Bindu, an enthusiastic, hardworking fisherman, was happily living with his wife and two children, in Mawella village of southern Sri Lanka.

The elder son was 10 years old and the younger daughter was 6 years old. He managed to earn a reasonable income from his job and was leading a contented life. He had a lot of expectation and hope about the future of his children who were good in studies. Bindu has a very good skill in relating to people and was always eager to help his fellow people. This made him a very acceptable person in the village where he was living.

The destructive tidal waves of December 26 destroyed the rhythm of his life .He lost his two children in tsunami and also lost his house, life time savings and everything. Since then he became very withdrawn. His interaction with others became very minimal. He shifted to a relief camp, called Kabul camp, where he and his wife lived along with other 100 survivor families.

The tragedy was beyond his coping skills. He hardly went out of his room. He felt worthlessness and hopelessness in his life. He became very careless in personal hygein.He appeared very shabby. He refused to trim his beard and groom his hair. He always had disrupted sleep. He lost all hope in life.

In their routine house visits the volunteers of NFPO (National Forum of People's organisation), one of the partner organisation of ActionAid, who had received training on psycho-social care of disaster survivors, met with Mr.Bindu.They felt the need of an immediate intervention. They tried to engage in conversation. Initially he refused. But the volunteers of NFPO regularly visited him and talked to him. They created an environment where he was able to ventilate his pent up emotions. Gradually he started telling about his sorrows.

Later he expressed his interest in helping the organisation in serving the people affected by tsunami.NFPO invited him to join as a volunteer. He started involving in all the activities of the organisation even though in a slow pace. Now the people of Kabul relief camp are always approaching Bindu for all their need and he is now busy in addressing the needs of the people in his area and sorting out their issues.

Mrs.Sujatha,wife of Mr.Bindu was given financial support to start a home based Food making (string hopper) unit, which now helps the couple to earn an average of 350 rupees a day.

Now Mr.Bindu is very conscious of his appearance and he trims his beard, cut his hair, grooms properly and is very pleasant.

"I have some hope in my life now. I'm able to find a meaning to my life."