During his first trip, on 29 December, to the devastated area south of
Ambalangoda, Ven. Wimalaratna stopped to offer help in the village of
Godagama. There wasn't much of it left standing but he met a young village monk
who was working tirelessly among the villagers giving what aid and comfort he
could. Bhante was very impressed with his energy and dedication and promised to do whatever he could to help the people of Godagama. It was
then that Ven. Wimalaratana and the Dayaka Sabha (temple committee) traveling
with him decided to try to reconstruct the village by building new homes
and repairing those only partially damaged. For the next six weeks, Bhante and
the Dayaka Sabha worked tirelessly to raise enough money, find surveyors,
architects, contractors, draw up village plans and blueprints, designate a
liaison with the villagers, and lobby the appropriate government
representatives. On 11 February, all parties met at the temple in Godagama and
received final agreement and approval from all concerned.
Godagama is a small village that had 204 homes and 810 people before
26 December 2004. It is part of the larger village of Kahawa near the resort
town of Hikkaduwa. The official designation
is Godagama,
Kahawa, Hikkaduwa, Galle. (Postal Code: GL S 80312). It was particularly hard hit by the tsunami. Official survey
documents indicate that the larger wave struck at 10:02 AM and reached a
height of 10.04 meters (33 feet) based on chip marks on palm trees. The
swirling waves
inundated the village as far as 250 yards inland wiping
out everything before it. The village lies along the railroad tracks just
500 yards from where the train was derailed with over 1000 lives lost.
The program
began on 4 February with a Shramadana village clean-up project organized
by BCDF with two buses filled with volunteers.
Contractors began work on Monday, 14 February. Plans are to rebuild 40 homes that were fully destroyed. These
will be 2 bedroom, approximately 500 sqft homes at a cost of USD 3500 each.
The
plan also includes repairs to 15 homes that were partially damaged. The
total project is estimated to cost over USD 150,000 for the construction and repairs
alone.