Logue

The Rice Project started off as an idea by veteran photographers Triston Yeo and Alex Soh, who run The Red Tree, an agency that focuses on promoting fine art photography and creating public awareness on less fortunate places around the world. Using photography as a medium, they wanted to create more awareness about the beauty of Sri Lanka’s natural wonders and bring attention to those who were still recovering from the tsunami.

It was four years ago killer waves devastated a long stretch of the coast and left more than 40,000 dead and 2.5 million people displaced. Waves as high as six meters had crashed into coastal villages, striking with huge force that swept as far as five kilometers inland. Today, while most of the southern coast has seen restoration work completed, progress in the east sorely lags behind.

Working with Habitat for Humanity, a non-governmental organization that specializes in building affordable, decent housing, the team identified villages and refugee camps in the towns of Trincomalee and Batticaloa, which were two of the worst hit areas in the east. In all, a total of 4,000 kg of rice was distributed among 100 families. Canon, which was the project’s main sponsor, paid for the rice.

Trincomalee, which has a population of around 57,000 people, is home to major Sri Lankan naval bases and has been a seaport that played a major role in the country’s history. It is famous for the Uppuveli and Nilaveli beaches which boast nothing less than seemingly stretches of white sand and magnificent waves from the Indian Ocean.

On the other hand, the city of Batticaloa and its 486,400 inhabitants have witnessed much suffering since Black July in 1983, which was seen as the beginning of full-scale armed conflict between the Sinhalese-dominated government and Tamil separatists who claim the area as part of an independent state called Tamil Eelam. It used to be the Tamil Tigers’ last stronghold in the east till they were ousted by the military last year.

Having their homes wrecked by both the tsunami and civil war, it is a tough battle for the people to pick their lives up.

“As we distribute rice we hope that the stomachs of the tsunami victims will be momentarily filled,” says Alex. “This is just a small step towards rebuilding their lives because we believe that rice is the catalyst that will trigger off the restoration of the houses in the area.”