Commander takes his lunch with tsunami - affected children

In his second visit to the tsunami-affected Matara area on Sunday (06), Commander of the Army, Lieutenant General S.H.S.Kottegoda looked into the requirements of the victims, connected to families of the Army, Armed Forces and other civilians.

During the first leg of his tour, Commander Lt Gen Shantha Kottegoda met affected members of 75 Army families now housed on the 3rd Gemunu Watch camp at Matara and shared his views with them while paying due attention to the military aspect of the requirements. Giving a patient hearing to their tales of loss and despair, Lt Gen Kottegoda assured them of the Army's fullest cooperation to recover from their trauma and instructed his Senior Officers to liaise closely with other civil authorities for further relief. Later the Commander after giving away gift parcels of the Army Seva Vanitha Unit to the victimized inmates, mingled with small kids and children of those families adding a source of strength to their childhood . Lt Gen Kottegoda saw himself how those tsunami affected children cuddled the toys gifted by him to their chests and walked away happily as if they were in their own houses before the tsunami.

Lt Gen Kottegoda's next stop was at Valukaramaya in Matara where another 32 families of Army personnel remained housed after they were caught in the tidal waves on that fateful day. Visiting Lt Gen Kottegoda, to the surprise of everybody present at the venue, sat together with those affected minors and victims for lunch as it was the lunch service for inmates at this Welfare Centre.

Lt Gen Kottegoda took time off to speak to all of them and shared his concerns before he distributed some gift parcels among victims and toys to the children. Those gift parcels contained dry rations and a few other requirements.

On his way back Lt Gen Shantha Kottegoda stopped at Matara Madhya Maha Vidyalaya (Central College) Welfare Centre where 69 families of affected civilians are housed. He also inquired into their needs and handed over another stock of gift parcels of dry rations and toys among those men, women and children.

Earlier too, the Commander visited Tsunami -stricken army families and others in those areas soon after the tragedy struck Sri Lanka and gave instructions for immediate relief accordingly.