Suba Ude

SUBA UDE IN A NUTSHELL

2005-12-10T20:50:00.000-08:00

Suba Ude's mission is to organize long term sustainable and participatory creative programs for tsunami affected people. Suba Ude is an organization that functions independently under the wing of its parent organization, the US-based non-profit private organization, A Place Called Home (www.apch.org), whose headquarters are in South Central Los Angeles. Suba Ude is funded by private donations, raised independently of APCH.

In February 2005, Heather Goodwin and Stephanie Bleyer formed Suba Ude in the southern town of Matara. The original mandate was to provide creative and physical outlets to children residing in emergency welfare camps. Since its inception, Suba Ude has built playgrounds, produced marionette shows, painted murals, set up Child Friendly Spaces and Sewing Centres for their mothers, taught swimming classes, and organized sports and arts days. In April Suba Ude's focus turned to long-term sustainable creative projects. Suba Ude renovated a primary school and started Sase! - a foundation for children's arts education. Suba Ude also partnered with USAID to provide multi-media training for war-affected youth on the east coast of Sri Lanka. Today, the MonkBag is Suba Ude's focal project.

The Love Child of USAID and Suba Ude

2005-11-27T14:16:00.000-08:00

SUCCESS STORY
Youth Voice: The Living Together Project

Akkaraipattu is a mixed community of Muslims and Tamils. Part of the population is made up of war displaced persons, and the town was also affected by the tsunami. Incidents of violence and hartals are common, both in Akkairaipattu and in surround-ing areas, even after the ceasefire agreement of 2002. Mutual suspicion between ethnic communities exists at different levels, and youth especially feel frustrated at the lack of opportunities to express themselves and make their voices heard. This was the backdrop for the multi-media training program for youth that was launched by OTI in collaboration with Social Organization Networking for Development (SOND) in September 2005.
Seventeen young people from Akkaraipattu and the surround-ing towns were chosen to participate, based on their interest in community issues and possible media initiatives/interventions. They have chosen to name themselves “Youth Voice.” The course, designed by Marie Ange Bordas, a professional photog-rapher, sought to improve communication between multi-ethnic youth, their immediate environment, and their communities. Six girls and eleven boys between the ages of fifteen and twenty one have been working together and learning new skills of pho-tography, journalistic writing, and different modes of media and visual expression. The youth have visited the communities around them and documented all that interests them. In the words of one of the trainees, “This course allowed something that was locked inside me to come out.” Another stated that he had “…learned to solve conflicts that occurred in and outside the class, while working in this group.”
The end of the course will see the publication of a newsletter produced by the group, covering themes such as religious har-mony, the experience of being handicapped, thoughts about ethnic cooperation etc., to be distributed to NGO’s, schools and other organizations in and around the area. Individual projects carried out will result in a series of posters that celebrate diver-sity and support peace to be put up in neighboring towns.

MonkBags go to WOMAD!

2005-10-20T21:49:00.000-07:00

The DisPlacements Benefit at The Standard Hollywood

2005-08-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Setting: July 13, 2005. A windy warm LA desert night. A hip hotel. The Standard Hollywood. Aspiring starlet sits perched over concierge desk. Dr. Dre and posse approach...up white steps, through white lobby, over white shag carpet. Door girl stands guard outside hotel lounge. Encountered with "Don't you know who I am", she blithely responds, "It's a benefit. It's for creative youth programs in Sri Lanka." He hands her a hundred and they all walk in.

It was a Wednesday night party in Hollywood with a $20 cover. Proceeds would jump-start Suba Ude's latest project - a participatory multimedia program with multiethnic youth affected by the civil war on the east coast of Sri Lanka. The Standard graciously donated their lounge, which was packed by 10 pm with revelers getting happy on free Bombay Sapphire (http://www.bombaysapphire.com/validate_age.aspx) and burning holes in the dance floor. DJs Liza (http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=td&tmplt_type=Everything) and Jimmy nearly set off the fire alarm with their hot sets while images of Suba Ude's programs projected overhead. This was globalization Hollywood style - two opposing worlds seamlessly fused together and set to a rockin soundtrack.

