Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief Effort

Mihiri Tillakaratne
Mission Hills, CA 
Issue: Tsunami Relief 
Age: 18

Mihiri Tillakaratne grew up between worlds. Before she was old enough to walk, her parents were bringing her from their home in California to the place where they had been born: Sri Lanka. When she was eight, her father took her to the village where he had grown up. Walking along a dirt road, her hand gripping his, she witnessed poverty unlike anything she had seen in Los Angeles. Even at a young age, the experience made a lasting impression on her. Mihiri resolved to use her roots in the two disparate environments—the United States and Sri Lanka—to bridge the gap in between them.

She started early. In her first project, she worked with a Sri Lankan organization to help people from the rural village of Maradankalla create a preschool and locally-run bank. She also spearheaded a drive to collect and distribute more than 20,000 free eyeglasses from mobile eye clinics that traveled the countryside.

After several independent efforts, Mihiri said, "I realized that making other Americans aware of global issues was as important as anything I could contribute on my own." She led a group of American students-volunteers to Sri Lanka, where they taught English to the rural poor, and later raised funds to improve and expand the project to other impoverished communities.

In December 2004, when reports of the tsunami first came across the wires, Mihiri sprung into action, setting up an information center at her temple and catalyzing her local community to assist the people affected. When the scope of the destruction became clear, she traveled from school to school in California asking students to fill plastic bags with letters, toys and school supplies to be delivered to children affected by the tsunami. She also raised $25,000 for her temple's tsunami housing project through bake sales, book drives and student-made art auctions. The donations are part of a reconstruction effort that will build fifty new houses for families who lost their homes in the tsunami.

Mihiri is not losing speed yet. Always on the lookout for new projects, she is presently working with leaders of a Sri Lankan village on a project that would bring clean drinking water to the community.  She has decided to donate the $5,000 from the Global Action Award towards the 20 percent community contribution of this Asian Development Bank-funded project, which is already underway.

Where is she now?

Mihiri returned to Sri Lanka this summer and witnessed her community projects take off.

Learn about what she did >>