, starfish, green sea weed, pink coral and even a Yellow Submarine (although one of the adults may have been responsible for that!). The wall came alive, and was transformed from its dull, grey existence into a thing of wild imagination and beauty. The entire community came together, young and old, and each person left their mark, in some small way on the wall. The villagers have promised Timothy that they will take care of the wall in the future, offering their gratitude and solidarity.

Timothy hopes people will gain strength from his story, saying, "The next time, when you have an idea that you think will help others and that you would like to do, don't let it go by, keep at it and make it happen, our spirits are stronger then we think." Now it stands, inbetween the small street, and the big, blue sea, proud and unique.

It is the happy culmination of many imaginations and many different personalities. It is the ideal combination of all our different virtues and ideas. And truly, it made the children smile. Maybe now they have something to talk about at school, maybe now if they see each other on the street, they will smile and wave, for they will always have that Saturday.