At the auction table, people huddled together, carefully placing their bids on free weekends at the Standard Hollywood and Downtown, a diamond necklace, a Bootyparlor.com Kit (sex toys save the children!), MOCA (http://www.moca.org/index.php) memberships, and more. Party goers bought out the table of MonkBags (http://indi.ca/2005/07/suba-ude-interview-and-monkbag) and departed with goodie bags stuffed with Stonesthrow (http://www.stonethrow.com/) comps and Flaunt (http://www.flaunt.com/) magazines, American Apparel (http://www.americanapparelstore.com/) shirts, and milk crates of records, brown cardboard boxes filled with gifts from generous donors.

As the lights came up at 3:30am, we gobbled down grilled cheeses and french fries and gave ourselves some props. We had done well. Weary and hung over, I caught a passing memory from a not-so-distant past. I was in a displacement camp in Sri Lanka setting up child-friendly spaces, sewing centres and marionette shows. Now thousands of miles away, I was struck by how far I had traveled and how much one can actually do to bring two sides of the world together!

Monkbag hits the streets

2005-08-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Suba Ude's fashionable livelihood project is slung over shoulders worldwide. Check out the interview.

Rebuilding Kamburugamuwa School

2005-07-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

At Kamburugamuwa School in Matara (the south), Michele has been wearing 2 hats- contractor and muralist.

Through her organizational prowess, the computer room now has electricity, a waterproof ceiling, secure windows, new floors and brightly painted walls! Michele has supplied the elementary school with sports and playground equipment, new books, children's shoes and healthy snacks AND she has overseen the installation of new latrines and safety fence near the future playground.

Just some examples of improvements made at Kamburugamuwa School...

Muppets Take Ampara

2005-06-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

In June we produced 10 marionette shows on the East Coast.
They rocked.
See for yourself.

Build It and They Will Come

2005-06-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Steph and Wanna have created 10 children's activity centres in Ampara. Seven days a week children are participating in guided activities all day in a fully equipped, safe and friendly environment. Each centre is outfitted with locally made tables, benches and cupboards, musical instruments, sports equipment, art supplies, oversized white boards, radios, fans, water filters, playground items and 2 high-energy teachers!

Sidhuna teaches after-school classes forkids living in Kalmunai Kuddi camp

50+ kids visit the activity centre daily

On the Front Burner - Displacements

2005-06-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

When not hustling up and down the Sri Lankan coastline, we've been in the kitchen cookin up a mighty sweet project. We started with a spicey hot Brazilian photographer, added some sizzlin' Filipina and Americana graphic designers and topped it off with a crunchy crew of event planners and high-octane doers...

We call our dish - "DisPlacements."

Taste some at displacements/srilanka

July 13 Benefit at the Standard Lounge in Los Angeles! Check out the flyer

We are accepting donations of your products or services for our
silent auction on July 13. So far we have a weekend at the Standard,
Lush Products, Designer threads...your help is much appreciated!
Here's how

Uniting the Displaced

2005-06-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Refugee youth in Kenya made a video for their counterparts in Sri Lanka. Film Aid International (New York) sent us the video. We had it translated into Tamil and Sinhalese. It will premier this week in our camps as the opener to the marionette shows. To watch the video click here.

1. For more info about Film Aid International, download pdf.

or visit film aid international

Razeen reads the Tamil translation while showing the video at
Nintavur camp

Swimming, swimming in a swimming pool

2005-06-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

Fearlessly heading into the deep

Great excuse for an English lesson

A New kind of pioneer

Just one of Indika's many talents...

Teaching kids to love water post-tsunami is no easy feat... unless
the instructor is a wildly energetic fish from southern California.
This month Heather kicked off a swimming class for affected kids.
Several times a week, she teaches water games, swimming techniques
and English. For more details on other tsunami relief water programs
and ocean based therapy, check out swimlanka.lk.

Wisdumb of Lonley Planet

2005-05-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

Lonley Planet instructs travelers to Sri Lanka to not get "stuck in
Ampara." Coming here on our second post with IOM, we were expecting
dire conditions: no internet, no packaged food, no paved roads, no
a/c, no discos. While our expectations have proved accurate, we have
found Ampara to be oh-so-genial.

