BUILD A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY
TRIP Canada’s first project was a village for families who lost everything in the devastating tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. It includes 24 homes, a community centre and a place for prayer. After three trips leading volunteers to build the village, TRIP Canada’s founders learned a great deal about the local community and gained a deeper understanding of the people and their needs. Each year we want to do more and identify building projects through collaboration with community leaders: the Monk, Village Head and Navajeevana, a local organization providing special education and services for the disabled.
Building projects are selected annually based on funds raised. Then a team of local workers is hired to see the projects through to completion. They work closely with the Canadian team when the volunteers come each year to work.
Through this program, TRIP Canada is providing the infrastructure for a sustainable community. Many families now live in new homes and other facilities have improved significantly.
To-date TRIP Canada has:
Built 3-4 homes each year, for a total of 58 new homes for displaced and disadvantaged families.
Rebuilt tsunami-damaged schools, temples and a medical centre.
Built 6 playgrounds in diverse communities.
Built a second building for Canadapura Orphanage enabling expansion from 24 to 50 children.
Employed up to 20 people each year that building projects are underway and volunteers come to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankans and volunteers all benefit! Local people are provided with decent work opportunities and fair wages to deliver TRIP Canada’s programs. And, the volunteers experience first-hand the difference they make in people’s lives and feel the impact on their own. TRIP Canada’s deep roots in the community and strong bonds with the local people create a very meaningful and intimate volunteer experience.
MEET SAMPATH, IRESHA AND THEIR FAMILY
TRIP Canada builds homes for poor families who have no home or live in unsafe conditions – like a mud hut or a large, multi-generational family crowded into a small place. Because TRIP also works with an organization that provides much needed services for people with disabilities, we often build homes that require accommodations for a disabled family member. TRIP Canada also provides basic furnishings for families when they move into their new homes.
In 2023 our volunteers completed a small house for Sampath’s family. Despite having land, the economic crisis and spiralling inflation meant they would never be able to build a house and move from their mud hut. Every rainy season Sampath and his wife Iresha lived in fear of their hut being destroyed. The volunteers on Team 16 helped build this house and the family shared their tremendous gratitude for “the dream home they could never imagine owning”.
“With the tsunami we lost everything – home, work, some family. We never believed to have a home of our own or a good life again”
– Darshana and Thilini
“We lost our home in the terrible floods and never dreamed we would have another – especially one to help Ishan who lives in a wheelchair.“
– Nilmini and Anura
“Since my husband died seven years ago, we have lived badly with family. Now we can be in a good house just us.”
– Gayesh (mother of three children)