Fishing for crucial boats for tsunami-hit Sri Lankans

Mary Taylor says fishing is the lifeblood of the villages. Picture / Paul Estcourt

An Auckland woman is embarking on a mission to put 100 fishing boats back into the waters round tsunami-devastated Sri Lankan fishing villages.

Nearly a year after the Boxing Day disaster, the Welipatanvila community - three villages on Sri Lanka's south coast - is still struggling to get back on its feet.

Aid has scarcely reached the villagers, but Mary Taylor hopes to change that. The food marketing consultant and tour operator started Project Oru 100 to raise money for 100 orus, the outrigger fishing boats that are the community's lifeblood.

An oru costs $750 and so far Ms Taylor has raised enough for 45 boats. Tomorrow, she hosts a fundraising high tea and auction at the Carlton Hotel, Auckland, to get closer to the magic mark.

The project has seen her become the first New Zealander to win the Geoffrey Roberts Award, a London-based international travel award given annually to those whose travels have made a difference to food, drink or tourism.

She revisited Sri Lanka in June during a tour.

"You would have thought that the tsunami had happened six weeks before, not six months before. The beach was still strewn with broken boats, the buildings were still all broken and most of the people were still living in temporary housing."

Ms Taylor's introduction to the country came in a "previous life" when she was buying tea for a supermarket chain. Her association with Sri Lanka continues with her company's organising of tea tours.

When news broke on Boxing Day, she emailed her Sri Lankan friends, and talk naturally turned to aid. She got in touch with Merrill Fernando, founder of the Dilmah Tea company, who already had an existing charitable trust there.

"I said that New Zealanders wanted to help but they wanted to know that the money could be used in a specific place for a specific cause."

A fishing project was decided upon, because of New Zealand's strong associations with the coast and fishing.

"If it was enabling people to get back into the water fishing, it essentially gave them a life."

Ms Taylor said the villagers' only options were to live on charity for the rest of their lives, or to work as labourers in the capital Colombo, severing generations-long links with the sea.

She has worked on the aid project while still running her own business.

She jokes about having a holiday when she reaches the goal of 100 orus, but in the next breath mentions another project for an ice plant in the villages to allow fish to be kept longer.

"Sri Lanka's been good to me, and so maybe it's time to give something back."

The high tea and auction tomorrow starts at 4.30pm.

* To attend the high tea, email foodmatters@xtra.co.nz or phone (09) 846-5334. Tickets are $25 each, with half going to charity. Funds will be channelled to the villagers through Mr Fernando's Sri Lankan trust - without deductions. Or a cheque with a name, address and phone number can be made out to Project Oru 100-MJF Charitable Foundation, PO Box 17118, Greenlane, Auckland.