We have 6-weeks to pump some life into 20 camps. We will be
constructing community shelters, sewing centers/women's spaces, tea
centers for men, playgrounds and child friendly spaces. We will
provide mucho sports equipment, produce a bunch of marionette shows
and hire displaced bicycle owners to deliver newspapers to all of the
camps.

Ampara was definitely the hardest hit area of Sri Lanka. Over 14,000
people perished and it looks as if every structure standing within 200
meters of the water, was leveled. There are loads of aid workers
here, they seem to out number the locals. That said, the relief
effort is far behind Matara (our last post). People are still living
in tents, waiting day in and day out for a tin shack and a fishing
net. While agencies have the funds to build and give, doing so is a
very long tedious process. If they don't thoroughly assess,
research,verify, double check and interview each and every displaced
person, they might end up throwing their money away. We found a
perfect example of this last night.

We were in "town" and spotted a mass of men surrounding a guy. He was
standing atop a huge pile of mosquito nets, cooking pots, bars of soap
and water. Curious, I pushed my way to the middle of this swarm to
face off with the "entrepreneur," who I now noticed looked like a
sneering pirate. I demanded to know where he bought his inventory,
"from NGO, you got?" He confirmed. The pirate bought his supplies
from people in the camps who were given excessive aid. Intent on
exposing this thug, I threw my camera in his face, but then came to my
senses and pushed my way back out to the street.

MonkBag launched in Monaco!

2005-04-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

What's cute and helps people? Not a seeing-eye dog, not my orthodontist…but of course! a MonkBag! For the girl who has everything and nothing to carry it in- this bag is the new trucker hat (but not as cheesy) the new yellow Live Strong bangle (but not as useless), the new ugs (but not as trendy), the new pink ribbon (but not as pink). It's the bag that all the monks are carrying this season.

Download this bag flyer (pdf format):

The MonkBag is being launched this month in Monaco, London and Brighton.

Warning: Self Promotion Ahead

2005-04-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

Our Sewing Centers get Rave Reviews!
And read about us.

Happy New Year's!!

2005-04-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

Wanna and I are being shipped out. In one week we will be deployed to
the east coast district of Ampara. We will spend the next 1.5 months
there working in 16 camps with 6,000 displaced persons. This
predominantly muslim area was completely leveled. Four-months after
the tsunami, even basic infrastructure is scarce.
This is going to be a challenge.

But no worries today, as it's Sri Lanka's New Year's!!

Based on astrology, new year's marks the beginning of something to do
with the stars' alignment. I got up at 5 to get to the home of our
translator at the auspicious time of 5:30 am. We helped cook a
traditional new year's meal. At 6:48 am on the auspicious dot, we lit
a lantern while facing north and wished each other a Suba Aluth
Aurudak Awewa, as the sound of bursting fireworks resonated around the
neighborhood. The mom scooped up some milk rice and with her right
hand, fed us each our first bite of food in this new year. We then
fed each other while reciting a personal blessing.

At the next auspicious moment, the father presented us each with money
wrapped in a leaf. We then wrapped our money in a leaf and presented
it back to him (tradition) and gave the family new clothes-it's a new
year's custom to get a new piece of clothing. We piled into the
family car, which the mom sprinkled with lotus water, and headed to
the temple in the town center. After placing lotus flowers in front
of Lord Buddha, we drove to the new (half-finished) home of a local
school teacher. It is custom that those less fortunate invite
"luckier" folks to their home to be their first guests in the new
year. I think it's to rub off some lucky energy.

They stuffed us with more milk rice, oil cakes and dried fish and I
did my best to rub off some luck.

Back in the car, teetering along the coastline, passing new year's
celebrations in living rooms without walls and tents where living
rooms once stood... returned to our hotel and saw something for the
first time- something cosmic. Splashing in the water, amidst the
rubble/coral, was a group of village kids. Blocking out the debris, I
could see this tropical paradise as it once was- an endless beach
lined with coconut trees and filled with fearless children.

Happy New Year!!

New Photos!

2005-04-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Chamindalal, a Dondra camp resident, spackled and primed the preschools walls, and fixed the leaky roof.

Amidst the chaos of the building and rebuilding of shelter, Stephanie gets camp residents to hit a volleyball instead.

