The One Thing Cyclone Survivors Needed More Than Rice
When the Leo Club of University of Colombo started planning Project Survival Phase 1: Manusaviya, the list looked straightforward. Rice, water, medicine. The usual things people need after a disaster. But someone suggested adding cleaning equipment and sanitary materials. It seemed odd at first. Were mops really a priority after a cyclone? The team decided to pack them anyway, just in case. That decision would prove more important than anyone expected. The Dithwa cyclone had left a trail of destruction. Trees were down. Homes were damaged. And everywhere, there was mud. Thick, heavy mud that covered floors, furniture, and clothes. The team arrived at the first village with vans full of supplies, ready to help however they could. What happened next surprised them. When they started unloading, people didn't rush toward the rice. An older woman walked past the food packets and went straight to the cleaning supplies. She picked up a scrub brush and held onto it quietly. Another woman asked about soap.
The team listened and learned. The floodwaters had brought more than just water into homes. The mud left behind made it impossible to keep anything clean. Children were playing in it. Families were sleeping next to it. Without cleaning supplies, even basic hygiene became a struggle. So the team adjusted. They distributed buckets, mops, disinfectant, and scrub brushes throughout the village. They handed out soap, toothpaste, and sanitary napkins. The relief on people's faces was immediate. These weren't just supplies. They were the difference between feeling stuck in the disaster and starting to move past it. In the Narthandiya area, the situation was different. The water had gone down, but it had taken almost everything inside the homes. Families had walls and roofs, but empty rooms. No stove to cook on. No lamp to light the evening. No kettle to boil water for tea. People could survive, but they couldn't live normally.
The team started distributing household appliances to make daily life possible. A mother could cook a pro per meal. Children could study after dark. A family could offer tea to a visitor. These weren't luxuries. They were basics that had been washed away. Then there was the house. One family's home had been completely destroyed. Not damaged, gone. Just a pile of broken bricks and twisted metal. They had been staying with neighbors, grateful to be alive but with no place of their own. Reconstructing that house became a key part of the project. The Leo Club members didn't just write a cheque or hand over materials. They showed up. Students who usually spent their days with textbooks picked up tools and helped rebuild. They worked alongside community members, mixing cement and laying bricks. It wasn't professional construction work, but it was honest effort from people who cared.
When the house was finished, the family moved back in. Not into a temporary shelter, but into a home. A place where they could plan for the future instead of just surviving the present. Looking back, the team learned something simple but important. After a disaster, food matters. Of course it does. But people need more than that. They need to feel clean. They need to manage their health with dignity. They need the basic tools to run their households. They need a place that feels like home. The Leo Club of University of Colombo went to Dithwa thinking they were bringing food. They ended up bringing a bit of everything and learning that listening to what people actually need is the most important part of any project. That's what Manusaviya means. Just showing up and paying attention. Sometimes the thing people need most isn't the most obvious one. Sometimes it's a scrub brush. Or a lamp. Or a house to come home to.
-Leo Ilma Cader -
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