Mr. Amarasena paints outlines for the Dondra preschool mural. Through the SUBA UD In Camp Teaching program, Mr. Amarasena will be teaching weekly art classes in three I.O.M. camps. He has been teaching art for 30 years at the Matara Cultura Center and has annual national exhibits.

Sickness and Jetlag is no match for Michele Lott, Suba Ud's newest addition.

The mural begins.

Mr. Viraj leads the first music class on harmonium.Through the SUBA UD In Camp Teaching program, Mr. Viraj will be teaching weekly music classes in three I.O.M. camps.

Where there's music, there's a dance party!

Dondra camp kids make chalk drawings while puppeteers set up the stage outside.

The curtain rises on the second Suba Ud organized puppet show.

A show everyone can enjoy.

The sungoes down over another day's work.

Spring Break 2005, Matara!

2005-04-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

Matara (the town we are working in ) is not exactly a haven for
dance-party lovers. Perhaps the tsunami swept away the discos,
bouncers and (god willing) those loser guys who stand on the edge of
the dance floor and don't dance. You know who I'm talking about. We
hate those guys. Anyway, with the beautiful beach as a backdrop, I
think Matara could do some bang-up business around spring break,
perhaps it did before December 26. But today, there's nothing to do
here. When we return home (to our beach hotel) at night, our
activities are pretty much limited to scrubbing the 3rd world glop and
grit off our bodies, drinking Lion Lager (or Sprite for our resident
jewish-mormon) and strategizing for tomorrow.

Oh, but then came Thursday night.

The head of the cultural center invited us to his home for a "little
music show," which is Sinhala for "lets make the unassuming foreigners
dance for our own entertainment." And so we did. In a house packed
with locals, we learned how to dance the Sri Lankan two-step with the
tabla and harmonium providing the back beat. The harmonium is a
cross pollination of the accordion and the piano. It makes for a
rather breathy, Polish rendition of "Piano Man." FYI, Billy Joel is
not the international super-rock star i thought he was when I was
14-years-old.

At first I couldn't tell if my "dance teacher" was kidding around.
Like teaching a foreigner profanities or better yet teaching a Sri
Lankan to say "you da' man!" and "i'm da' mac daddy," the dance she
was teaching me must have been for her own entertainment. Her
movements looked like those of a tone-deaf drunken uncle with a touch
of innocent country-bumpkin topped off with lovely traditional Indian
hand gestures. Ever the foolish competitor, I tried my best to match
my dance teacher's body and eye movements amidst the hooting and
cackling from the audience. I know I kicked her ass with my head
isolations. After enough prodding, Ms. Wanna got her ass up and
ripped through the floor with her West African moves. The room lifted
itself into the air howling with delight.

Then came dinner. Imagine inviting a Mexican to dinner and serving
him nachos. As much as we appreciated the cooked veggies and
mound of white breadand butter, we found this menu a little curious.
We asked our host if this is what they eat every night. His reply-
"Oh no, we eat rice and curry."

We finished up the night with a little "American" dancing, took a bow,
hopped in a tuk-tuk (three-wheel taxi) and left our new fans begging
for more.

Art in the Camps!

2005-04-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

As our one month with IOM draws to a close, it has become crucial to implement and solidify these self-sufficient programs that we've worked so hard to develop, and pass them on to those who will live here much longer than us. Our thanks to Rio, Brett, and Joe Ballarini- with your kind donations and collaboration with instructors from the Ruhunu Cultural Center in Matara, we've been able to place our In Camp Arts Education Program in three of the I.O.M. camps. With your help, we've covered instructor salaries, instrument rentals (dolki, harmonium, upcountry drums), and art supplies for 250 students.

This program will last 3 months, beginning with the first art class on Monday in Devinuwara camp. Courses in Art, Music, Dance, and English will be held weekly in each of the camps during the afternoons. The first session is 1 hour 15 minutes long, for 5-10 year olds. The second session is 1 hour 45 minutes, for 10-17 year olds. Interested 17-29 year olds may act as apprentices to the instructor for vocational training, and enhance their future career opportunities (most camp residents in this age group are either unemployed or take unskilled labor jobs, and few attend university). Most importantly...there's art in the camps!

Additionally, camp residents who are skilled in any of the subjects (we've found musicians and artisans) will study with the instructor for the first month, and take over the rest of course instruction, in hopes to strengthen the pool of talent as well as income within the community.

So every week, up to 250 people can spend 4 afternoons less staring at an image of their lost loved ones in a waterlogged broken picture frame, sitting in their windowless sweltering tent. Every week, they can spend 4 afternoons more, learning a song or an instrument, laughing at each other learning a sily dance, drawing a picture for their mom, or learning a new language so they can more easily communicate and access resources available to them. This is a program that could be renewed in 3 months, but should collaborative tsunami relief efforts be sucessful, they would not be living in these camps three months from now. Yet, the way things are moving with the Sri Lankan Government, they may still be, and the best we can do is alleviate their suffering with what we have to work with today. With so much loss in the last months, we hope this program will inspire idle hands and help them to heal through creativity. They've seen enough destruction, now is the time for creation.

The volleyball is broken, what do you do?

2005-03-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

As I write this on yet another balmy, underwear-suction-cupped-to-my-ass evenings in Sri Lanka, assemblymen from Singer are constructing 12 sewing machines outside the office window. We have organized sewing cooperatives in our camps and will be opening sewing centers in all of them this week. Along with these brand spankin' new sewing machines, we will be giving out 48,000 meters of thread, 600 buttons and 45,000 ruppees worth of plastic chairs and work tables.

Our other big projects this week include the construction of playgrounds in 2 of our camps and the launch of our after-school activity program. Wanna interviewed 18 candidates today for 6 activity-leadership positions. "I never pictured myself being the person to ask someone 'The volleyball is broken, what do you do?" she said, "their answers ranged from 'I'm gonna pick that thing up and patch it myself' to 'we don't have one, but our carum balls table is broken, can you fix it?'."

These leaders are pivotal to the sustainability of our project. We can't just drop off sports equipment and art supplies in the camps, we need to facilitate leadership and "build capacity." Through a cash-4-work program, IOM will be paying 1 person in each camp to lead activities every day after school.

We invited 21 folks to our first teacher training workshop. We gave an equal opportunity to attend the workshop to all persons interested in learning how to lead activities and empower youth. Last week we brought men, women and youth from our camps to the IOM office, got them drunk on tea and biscuits (cookies) and sat them down for a marathon workshop. The workshop was largely conducted by a local NGO, Rural Friends (a.k.a. Institute for Environmental Community Development). Another local NGO, Women in Need (WIN) opened for them. Women in Need is a Sri Lankan NGO that provides free counseling and legal advice to victims of violence.

From this group, we invited 7 folks to attend a second workshop later in the week led by World Vision.

In addition to our in-camp teachers, we are contracting with the Matara Cultural Center, to provide traditional art, music and dance classes in each of the camps for the next 3 months.

All in a days work for the suba-ud crew.

This Ain't No Pinochio

2005-03-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

Click to watch the puppet show slideshow (quicktime movie)

Click and read article about puppet show (pdf document)

$250 went a hell of long long long way last night. The show was an amazing success! It was epic.

So it started at 3. The puppeteers arrived at Matara Maha Vidyala Playground camp and started with a workshop, teaching the kids about the tradition of puppeteering in Sri Lanka and how marionettes work.

Then an Italian magician put on a show, delighting the children pulling stuff out of hats and making things disappear--your grade-A color-by-number hocus pocus. Then Israel Aid came and led an hour of dramatic/physical therapy games. The kids were in heaven, just rolling with laughter.

While the kids were going crazy, Stephanie took off to do some guerilla marketing. She grabbed a stack of flyers and ran through the streets, shoving them into hands, screaming (in Sinhala) "PUPPET SHOW TONIGHT!" Up and down the streets, she found an audience everywhere- waiting at the bus stop, in the bar, at the gas station, at the family vegetable stand (where she stopped to join-in on a board game and declare herself an Olympic champion to my 10-year-old opponent who of course beat her senseless)… She ran into a classroom full of children who, when they heard her speak Sinhala, burst into fits of laughter (imagine a dog reciting Shakespeare- that's what it is like to hear a foreigner speak Sinhala), she jumped in front of buses full of school kids, chatted up old mama's carrying baskets on their heads, stopped by a camp at a Buddhist temple and on and on until Save the Children found her and her translator lost on the side of the road and gave them a lift back
to the camp.

When she got back, it was 6 pm, an hour before show-time. The entire camp was partying. Music was blasting, volleyballs were being spiked all over the place, a Korean NGO was making balloon animals and an enormous dance party was raging.

At 7 when the sun-set, we turned the music down and everyone brought the plastic chairs out from their shelters over to the amphitheatre. All the children sat in front on tarps- the same tarps used as walls for their "homes." This is a very large camp. The theatre is on one side, the shelters on the other.The kids sat with their backs to the shelters. We have no doubt that when the curtain rose, they all but forgot the life behind them.

For 2 hours, a cast of marionettes, including a fire dancer, rocked out. We couldn't understand a word of it but managed to laugh our heads off. For the price of 2 Broadway show tickets, we gave 400 people an evening of laughter and fun. As the marionettes took their final bow, an ice-cream truck pulled into the camp. We gave ice-cream cones to 200 children (for $30!).

At the end of the show, the road manager leaned over to us and whispered, "now this is relief."

The poster from the event

Photos from the event

PHOTOS!

2005-03-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

The Suba Ud Crew travels by tuk-tuk

Boat at sea

I wonder where that fish could be…

Residents at the market

Tsunami Drawings

Wanna draws with the kids

A Budding Artist, Devinuara Camp

Fooling around with the little ones

Heather collages

Dillini’s cut outs. He explained them to us as (bottom left to right) boat, temple, ruins, tree (above) house

Collaging

Drawing

The kids paste their cutouts, and sport their collages

Heather’s karaoke class #1 : The Devinuara kids learn “Get up, Stand up”

The girls teach us Singhalese dances

Props to the boys from Colombo, who brought shoes, lunch, and cricket sets for residents in 4 camps

A young smile, Devinuara Camp

If you can’t run with the big dogs…

2005-03-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

What the hell are we doing here? Existential quandaries aside, here’s your answer :

In international developmentgalese, a foreign language we are becoming quite fluent in, we (Stephanie, Wanna and Heather) are creating a self-sustaining participatory psycho-social program within the IOM (International Organization for Migration) supported IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in Matara region (check out this map... we are on the bottom).

They call us Social Mobilizers (Mobil+Organize).
Social, because we love mixers, ice breakers, name tags, karaoke and friends.
Mobile, because we cannot sit still.

Upon visiting these 6 camps, it was very apparent to us that displaced persons were totally lacking name-tags and social diversion like karaoke. To address this problem and assist them in reestablishing a sense of normality, we are introducing a plan of sustainable stimulating activities. We are training resident teachers to provide physical, creative and emotional outlets in the form of sports games, performing and visual art activities, livelihood projects and community events.

Our goal is to create this program and leave it running itself within the next 3-weeks. So, we are not just handing out volleyballs and markers. We are creating a system of resource distribution that is based on the notion of capacity building or as our boss says: Teaching them to fish and giving them fishing net so they can eat for a lifetime. This has very literal implications here in Sri Lanka, where of the 30,000 registered fishing boats only 10,000 remain. The ultimate objective is to enable the camp residents to be active agents in reestablishing their communities. We stole that line from the 750-page UNICEF handbook “Technical Notes: Special Considerations for Programming in Unstable Situations.” We recommend this handbook to all of girlfriends going through a breakup.

With a budget that will only last us one month (or one night out in New York), we are putting our multi-tasking skills to the test. We are spending a great deal of time in the camps surveying needs and creating a relationship with the residents. We don’t want to be just another group of foreigners with clipboards who take notes, nod compassionately and zoom away in their Land Rovers. We are learning names, practicing Sinhala, dancing with them, jumping rope with them, putting up tents with them, playing music together, playing volleyball and cricket, drawing, singing and most importantly- listening.

We are also creating a livelihood project where we will distribute sewing machines to each camp. We are planning community gatherings, as the neighbors to the camps are very segregated from the IDP’s. On Friday the leading marionette company in Sri Lanka will come to one of our camps to teach the children how to make marionettes and then they will perform a full-length show.

In the next few days we will have our first teacher training, a city-wide marionette show, the construction of a playground, the distribution of thousands of dollars worth of sports equipment and the implementation of a livelihood project once 12 sewing machines arrive from Colombo.

To keep up with the production, we have taken to spiking our chai and overindulging in refined sugar. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

Livelihood Begins

2005-03-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

After a fast and furious 4 days of visiting and surveying camps, we identified seamstresses and embroiderers within them. This week, with funding from I.O.M. sewing and embroidery machines will be placed in the I.O.M. camps in Matara. We're in process of fulfilling an order from the hunger site for these bags, which are predominantly only carried by monks here in Sri Lanka. We love these bags, stylish, durable, and for a good cause. We'll post info when they're on sale. Proceeds will fund the similar projects for displaced persons currently living in these camps, supporting a self sufficient livelihood. Your purchase will aid these people take a step back to their lives and help them get back to work. This will facilitate a move closer to a sense of normalcy, and to a new life.

Dodanduwa Fishing VIllage

2005-03-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

On our way south from Colombo, we stopped at small camp of fishermen families. With the kind donations from Brighton College, we brought them much needed mosquito nets, matresses, and a bag of eggs and onions for each tent. Most importantly, we brought volleyball, and the the village children came running. They began playing and laughing before the net was even up, and continued into the pouring rain.

Cheers Mate!

2005-03-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

One of our earliest and most generous donors, brighton college has generously supported us from the beginning.

Photos!

2005-03-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

Steph and Heather pay homage to the Buddha after a Suba Ud meeting.

JUNGLE GYM FEVER: Steph researching playground equipment for camps.

IT'S SHOWTIME!: Heather and her young friend playing around outside of his temporary shelter.

BACK TO SCHOOL: Children eagerly line up to receive new school workbooks.

INFLATABLE FUN: Heather entertains the troops with some fancy balloon tricks.

On this Isle of Serendip

2005-03-06T04:29:00.000-08:00

In Sinhala, the common language of Sri Lanka, "Suba Udaesanak" means"good morning"- the universal greeting to a new day. As survivors ofthe tsunami begin to wake up to this new day, they are being greeted by a complete lack of purpose and activity.

After the tsunami ravaged Sri Lanka, the coast was left a graveyard, littered with skeletons of houses. The survivors were led to camps inland away from these ruins. As the government and international NGO's work feverishly to re-build, the displaced people sit in their camps and wait. While visiting these camps, we noticed a cloud of malaise hanging over the people.

Project Suba Ud aims to provide physical, creative and emotional outlets for children and adults living in displacement camps in southern Sri Lanka. We focus on psycho social needs beyond food, shelter and clothing by supporting individual and community endeavors. During the next few weeks we will provide playground and sports equipment to each camp and facilitate group arts and sports activities. We will also work with displaced tailors to develop a small international craft production business. Finally, we will invite the local community to engage with those inside the camps through activities such as film nights, guest performances and sports games.

On this Isle of Serendip, we have discovered that of which we were not in quest. We came here to dig some ditches and lay some bricks, but have discovered a greater opportunity to help the survivors heal. Thousands of miles across the oceans, we hope you'll join us on this adventure.

About Us

2005-03-05T08:34:00.000-08:00

STEPHANIE BLEYER lives in New York City. After bicycling across the United States and Cuba to study and promote socially progressive issues, she moved to Nairobi, Kenya where she taught Caopeira to street-boys. She recently worked in San Francisco planning events for Native Americans. Stephanie speaks limited Swahili.

HEATHER GOODWIN is a California native currently working as a Creative Designer for film and television. For 10 years, she has instructed children and adults in Yoga, Mountaineering and Art. She credits her years of travel in developing countries to her commitment to helping people regain hope and pride. Heather is conversational in Spanish and Sinhala.

WANNA CAMCAM is a visual artist from the Philippines. In 2004 she designed, produced and distributed resource kits for the homeless staying in Los Angeles shelters. The success of these kits led her to Sri Lanka to further merge her creative talents with humanitarian efforts. She speaks English, German, Tagalog and French.

MICHELE LOTT, a native Californian who's worked in film advertising, illustration & graphic design for the past 17 years, volunteered this last year with Common Ground (multi-resource program for the HIV+ homeless), and Big Brothers/Big Sisters art mentoring program. After receiving Suba Ude's announcement email, she arrived 3 weeks later with donations and supplies. She speaks conversational French and Spanish.